GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 
out straight. I am strenuously in favor of 
merciful killing, but I had reference not to 
this, but to the fact that an animal ha@ less 
show than ever in front of such guns. I 
like to see a deer drop in his tracks from 
a neck or spine shot, but I must confess 
to a pleasurable feeling of excitement 
when on walking up to the place at which 
the deer stood or galloped when I fired, 
to find the blood and the wad of hair which 
usually tell their own tale. Then I am 
sure to find my deer lying dead 40 or 50 
yards farther on. 
Percy Selous. 

POWER OF RIFLE CARTRIDGES. 
HAWKEYE. 
Recent numbers of RECREATION have 
teemed with discussions regarding the ef- 
fectiveness of different rifles and car- 
tridges. As to rifles it is absurd to claim 
any great superiority of one make over an- 
other. All standard American rifles are 
accurate and reliable, and the choice be- 
tween them is mostly a matter of taste. The 
choice of calibers and cartridges is, how- 
ever, no such simple matter. There is much 
misapprehension concerning the actual 
power of the new smokeless powder car- 
tridges. On the one hand impossibilities 
are claimed for them, and on the other the 
plainest facts are denied. The velocity 
and weight of the bullet fired from any 
standard cartridge may be found in the 
tables published by the arms and cartridge 
companies. From them may be easily cal- 
culated the actual striking energy of the 
bullet when fired from the rifle for which 
it was made. This energy is expressed in 
foot pounds; a foot pound being the ener- 
gy required to raise an object weighing 
one pound one foot in one second. 
The energy of the most common smoke: 
less cartridges is as follows: .25-35 Win- 
chester, 1,050 foot pounds; .30-30 Winches- 
ter, 1,386 foot pounds; .30-30 Savage, 1,647 
foot. pounds; ~.236-’U.)S- .N.,° 1,626. foot 
pounds; .30-40 U. S. A., 2,096 foot pounds. 
A writer in April RECREATION claimed 
for a certain .40 caliber rifle a velocity of 
3,000 feet a second. If this were true, the 
300 grain bullet would have more energy 
than is required to raise 214 tons one foot 
in one second. 
For purposes of comparison the striking 
energy of a few of the most common black 
powder cartridges is given below: .22 R. 
F. short, 65 foot pounds; .22 C. F. Win- 
chester, 220 foot pounds; -.25-20, 326 foot 
pounds; .32-40-165, 707 foot pounds; .44-40, 
696 foot pounds; .38-55, 940 foot pounds; 
.40-60, 1,170 foot pounds; .45-70-330, 1,320 
‘foot pounds; .45-70-405, 1,440 foot pounds; 
-45-70-500, 1,550 foot pounds; .50-100-450, 
1,700 foot pounds. 
It will be noticed that the .25-35 smoke- 
less is more powerful than the .38-55, 14 
293 
times more so than the .32-40 and a little 
less than the .40-60. The .30-30 has about 
the same actual power as the .45-90. It is 
a little more powerful than the .45-70 when 
used with 330 grain bullet; but little less 
se than the regular government .45 cali- 
ber. The .236 navy and the .30 Savage 
are of almost the same power, and their 
striking energy is between that of the .45- 
70-500 and the .50-100-450. The .30-40 
army is by far the most powerful cartridge 
in use in this country for hunting pur- 
poses. Its power has, however, been much 
exaggerated. It develops 3 times the en- 
ergy of the .32-40 and I I-3 times as much 
as .45 government. 
All of the high power smokeless car- 
tridges have certain characteristics in com- 
mon. They will penetrate plates of steel 
or boiler iron or shatter the skull of a 
grizzly bear. When used at short range 
with expanding bullets they tear big holes, 
but at longer ranges the holes which they 
make are small. The shells can not be re; 
leaded with regular charges; but their 
short range loads are convenient and ef- 
fective. The recoil is in all cases much less 
than that of black powder rifles having the 
same actual power, and the new rifles can 
therefore be made lighter. The trajectory 
is flatter and much less allowance need be © 
made for distance. On the other hand 
these rifles are difficult to clean, their bar- 
rels “shoot out’ in a comparatively short 
time and they do not yet seem to be equal 
in accuracy to the best black powder guns. 
All of them now made are too powerful 
for small game, and are unsafe to use in a 
thickly settled country. Nor is it certain 
any of them are equal in effectiveness on 
large game to large caliber rifles having 
the same actual power. Smokeless pow- 
der is no doubt the powder of the future, 
but the modern high-pressure repeater has 
not yet reached perfection. 

PREFERS THE WINCHESTER. 
Armington, Mont. 
Editor RECREATION: 
I have owned and used a great many 
Winchester and Marlin rifles of all mod- 
els. From what experience I have had, 
which embraces several years, I have 
come to the conclusion that the Marlin is 
not to be compared to the Winchester as 
regards ease, rapidity or certainty of ac- 
tion, beauty of outline, finish, and all that 
goes to make up a first-class weapon. 
I consider the first model Winchester a 
more reliable weapon than the latest Mar- 
lin. Some one will ask, Why? And I 
answer: Because they handle the -cart- 
ridges perfectly, and as rapidly as the 
lever can be worked by the operator, un- 
der any circumstances; while the Marlin 
might fail to handle a cartridge if worked 
with ¥% the rapidity of the Winchester. 
