1 6 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



enormous charges of powder and heavy shot without bursting. 

 This might have been done by making them very long and 

 using a slow burning powder, but that way out never seems to 

 have been thought of until recently. The reason modern big 

 guns will take such enormous pressure as the big charges 

 behind heavy shells give, is, first, that they are made of steel, 

 and second, because the tension on the steel internally and 

 externally is equalised by a very clever method. The guns 

 are built up by being bound in wire in a heated state, so that 

 when this wire cools it contracts the internal tube as it contracts 

 itself. This being the case, when an explosion takes place in 

 the finished gun, it has to overcome the wire contraction on 

 the outside of the gun before the internal tube can begin to 

 expand beyond its natural size. That is how a thickness of 

 metal is made serviceable, and prevents a bursting of the 

 internal surface before the external bigger surface is strained. 

 In other words, the pressure is resisted equally all through the 

 thickness of the walls of the barrel. This has entirely revolu- 

 tionised big gunnery during the last thirty years, and has 

 enabled ships of war to hurl 800 Ib. shells through the armour 

 of enemies who are hull down beyond the horizon. 



Gunpowder was for centuries used in war before it was 

 much used in sport. The reason for this was that there was 

 no good method of letting off a sporting weapon. To apply 

 a match to a touch-hole obviously took a good deal of time, 

 and besides gave warning to the game, so that, although shooting 

 flying game had been at least an ambition in the days of the 

 cross-bow, shooting the game upon the ground with " hail shot " 

 was practised for many years before anyone attempted to 

 kill flying game with shot guns. It is curious that when this 

 practice was in vogue dogs were taught either to point or to 

 circle their game at their masters' pleasure. This circling had 

 the effect of indicating the exact position of the crouching 

 covey, and at the same time of preventing the birds running 

 away from the shooter. A dog that would " circle " was held 

 in much more esteem than one that would only point, but one 

 that would do both was far the most highly valued. The 



