POWDER 67 



and of wadding, and extreme niceties in respect of 

 weight of charges, depth of turnover, and so forth, 

 rendering the matter somewhat intricate and bewilder- 

 ing to the sportsman. Naturally, he is moved to in- 

 quire whether so many methods of application are 

 really necessary to encompass the same end, or whether 

 the powder-manufacturers designedly give to their 

 powders certain distinctive properties and features in 

 order to endow them with a character all their own. 



Compared with black powder the nitro-compounds 

 generally conduce far more to the comfort and success 

 of the sportsman. As a consequence, the majority 

 of game-shooters in this country now use one or other 

 of these so-called smokeless powders in preference to 

 the older explosive. Although the latter is not so 

 safe to handle and to have in quantity as are the 

 former, it must, in all fairness, be said that, moisture 

 apart, black powder develops its energy with greater 

 constancy, it being less affected by variations in loading 

 than are nitro-compounds generally. The smokeless 

 powders when unconfined have a much less violent 

 explosive effect than has black powder burnt under 

 the same conditions. In fact, a lighted match applied 

 to a loose handful of the Schultze or E.G. nitros would 

 have no more startling result than a very rapid burning. 

 Black powder, however, is not to be played with in 

 this way, combustion in its case being so immediate 

 that explosion is the only term to be applied thereto. 



It will be gathered from this illustration that nitro 

 powders are largely dependent upon the amount and 

 nature of the resistance offered to them within the 

 gun-barrel for the due development of their propul- 

 sive forces. It is therefore at once apparent as the 



