BULLETS: EXPLOSIVE, EXPANSIVE, ETC. 341 



penetration and crushing force it must positively 

 have actual weight. A pound of powder could not 

 drive a ten-dollar gold piece much over two or three 

 inches into solid flesh, striking of course with its flat 

 surface. And lead is only about half the weight of 

 gold. There must be weight behind to force the 

 widening front of an expansive ball through solid 

 flesh, or even through the contents of the stomach. 

 Now if the ball be made long so as to give this weight 

 to a small-calibered rifle, you lose much of the velocity 

 which is so essential to a good trajectory as well as to 

 the rotatory and cutting power of the ball, etc. 



The killing power of all long bullets is, however, 

 vastly improved by making a hole in them. But the 

 quantity of powder must be increased where it is 

 small, as expansion checks the penetration immensely. 

 To increase much the efficiency of such a bullet as 

 the Winchester '73 model, the hole should be small 

 and tapering and hardly half way through the ball; 

 but then it should shoot at least a hundred grains of 

 powder instead of forty grains. The Winchester 

 " Centennial" would be improved in the same way 

 without any increase of powder, because it has a much 

 longer ball. All the rifles on the market shooting 

 long- or mid-range balls with seventy or eighty grains 

 or more of powder can be much improved in this way, 

 though all would be much better to have more powder 

 and a shorter ball with smaller hole. 



The hole in the ball is generally made by a plug in- 

 serted in the molds. A hole equally good can, how- 

 ever, be made with a gimlet or awl, unless you want a 

 large deep hole. The ball can be replaced in the mold 

 and bored through a hole at the front end. Or it can 

 be bored more true by having a guide-hole bored in 



