APPENDIX D 409 



Now we come to the second point — the difficulty of keeping 

 clean rifles of the modern type. Taking Cordite again, we 

 find that there is only one possibility of keeping rifles used 

 with this powder in fair order. This consists in pouring 

 boiling water through them after use, and then wiping them 

 with Rangoon oil. But are we to go out shooting as Facey 

 Romford said ladies ought to go hunting — with a tea-kettle 

 tacked to their saddles ? The old Express rifles, after all, 

 gave very little trouble ; and at a push, if it was a case of 

 bivouac, they might even be left dirty twenty-four hours. 

 My own plan has always been to carry an oily wiper, and 

 pull it through as soon as possible after firing. If this was 

 done, a rifle could be left a week. But these rough-and-ready 

 dodges will not do for modern rifles, and that is a great 

 drawback to a sportsman. 



Then, again, the old rifles never wore out. Some men, who 

 were great believers in practice, fired hundreds of shots in the 

 year, and at the end of ten years their rifles were as good as 

 ever. Would this be the case with a '303, especially consider- 

 ing the extra scrubbing necessary to keep the barrel clean ? 



What was wanted, therefore, was a smokeless powder that 

 would avoid these defects, and this Messrs Kynoch have now 

 provided for sportsmen in what they call " Axite." To take 

 the objections which I have already made against the nitro- 

 compounds seriatim, I find that — 



Firstly, Axite — which, by the way, I may say has the 

 advantages of giving greater velocity and therefore flatter 

 trajectory, and also greater accuracy — is not afifected by heat 

 as Cordite is. Batches of cartridges of the two powders were 

 equally heated to 110° Fahrenheit for one hour, and then 

 fired for pressure. Cordite showed an increased pressure of 

 a ton and a half to the square inch, Axite exactly half as 

 much. The test is, of course, for the sportsman's purposes, 

 absurdly excessive. Therefore we may take it that for such 

 purposes Axite is so little afifected by temperature that the 

 point ceases to be worthy of consideration. 



As regards the second point, experience has proved that 

 Axite does not corrode the barrel in the same way as Cordite. 

 A rifle has been fired ten times with the former powder, and 

 then left for twenty hours, when it has been found to be in 



