Hunting at High 'Altitudes 



the animal, bursts into many small fragments with 

 sufficient momentum for these fragments to reach 

 the opposite ribs of the animal and make a dozen 

 perforations of the vitals, instead of a single large 

 perforation, as in the case of a solid ball. The 

 express bullet expends its momentum on the vitals 

 in a space about equal to a circle with a six-inch 

 diameter, whereas the solid ball makes a clean cut 

 hole of the caliber of the bullet, which, passing 

 wholly through the animal, expends much of its 

 energy after it has passed out. 



The bursting front end of the express bullet is 

 supposed to be caused by the sudden compression 

 of the air in the hole after the ball strikes the 

 obstacle of the animal's flesh. A similar result 

 appears to occur in shooting into water, as I have 

 se'en when it was necessary for me to kill trout in 

 the water with one of these balls, fragments of the 

 bullets being found in the dead fish. The sudden 

 shock of the water close to the fish, of course, is 

 partly responsible. At Henry's Lake a single shot 

 turned up four trout. 



That year, before I left the East, I had designed 

 and caused to be made by the Sharps Company 

 an express bullet of 275 grains weight with an 

 eighth inch diameter hole in the point, with 90 

 or 95 grains of powder. This gave a proportion 



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