CHAPTER XXXIII. 



ON MEASURING THE STRIKING FORCE OF SHOT ; WITH 

 HINTS IN REGARD TO LOADING, ETC. 



A CONSIDERABLE portion of the following chapter 

 has twice before been published, in the columns of the 

 Rod and Gun and the Chicago Field, having been 

 written in the year 1873. My views upon the subject 

 as then expressed have not since been materially 

 altered, and as the language seems sufficiently clear 

 and intelligible, I have deemed it better to reproduce 

 it as it then was, than to be at what appears to me a 

 needless task, of clothing the same ideas in newer 

 though possibly poorer phrases. With this explanation 

 I proceed. 



How to best determine and compare the relative 

 shooting powers of shot-guns Kas been a long-dis- 

 cussed problem ; hardly a single late issue of those 

 papers devoted to the interests of shooting can be 

 looked over without finding something concerning it, 

 and yet the number of persons who have interested 

 themselves sufficiently in the question to make experi- 



