324 THE CRUCIFORM AND SPHERICAL nULI.ET. 



bullet. Many people have a craze for hardening 

 their projectiles, but experience has convinced me 

 that this is a mistake except as regards shot. 



Many of our countrymen who have hunted abroad 

 have doubtless found — more especially when using 

 spherical bullets — how often they move in the cartridge 

 case and cease to rest upon the inner wad. After 

 riding to and from your shooting ground, or pursuing 

 on horseback a wounded beast, this mishap is specially 

 noticeable, so lately I have devoted some time to find 

 a remedy for this evil, and have presumption enough 

 to think that I have discovered one. It is this. 

 Take the wad on which the bullet is to sit and 

 puncture it near the edge at four equally distant 

 places. Through each of these apertures draw a 

 strong fine thread about four inches long, a knot 

 being attached to the lower end of all. The knots 

 are to be sunk into the lower surface of the wad, so 

 that the bullet may repose flat upon the wad it rests 

 upon. Having placed this wad firmly in its place, 

 also equally divided the threads around the case, take 

 your bullet, put a pretty large smudge of paraffin 

 candle grease, in a putty-like consistency, upon that 

 part of the ball that first enters the shell ; then shove 

 it home and tie the threads firmly and transversely 

 over the outer extremity of the projectile. The 

 pressure used in sending the bullet home causes the 

 grease to distribute itself evenly. I believe suction 

 makes the final wad keep in its position. However, 

 vibratory motion in the bullet being prevented by 

 the threads and grease, the projectiles I experimented 

 upon remained a positive fixture under most severe 

 trials. 



