O. N. Rood on Elongated Projectiles. 31 
Strange indeed is it, that Lieut. Wilcox in his recent treatise 
on “Rifles and Rifle Practice,” while describing each minute 
variation in the faulty construction of the European arm, 
should wholly ignore the existence of this most remarkable 
roduct of the experimental skill and mechanical ingenuity of 
1s countrymen. 
Inasmuch therefore as our own rifle for years has stood with- 
out a rival, how happens it that for the use of our army we have 
been induced to import an inferior arm from France? Were it 
not better policy to furnish our soldier with the weapon which 
came so famous in the hands of our hunters? If greater 
accuracy or power be required, might it not be well to institute 
a minute investigation into the causes to which our home-product 
owes its success, rather than to spend time and incur expense 
in the study of the inferior rifles of Europe, which although ow- 
ing their existence to the labors of boards of ordnance, compose 
of highly educated men, still have never approached in perfec- 
tion the weapon devised by the ecperimentul skill of our Ameri- 
can backwoodsmen. 
Rifle No, 2. Rifle No. 3. 
Weight of ball 105:01 grains. Weight of ball 16°04 grains. ‘ 
Charge, Initial itia 
50 ; Vel. Charge. Vel. 
Grains about 1785 69-4 grs, about 1759 
2'15 inches of } | 1799) 9-3 in, to the 1782 
the bore, 1789] bore, 1816 
1774 1785 
¥ <4 ape about min 5 Rifle No. 4. 
266 in. the 1925 
1928) Weight of ball 113°35. 
1141 
e 1917/31°5 grs. about 1136 
be a _——| 135 in. to the ba 
5 grains, about bore 105 
3°22 be t5 the 2082 ! 1136 
bore, 2086 
1129 
2084 
Fig. 11 is a section of an universal bullet mould which is per- 
