GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 
steel they can get for black powder guns, 
as well as for smokeless guns. 
Is it a fact that any smokeless shotgun 
powder, or any rifle powder, can be used 
in any gun with the same measure that 
is used for black powder, if the powder 
is not packed or pressed together? Can 
it be used with safety? 
It is much harder on a gun with a Io- 
inch twist to put fine, quick burning black 
powder in it, than to use the slow burn- 
ing smokeless that blazes up so mildly 
when lighted with a match. Try to light 
a full charge of black powder for an 8 
gauge shotgun, with a match, and note the 
difference. : 
Why will not any rifle use Savage 
smokeless powder? Why I refer to Sav- 
age is because I believe that is about as 
powerful an arm as any made. 
EG D., Buffalo, Minn. 
{ referred this to a powder expert who 
says: 
Savage powder, which by the way is a 
-German product, only designated as 
Savage powder because it is the powder 
used by the Savage Arms Co. in loading 
cartridges, is a high power powder made 
only for use in high power guns of .30-30 
or similar caliber. All powders made for 
such rifles are slow burning and require 
the resistance arising from the metal 
cased bullet and rapid twist. When, how- 
ever, they are confined in the manner 
mentioned they develop a very high pow- 
er and a greater strength than ordinary 
black powder rifles are built to withstand. 
Powders of this kind would burn too 
slowly to give good velocity in a shot gun. 
As to substituting a smokeless powder 
for black powder and using it in the same 
quantity as black powder, that is absolute 
folly. With some nitro powders such an 
experiment would certainly burst the gun. 
The only safe way to do is to follow the 
directions given by the manufacturer of 
the powder, as to the guns in which it is 
to be used, as well as to the charges 
adapted for such guns. This ought to be 
easily understood when it is known that 
there are 2 kinds of nitro powders, those 
measuring bulk for bulk with black pow- 
der, and the dense powders which perhaps 
dc not occupy % the space that the black 
powder does. 
Again, while the use of a slow burning 
powder in a shot gun would fail by reason 
of the fact that it would not exert suffi- 
cient force to propel the shot, any at- 
tempt to use the shot gun powder in a rifle 
would certainly prove disastrous. Shot 
gun powder burns too quickly to be used 
in a rifle, and would cause trouble. While 
many experiments in the way of inter- 
changing powders and loads may be made 
459 
with black powder without any particular 
risk, it must be remembered that smoke- 
less powder is an entirely different article, 
and for this reason if for no other the 
manufacturer’s instructions as to the man- 
ner of using his powder should be fol- 
lowed. Nine-tenths of all the complaints 
against smokeless powder have arisen 
from the belief many people entertain 
that they know more about a powder than 
the man who makes it. They insist on 
following their own course, meet with dis- 
aster and then kick. 
As to the burning of powders in the 
barrel and out of it: Black powder burns 
rapidly under all conditions, merely be- 
cause it requires only fire to ignite it. 
That smokeless powder deflagrates in the 
open air but explodes with great force 
when in a gun is explained by the fact 
that it requires flame to ignite it, that such 
flame must be of a certain quality and 
must dispel a certain amount of heat. It 
is well known that black powder primers 
will not fire smokeless powder effectively. 
Concerning the bursting of gun _ bar- 
rels with smokeless powder it may be said 
that while such accidents occurred dur- - 
ing the early days of nitro powder, when 
the compounds were far from _ perfect, 
they are rarely heard of now. When they 
do occur they may generally be attrib- 
uted to overloading, or to some violation 
of the maker’s instructions. 
Steel barrels for rifles are an advantage 
over the ordinary style of barrel only in 
that they are made expressly for the use 
of smokeless powder. They may be light- 
er in weight than many of the black pow- 
der barrels, but are made of a material 
especially designed to withstand great 
pressure. Their real application is to the 
high power .30 caliber rifles. They are 
further desirable in that the metal cased 
bullets do not wear the rifling so fast as if 
the steel were soft. 

RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES. 
Forest Hill, N. J. 
Editor RECREATION: 
Laid up as we are in city offices, you 
and I, old campaigners in the mountains 
for years at a time, in the midst of elk, 
deer, cougar and bear, can at least give 
information for the help of others who 
now take their outings as we once took 
ours. 
One of your correspondents asks about 
the Hotchkiss rifle and the .45-70 cart- 
ridge. Twelve years’ use of that rifle ought 
to qualify me to say something about it. 
I chose a Hotchkiss because I could have 
its chambers lengthened for the .45-90 
cartridge, length 2 4-10 inches, with regu- 
lar magazine of 5 .45-70’s to fall back on. 
