REPORT OF "FIELD" GUN TRIAL, 1859. 301 



yards varies very little in the two classes, tlie first being re- 

 spectively 106 and 97 for the two barrels, and the second 

 class showing 104 and 92. Mr. Pape's and Mr. Prince's left 

 barrels (in the first of each of their guns) put in the extra- 

 ordinary number of 158 and 148 shots, or about 50 and 40 

 per cent, above the average. In the second class, Mr. Ollard's 

 gun (made by Culling, of Downham Market) put in with the 

 left barrel 147 shot, which is a tremendous pattern for a 

 14-gauge. His right barrel, however, showed only 85, so 

 that the average of the two was only nine above that of Mr. 

 Smith's gun, which gained more than this difference at 60 

 yards in pattern and penetration combined. Mr. Culling, 

 the maker, who shot this gun himself, used only 2| drachms 

 of powder, which will account for the good pattern at 40 

 yards and the comparative failure in other respects, but more 

 especially for the very slight recoil which this in common 

 with all his guns exhibited. At 60 yards the shooting has 

 been extremely good this year, the pattern being excellent, 

 and the average as compared with last year being decidedly 

 better. 



PENETRATION we hold to be the quality in the shot-guns 

 only second to pattern, and we have been at great pains and 

 expense to ascertain the precise power of each. To effect 

 this, each barrel was shot twice at brown-paper targets twelve 

 inches square, those at 40 yards being composed of 40 thick- 

 nesses, and those iised at 60 yards of half that number. We 

 employed nearly the same test last year, but the surface was 

 more than twice as great, measuring in fact 28 inches by 11. 

 It may be remembered that ten guns then pierced the 40 

 sheets; but though the paper was somewhat stouter, the shot 

 being No. 5 instead of No. 6, as used this year, the task was 

 not so difficult. On that occasion, as so many shots pierced 

 the whole of the layers, we departed from the usual custom, 

 and registered the number of shots, as we have done on this 

 occasion, at 60 yards, but as this year at 40 yards only one 

 gun performed the task, we counted the number of sheets, 

 exactly as is done by Mr. Purdey and most of the best makers. 

 The successful gun in this respect ivas a breech-loader of a 

 16-bore (though from its weight shot in Class 1) made by 

 Elliott, of Birmingham j so that it appears that there is no in- 



