MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 393 



loaded in accordance with its bore and Aveiglit, and the greater 

 nicety that the Shooter displays in arriving at these proportions 

 the more beautiful will be his shooting ; for it is well ascertained 

 by the numerous experiments of those well versed in the sub- 

 ject, and may be laid down as an hypothesis, or rather an axiom, 

 that if the quantity of shot be too great, the elastic force of the 

 discharge is diminished and the recoil considerably increased; 

 and if the charge of powder be also increased in the same ratio 

 with the shot, the recoil will be doubly increased, perhaps to 

 the bursting of the barrels, and the pellets of shot will be ex- 

 pelled from the piece helter-skelter, in any direction but a 

 direct course. 



The larger the charge of powder, the more will the shot be 

 scattered, and we have but one alternative in making long shots, 

 and that is, load with the usual quantity of powder, but make 

 use of larger-sized shot, as rest assured that no advantage is 

 gained by increasing the charge of powder beyond the proper 

 measure. 



BURSTING OF GUNS. COM. STOCKTON'S EXPERIMENTS. 



RECOIL, ETC.* 



, There are innumerable causes that tend to the bursting of 

 gun-barrels, even those of the most approved workmanship; it 

 is not astonishing, therefore, that those manufactured of inferior 

 metal and put together by second rate artists should frequently 

 be torn to pieces while under the management of reckless and 

 ignorant Shooters. Although there are immense numbers of 

 guns imported into this countrj^, both from England and Ger- 

 many, that could not stand the test of the Proof-house, still they 

 are made of sufl&ciently good metal to bear the explosion of 

 powder to a certain extent, and if handled with caution might 

 perform many years of good service without endangering the 

 lives of their owners. We do not, however, Avish our readers 

 to construe this concession of ours in reference to these trash 

 of guns into a favorable notice of them, as we consider the use 

 of weapons of a doubtful character, such as these are, as rather 



* This article was first published in the " Spirit of the Times." 



