38 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



London gun trials that choke bores had materially the most 

 penetration. As a matter of fact, nobody knows which has most 

 penetration. Sometimes the number of sheets pierced by half 

 the shot which hit a penetration testing pad will be in favour 

 of one, and sometimes of the other gun, and moreover the 

 difference in piercing by the pellets of the same discharge may 

 be as much as two to one. 



Chronographic testing for time over a range has never 

 proved very satisfactory, for the instrument makes but one 

 record of time for 300 different pellets, which are known to 

 vary in velocity over some ranges by 300 foot-seconds, and 

 in striking velocity by 200 foot-seconds. 



This was brought out by the late Mr. Griffith, who as 

 manager of the Schultze gunpowder works had great oppor- 

 tunities, and took them. Powder-makers may very well use 

 the chronograph in testing powders at 10 yards range. At 

 this range Mr. Borland of the E.G. Company informed the 

 writer that he could never find a difference between small shot 

 and large pellets ; which goes to prove that at the distance they 

 have not scattered longitudinally enough to make the chrono- 

 graph the absurdity it becomes when it records one time for 

 300, all various. 



But once the chronograph was used for small shot on the 

 right principle. This was when Mr. Griffith applied it to his 

 revolving target experiments. 



He did this to discover the longitudinal spread of the shot 

 pellets at various distances. If ever the chronograph could be 

 used for taking differing shot velocities, this appears to be the way. 

 But it has never been repeated, and some results appear to throw 

 doubt upon their own accuracy. The various lengths of the 

 shot spread on the targets moving at 200 f.s., at right angles 

 with the line of fire, were as follows upon the top lines. On 

 the bottom lines in the table the shot pattern spread, caused by 

 the 200 feet per second, is multiplied by the ratio of greater 

 speed of shot than the 200 foot-seconds of the revolving target. 

 So that in the following table the bottom lines, in respect of 

 each gun, represent something near the true length of shot 



