1 8 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



advertisement, when it was known that a rifle was accurate 

 with ball, and when the reason of its accuracy was unknown to 

 most people. 



Although it was at once recognised that the rifle was far 

 more accurate than the smooth-bore musket, nevertheless three 

 hundred years after the invention of the former it had not 

 come into use for the British Army, and this in spite of the 

 work done with it by the American sharp-shooters in the War 

 of Independence. Even long after Waterloo, the Duke of 

 Wellington was against arming the soldiers with the rifle, and 

 yet he, and every authority, knew of its infinite superiority as 

 a weapon of precision. The reason for this was very easy to 

 understand. The muzzle-loading rifle was no more accurate 

 than the smooth bore unless its ball fitted close and took the 

 grooving. In order that it should do this it had to be forced 

 down the muzzle by means of a stiff ramrod and a wooden 

 mallet. This operation took too much time for war purposes, 

 and it was generally considered that a musket could be used 

 five times for once of the rifle. This was the disadvantage that 

 did not really totally disappear until modern breech-loading 

 was invented, although many attempts were made to get over 

 the difficulty in various ways. One of the principal of these 

 was the screwing of the trigger guard into the barrel, in a hole 

 big enough to take the proper ball for the bore; then the 

 barrel was charged from the muzzle, and loaded with the bullet 

 afterwards from the hole in the breech. This was a clumsy 

 makeshift, which cut away nearly half the barrel at that point, 

 and this the metal of the day was ill able to stand. The other 

 plan was the adoption of the principle of the expanding bullet. 

 The best form of this bullet was that one with a hollowing out 

 behind. This hollow, of course, admitted either the powder or 

 the powder-gas, which expanded the rear portion of the bullet, 

 and forced it into the grooves at the same time as it also forced 

 it forward. 



It is extraordinary to consider that the rifle had existed for 

 three centuries and a half before this plan became effective, and 

 made the rifle a much superior weapon to the musket. If any 



