BULLETS: EXPLOSIVE, EXPANSIVE, ETC. 335 



derbolt suddenly released in an animal's body; 

 others talked of the velocity being so terrific as to 

 "drive the ball into perfect dust." Still others, with 

 that marvelous love the human mind has for paradox, 

 discovered that the smaller these bullets were the 

 more terrific and killing was "the express shock." 



This improvement soon suffered the fate of every 

 good thing that is overrated, and detractors arose. 

 Many old hunters on the plains and in the moun- 

 tains denounced them as worthless for game of any 

 considerable size. Even foreigners gave the same 

 verdict; one Scotch gentleman, returning from a 

 Rocky Mountain tour, comparing in the Forest and 

 Stream their effect on a grizzly-bear's shoulder to " so 

 many humblebees." Men like Col. Judson and J. H. 

 Batty, who had seen them tried and tried them them- 

 selves, men who certainly cannot be accused of igno- 

 rance, pronounced them inferior for general use to the 

 solid ball. 



For years a voice within which I took for the voice 

 of humanity, but which, judging from the fashion of 

 the day, must have been the voice of folly, had said in 

 thunder-tones: " If you are going to kill an animal at 

 all, kill it. Don't torture it." No sooner did I hear 

 of this improvement than I adopted it. I have shot 

 about three hundred deer with balls so made, have ex- 

 perimented with it in various ways, and must say most 

 decidedly that while it is absurdly overrated it is still 

 the most valuable improvement, next to the breech- 

 loading principle, that has been made in rifles within 

 the century. 



I first made them explosive by inserting in the hole 

 a .22 long pistol-cartridge with the bullet either cut 

 off or taken out and replaced with more powder. 



