290 DUCK GUN WADDING. 



size, will force down the caliber rather quicker than 

 punched wadding. Let the caliber be as large as it 

 may, you of course, with this wadding, require no- 

 thing more on the powder.) I then put a common 

 pasteboard wadding (with air vent) on the shot ; and 

 I found, that even in small guns, where pasteboard 

 is far less apt to swerve, this mode of loading threw 

 the shot closer, stronger, and, above all, with less 

 variation in its performance. 



In the experiment, I anticipated an increase of 

 recoil, particularly when I came to try it with a 

 detonater ; but, on the contrary, the recoil was less 

 from the oakum than from the wadding. The case, 

 I conceive, must be this : The punched wadding 

 gives a severe check at first, but before the powder 

 is half burned, it slips a little on one side, and allows 

 it to mix with the shot; while the oakum has an 

 elastic rotundity, that springs to every gradation of 

 the caliber ; and therefore will never suffer any powder 

 to escape, till it has left the muzzle of the gun. 



Moreover, on the other hand, the pasteboard being 

 once a little contracted by the friction, or rendered 

 soft in its edges by the elastic fluid in the barrel, al- 

 lows the powder to escape where the caliber becomes 

 relieved, and therefore makes the gun, in comparison, 

 shoot thin, weak, and irregular. 



It may be asked, and with reason, what has the 

 tar to do with the shooting, and will it not rather 

 adhere to a warm barrel ? I should in answer say, 

 that it most likely would in a very quick succession 



