894 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN 



too hazardous for any one of our Sporting friends to make 

 use of. 



We will now endeavor to point out some of the causes that 

 are calculated to produce bursting not only in barrels manufac- 

 tured of inferior metal, but even in those forged out of the most 

 superior iron, and wrought with the greatest care. 



The first grand cause of bursting springs from the forge, as 

 before stated, and every one knows full well that many Manu- 

 facturers of guns use metal of the most inferior description ; and 

 when the bars are being welded into barrels, the workmen them- 

 selves are guilty of the most culpable negligence and reckless- 

 ness, little heeding the limbs lost and lives sacrificed by their 

 bad workmanship. 



If a barrel be either welded, bored, or filed badly, even if it 

 be made of good metal, it may nevertheless burst under the 

 management of the most careful Sportsman. If the thickness 

 of the barrel is not uniform throughout its entire length, but 

 weaker at one point than at another, owing to a flaw in the 

 metal, over filing, or rude boring, it will most probably burst, 

 if overcharged, as the expansive force of the powder acts with 

 increased power upon these weak points, owing to the resistance 

 it meets with from the stronger portions of the tube. 



If the subtile fluid generated by the inflammation of gun- 

 powder be suddenly compressed or checked by a contraction in 

 the caliber of the barrel, an undue proportion of the expansive 

 force is exerted upon this point, and the result will be the burst- 

 ing of the instrument; this fact will of itself show the folly of 

 attempting to increase the shooting powers of the gun by un- 

 equal boring of the barrel, or rather the contracting of the diameter 

 of the caliber at some given point in its length, as has been prac- 

 tised by some Gunsmiths. We cannot imagine any cause better 

 calculated to burst a gun than the contraction of its regular 

 caliber from this erroneous method of boring, and would rather 

 trust ourselves with a straight-bored barrel made of far inferior 

 metal than with one of these ill-shapen instruments forged of the 

 very best stub and twist. If the muzzle of the gun becomes 

 stopped up with dirt or snow while in the act of springing over 

 a ditch, or from a fall, and is of a consistency sufficiently hard 

 to offer any considerable degree of resistance to the expulsive 



