478 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
nates equal four feet of flight of pellet. The next fact, and an important one to 
sportsmen, which is shown by these experiments is this: If the same charges of 
powder and shot (4 drs. powder and 14 oz. shot) be fired from a 10 gauge and 
from a 12 gauge gun weget a velocity of 100 feet per second in favor of the 10 gauge. 
This is conclusively shown in the comparison of the figures in the tables headed 
‘ro Colt gun, 4 drs. C. & H., and 12 Colt gun, 4 drs. ©. & Hi, 1 4 ozashotim 
With No. 10 shot the mean velocity over the first 30 yards given by the 1o gauge 
gun is 848 feet; with the same shot and charge in the 12 gauge the velocity is 
748 feet, a difference of 100 feet in favor of gauge No. 10. With No. 8 shot the 
difference is 72 feet. The average difference in favor of the 10 gauge in the 
flight of No. 8 and 10 shot over 40 yards and 50 yards amounts to 110 feet. 
I trust that these results will show to sportsmen and the makers of guns that the 
recent movement in favor of small bore guns is one in the wrong direction. If 
any gunmaker will make a ro or even an 8 gauge gun, weighing about 7% 
pounds, the sportsman will have the best fowling piece for upland shooting. The 
reason why a 1o guage shows such superiority over a 12 gauge is that the same 
charge of powder and shot occupies less /eng/h in a 10 than in a 12 gauge, hence 
there are fewer pellets of shot in contact with the barrel of the 10 gauge to oppose 
by their friction the projectile force of the powder ; and, secondly, the powder in 
a 1o gauge gun is exploded nearer to the center of its volume, and thus the 
powder first exploded does not have so much chance of blasting before the unburnt 
powder contained in the charge is removed from the point of ignition. I also ven- 
ture to predict that, with the same weight of barrels, the 10 gauge will not heat 
as much as the 12, because the motion of the shot lost by the greater resistance 
it opposes in a 12 gauge cartridge must appear in the form of heat. The third 
fact which these experiments show is that the proper charge of shot in a 12 
gauge gun for upland shooting is 14% oz., and not 14 oz., as has of late years 
been the practice to use; for the tables show that with 138 oz. of shot and 3% 
drs. of powder an average velocity is obtained, which requires 4 drs. of powder 
to give to 1% oz. of shot a velocity equal to that given by 34 drs. to 1% oz. Now 
4 drs. of powder, if not fired from a gun weighing at least 9 lbs., and from a 
good, strong, muscular shoulder, is disagreeable. The effect on the body, and 
especially on the brain, is neither conducive to pleasant or good shooting. ‘The 
number of pellets in a charge of 114 0z. of No. 8 shot is 499. In a charge of 
1¥% oz. of the same shot there are 449, therefore only fifty pellets more in a 
charge of 14 oz. than in a charge of 1 oz., and surely the want of the 50 will 
not cause a good shot to miss his bird with 449 pellets, nor will the addition of the 
50 give a bad shot more chance of bringing his bird to bag with his 449 pellets. 
I wish now to show to the Association, and especially to those members of it 
who are sportsmen, other applications of these experiments to the art of shooting 
on the wing. ‘There are two styles of shooting on the wing. One is called 
“snap shooting,”’ when the shooter, on selecting the bird which he wishes to bag, 
quietly brings the gun to his shoulder, and at the instant it is in place fires. If 
