This tended to give the product an element of incon- sistency in performance when the human factor was relied upon to give accurate powder and shot measurements. One of the companies that was known to be shipping shotgun ammunition into Eastern Canada, in the mid 1880's was the King Powder Company, but we are not sure it was their product being used by Prince Edward Island gunners.

In the late fall of 1886, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven, Connecticut was 20 years old, and had just introduced their, now legendary, Model 1886 rifle, one of the fastest, smoothest, and most powerful lever actions that Winchester has ever produced. On November 26th, the Charlottetown Daily Examiner carried a short notice in its local Events Column:

"The Belvidere Gun Club will shoot at Falconwood tomorrow afternoon. The first bird will be flown at 2:30 o'clock. The annual meeting will take place after the matches are concluded.”

Eight members responded, harnessing their horses and heading for the Asylum grounds, while realizing that they had only enough clay targets left for two or three more events, if they were careful not to shoot at too many each day. They elected to shoot at a dozen each, since this was their first shoot in many months, and it started anew season. FitzGerald and Hobkirk had nine each and Haviland and Davies, seven, to be the top winners of the day. Along with the prizes, a small pool was established to go to the winners, but some resentment developed when they started to apply handicaps, and it was some time before it was resolved. The annual meeting was short, and did little more than elect a new slate of officers for the 1887 season. L. H. Davies was re-elected President, Dr. Blanchard was elevated to Vice President and Francis Haszard was made Secretary/Treasurer. President Davies indicated,

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