SHOT-GUN PATTERNS 47 



In three or four of the shots the distribution of the 

 pellets was admirable, and in the remainder it was fairly 

 good ; there certainly was no trace of balling. 



(5) 2-INCH PAPER CASE, NO. 6 SHOT. 



Eley Bros. 2-inch paper case, with cone-shaped powder-chamber 

 for concentrated powder ; 25^ grs. Ballistite sporting powder, i 

 oz. No. 6 shot ; wadding : thin card, T % inch very soft greasy felt, 

 and two thin cards on the powder ; one card over the shot. This 

 is Nobel's " Parvo " cartridge, and it is well named, for its total 

 length is but iff inches. 



Left barrel. 198, 215, 203, average = 205. 



Right barrel. 211,204,192, do. =202. 



Here again there was no sign of balling ; all the 

 patterns were fairly even in distribution, and some were 

 really excellent. 



Certain good properties possessed by the nitro powders 

 are sufficient in themselves to compel the attention of 

 wild-fowlers, and to create an earnest desire to see over- 

 come any drawbacks to their use in heavy wild-fowl 

 guns. However tenaciously we may cling to our good 

 old friend black powder, and however distrustful of in- 

 novations sportsmen may be, it must nevertheless be 

 more or less a rooted conviction with advanced wild- 

 fowlers that for their sport also, as well as for game- 

 shooting, the so-called smokeless powders are the 

 explosives of the future. For the shooting of game the 

 newer form of powder has long held the field, for if in 

 practice it had not proved so regular as black, there are 

 plenty of sportsmen who would still prefer to use it on 

 account of its excellent properties in the way of lessened 

 noise, smoke, and fouling. These and other important 

 advantages or improvements, however much needed in 

 the matter of game-shooting, are far more necessary as 

 aids to success in the sister sport of wild-fowling, for, 



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