The Gun: Afield & Afloat

Everything an Edwardian sportsman needed to know about his weapon and his quarry, from choke and cartridge to the tides of the estuary and the dogs that worked it.

First published in London in 1904, The Gun – Afield & Afloat was written by Henry Sharp, a practised wildfowler and game shot who was also an acknowledged authority on large-calibre guns and the loads they took. Eight of its sixteen chapters go to the hardware alone – game and wildfowl guns, gun testing, target results, shotgun patterns, ammunition, powder caps and cartridge cases, wadding and shot – and together they give one of the clearest pictures we have of how the Edwardian sporting trade worked.

The rest turns to the field. Sharp writes on gundogs and their handling, then works through the quarry itself: capercaillie, black and red grouse, ptarmigan, pheasant, partridge, quail, woodcock and snipe, hare and rabbit, wild pigeon and rook, and the swans, geese, ducks, plover, and shore birds of the coast. He closes with game shooting, wildfowling with gun and punt, and vermin furred and feathered.

This edition features:

• Sixteen chapters covering guns, testing, patterns, ammunition, wadding, shot, and gundogs
• Thirteen full-page plates by Herbert Sharp, with numerous further illustrations through the text
• A full survey of the sportsman's quarry, from grouse and snipe to geese, duck, and shore birds
• Chapters on game shooting, wildfowling by punt and on foot, and the control of vermin
• The original 1904 text, a record of British sporting practice before the First World War