BOOK IIL 



ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF GUNNERY, 



AND COMPOSITION OF THE PARTS 



ESSENTIAL TO IT. 



CHAPTER I. 



DEFINITION OF GUNNERY AND GUNS AS APPLIED TO 

 SPORTING PURPOSES. 



GUNNERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS APPLICABLE TO SPORTING 

 PURPOSES CLASSIFICATION OF MODERN GUNS AND RIFLES SHOT GUNS 

 CONSIST OF A TUBE MORE OR LESS CYLINDRO-CONOIDAL, CAPABLE OF 



BEING CLOSED AT ONE END BARRELS LOCKS MODES OF EXPLODING 



THE DESIDERATA IN THE SHOT-GUN THE RIFLE. 



GUNNERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS APPLICABLE TO 

 SPORTING PURPOSES. 



IT does not come within the scope of this work to enter upon 

 the history of projectiles from the earliest times, a subject 

 which interests greatly the mechanic and the antiquary, but 

 is not always approved of by the sportsman. Nor is it 

 necessary to enter upon a description of great guns, which 

 are used only in war, or upon military small arms, those with 

 which the sportsman operates being called " bird guns" in 

 the trade, in contradistinction to " small arms," which is a 

 military term. The principle is, however, in all cases the 

 same, that is to say, a sudden impulse is given to a body 

 previously at rest, and in such a way as to drive it forcibly in 

 the direction of the object which is to be struck. In the arrow 

 and the bird-bolt used with the bow or crossbow, this im- 

 pulse is communicated by the string on its release from a 

 notch which has held it behind the arrow or bolt until it is 



