SHOT 91 



so true a course, as a spherical pellet, A few shots 

 fired at the card-rack used for testing the penetrative 

 force of shot will convince that the penetration ex- 

 hibited is proportionate to the rotundity of the shot. 

 In the course of some experiments with wild-fowl guns, 

 the results of which were recorded in The Field some 

 eight years ago, I found this fact fully emphasized, 

 it being clearly noticeable that some disfigured pellets 

 did not get through half the number of sheets pierced 

 by more perfect missiles. Target experiments with 

 wild-fowl guns serve at least one good purpose. In 

 comparison with the smaller arms the results obtained 

 from the shooting of heavy guns and charges are much 

 magnified, and therefore, facts are forced on notice 

 that might possibly escape attention had they been 

 conducted on a smaller scale. Thus it is with the 

 crushing of shot-pellets. I have never seen this crush- 

 ing of the pellets so clearly marked as it was on the 

 occasion of trying a 4-bore, a report of which I sent 

 to The Field of March 26, 1898. The circumstances 

 which led to so good an exhibition of the relative 

 value of crushed and uncrushed pellets were brought 

 about by a difficulty experienced in procuring a par- 

 ticular size of shot. This slight hitch in my arrange- 

 ments caused me to be shooting with two different 

 sizes and forms of shot, viz. soft shot of the larger 

 size of No. I, and hard shot of the particular brand 

 known as chilled of the smaller size of No. i. In 

 the course of that trial it was found on taking the 

 pellets out of the card-rack that a large percentage 

 of the soft shot had been completely knocked out of 

 shape within the gun-barrel, whereas the form of the 

 chilled pellets had been much better preserved. The 



