BULLETS: EXPLOSIVE, EXPANSIVE, ETC. 329 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE KILLING POWER OF BULLETS. EXPLOSIVE, EXPAN- 

 SIVE, AND OTHER BULLETS. SLIT BULLETS. BUCK- 

 SHOT, ETC. 



YOUR success in bagging your game without much 

 exertion and labor, and often in bagging it at all, will 

 depend largely upon the mere shape of the bullet you 

 use. 



The effect of a bullet depends of course upon the 

 derangement of some of the vital organs of the body 

 or upon loss of blood. But this is the ultimate effect 

 the one that too often benefits only the wolf and the 

 raven. The immediate effect, or that which most 

 benefits the hunter, is often as much the result of the 

 accompanying shock to the nervous system as of the 

 mere derangement of vital organs. In the brain or 

 spinal cord one ball is about as good as another. But 

 not so in any other part of the body; not even in the 

 heart. 



The first requisite of a killing ball is of course pene- 

 tration. But after a certain amount of that is at- 

 tained excess is superfluous. All rifles of .40 cali- 

 ber or over, even the small Winchester, have sufficient 

 penetration with a solid ball to kill a deer or antelope 

 stone dead in nine tenths of the positions in which 

 they are generally found. And even a much smaller 

 rifle has penetration enough for nearly all broadside 

 shots. Nearly every one who has tried increasing the 



