BRASS AND PAPER SHOT SHELL. 25 



pounds, and the third a 2O-bore, II pounds. I design con- 

 ducting a series of experiments some time this spring and 

 will give you the results. With all my practical experience 

 I do not claim to be authority, but what I have to say 

 are my own convictions, based on the results of many prac- 

 tical tests, and simply give them as such. 



The old saying " as straight as a gun barrel " certainly 

 had no reference to very many of our modern double breech- 

 loaders, for not one in ten has straight barrels. I refer to 

 the inside bore. This is especially true as to the cheaper 

 grades, and I am sorry to say that many of the better grades 

 have the same fault. In order to get the required strength 

 for the breech action as well as to stand heavy charges, 

 breech-loading barrels must be very heavy at the breech 

 end. This necessitates considerable taper in the barrels, or 

 the guns would be very heavy. Nearly all the taper is in 

 the first half of the barrels from the breech end. Very 

 much of the beauty of a gun depends on the graceful sheer 

 given to the taper. In joining at the factory, the barrels 

 are sprung together in the center, in order to have the ribs 

 fit properly, as well as to give the gun a graceful appear- 

 ance, hence the bore of the barrels are not straight. How- 

 ever, twelve to fifteen inches of the muzzle ends are practi- 

 cally straight, and parallel with the line of sight. It often 

 occurs in the cheaper grades that the barrels are sprung so 

 much in the center that the muzzle ends diverge to the right 

 and left, in such guns the right barrel shoots to the right 

 and the left one to the left. Guns with the barrels tapered 

 down very thin at the muzzle, as a general rule, are better 

 shooters than those with thick ones. A majority of choke- 

 bored guns are too heavy at the muzzle, which accounts for 

 their grouping the shot in bunches and leaving many bare 

 spots in the targets. In very thin guns there is a certain 

 amount of expansion and elasticity, which has the effect to 



