MISCELLANEOUS HINTS. 401 



amount of powder if there he some obstruction up the barrel^ than if 

 the charge teas properly rammed hoine. 



This opinion, however, is quite contrary to the results ob- 

 tained by Commodore Stockton, for he asserts that the recoil^ as 

 indicated by the motion of the timber to which the guns were fastened, 

 luas less when the ball was at a distance from the powder than when 

 it ivas rammed home. This, certainly, is very much at variance 

 with the popular belief. 



If a gun be fired with an ordinary charge of powder, and be 

 perfect in its construction, there will not be any retrograde 

 motion of the piece, or in other words recoil felt at the shoulder, 

 or if there be any, it will be of such a trifling nature that it is 

 not worth noticing. 



There is, however, a recoil, and this recoil, as before observed, 

 is deadened in proportion to the weight of metal in the breech, 

 the shape and build of the stock, as well as in some measure 

 by the mode of holding the weapon. 



If, however, the charge in its exit from the gun should meet 

 with any obstruction far up the barrel, where the metal is thin 

 and the gun only lightly balanced in the hand by a grasp of the 

 stock near the guard, the sudden shock given to it by the resist- 

 ance of the obstacle encountered will communicate a jar or 

 quick jerk to the weapon, which will be felt at the shoulder, 

 and not expended, as in the other case, upon the breech or 

 stock. 



The reason of this, we presume, is that the recoil imparted 

 to a shot-gun by a regular charge of powder and shot is not a 

 jumping, jerking recoil, but a regular and steady recoil, as it 

 were confined to the thick chambers of the gun, and lost upon 

 the stock before it reaches the shoulder of the Shooter ; but, 

 in the other case, the motion imparted to the gun is a jumping 

 or jerking recoil, which has not the heavy breech to break its 

 immediate effects upon, and is consequently transmitted without 

 interruption along the outside of the barrel directly to the 

 person of the Sportsman. 



This action will be quite different in the case of Commodore 

 Stockton's guns, as will be seen from our previous observa- 

 tions, for there was neither a heavy breech nor long stock to 

 ward off or receive the recoil in those guns, and the whole force 

 26 



