346 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



So we come to the soft-nosed or split-nosed nickel 

 bullet. This means that either the point of the 

 bullet is stripped of nickel, leaving the leaden core 

 bare ; or a hollow is made in the point ; or two or more 

 fine cuts are made, for a 7 j-inch or so down the length 

 of the bullet from near the point. The effect in all 

 three cases is that the bullet mushrooms out more or 

 less after impact, and achieves more instantaneously 

 fatal results. As a matter of fact, any soldier in the 

 field can turn a solid bullet into the soft-nosed article 

 by rubbing the nickel covering off the point on a 

 stone. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the 

 exact amount of stripping or cutting in order to 

 obtain the best results has hitherto been, to some 

 extent, at all events, a doubtful point. The velocity 

 of the small-bore bullet is so great that if, as I have 

 already indicated, a hair or fur covered animal is 

 shot through the body, and no large bone is struck, 

 it may happen that he is only wounded and not 

 killed, because the bullet has gone clean through, 

 even though soft-nosed or split, without expanding or 

 expanding sufficiently. 



The converse danger a more unlikely one is that 

 if the stripping or splitting be overdone the bullet 

 may expand too soon, before penetration, and so a 

 skin or surface wound only be inflicted. This, again, 

 is a result by all means to be avoided. 



A very interesting letter appeared in the Field of 

 June 26, 1897, written by Messrs. D. Fraser and Co., 

 the well-known gun-makers of Leith Street Terrace, 

 Edinburgh, on the subject of a new -303 expanding 

 bullet then patented by them. My attention has been 

 called to this letter by a leading firm of London 

 gun-makers, to whom I am indebted for information 



