GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



Anybody can shoot all day, but a gentleman will quit when he gets enough. 



SUGGESTIONS TO GUN MAKERS. 



I am 52 years old. Since early childhood 

 I have used a gun, both East and West 

 of the Mississippi, and have eagerly 

 watched the evolution in fire arms. While 

 I sanction improvement, I do not approve 

 all the modern complexity in the manu- 

 facture of fire arms and ammunition, es- 

 pecially the latter. I see a tendency among 

 gun makers to find "a little nest with a 

 big egg in it" ; in fact, they want to pro- 

 duce a gun that will kill anything from 

 an elephant down to a flea, make a thrash- 

 ing machine, a bobsled, a bootjack, or raise 

 a patch of turnips. There is too much sci- 

 entific complication in the gun business, 

 amounting largely to dangerous and ex- 

 pensive humbuggery. For shooting, gener- 

 ally, either in war or in the field, there is 

 no need of hard metal jackets and soft 

 points, explosive bullets, etc. The need- 

 ful points of a practical gun for general 

 purposes are that it shall be plain, strong, 

 simple, convenient, durable, rapid and ef- 

 fective ; to which may be added, graceful. 



The ammunition for such a gun should 

 be. of the class called "fixed" ; that is, 

 ready made, as are nearly all modern rifle" 

 cartridges ; and it should be of sufficient 

 size and weight to be effective. This am- 

 munition should be commonplace, that is, 

 found in cities, hamlets, country stores, 

 etc., all over the land, besides being cheap. 

 The more the kinds of cartridges used in 

 a gun, the more practical is the weapon ; 

 hence the popularity of the Winchester re- 

 peater, model 1873, using its own and 3 

 other rifle cartridges ; also, as in single 

 shooter for short range, 6 pistol cart- 

 ridges ; amounting in all to 10 cartridges. 

 With such a gun, ammunition can be had 

 anywhere. If there were in the market a 

 fine shot revolver, of 28 ounces, and 5 inch 

 barrel, double action, with the central ex- 

 tractor, using a 44-40-200 cartridge, how 

 much more popular this gun would be. 

 At present all the revolvers using this 

 cartridge are 6-shooters, weighing 2^ to 

 2^4 pounds, and are too big and heavy for 

 general use. Yet, as this shot is a little 

 too light I suggest a better gun : A repeat- 

 t er of .41 caliber, with 26 inch barrel, shoot- 

 ing a 41-50-250 center fire straight shell 

 cartridge. The gun should weigh 7 pounds, 

 and by using grey powder, which is smoke- 

 less and without residue, the cartridges 

 sTiould be free from grease or other lubri- 

 cator. Easy cartridges are nasty in a 

 pocket or belt. That the bullet should go 

 straight when fired from a gun, the front 

 half of the bullet should be the heaviest. 



To counterbalance the lead shaved off in 

 tapering the front end of the bullet, a 

 little more lead should be reamed out of 

 the center of the rear end of the bullet. 

 This cavity should be filled by inserting a 

 copper nip, in shape like a gun cap, and 

 the end of the bullet left smooth. This is 

 my own device to supersede the soft pine 

 plug used in the old time Mexican minie 

 bullets. This bullet should be smooth on 

 the outside, for grooves in the surface ren- 

 der the flight of a bullet noisy besides de- 

 tracting from the force and speed of the 

 bullet. 



The 41 caliber bullet would be preferable 

 to a smaller one, for it would impart a 

 greater shock, draw more blood and break 

 more bone, thus being more efficient for big 

 game, as well as for military purposes. 

 Such a gun would, as a single shooter, use 

 any center fire pistol cartridge of this cali- 

 ber in the market, and thus do good work 

 at short range. It would also be of use for 

 farmers on butchering day. Such a gun's 

 own cartridge, the 41-50-250, might be kept 

 in reserve for using the gun as a repeater 

 at greater range ; and for general purposes, 

 this would be the most efficient and practi- 

 cal repeater on earth. 



For this new gun I suggest an oblong 

 frustum front sight, as it is plain, simple, 

 long and strong; and being thin it will ad- 

 mit a coarse sight when shooting beyond 

 the graduation of the gun, thus making 

 the gun carry up somewhat farther. In 

 form this sight is a half circle minus % 

 its height cut off at its summit, and it 

 tapers at both ends, hence it can not catch 

 into the clothing, or stick the horse, as do 

 all the pointed kinds. The sight should 

 be made of something hard and tough, and 

 of a dull finish so it would not glitter in 

 the sunlight and thus obstruct the vision 

 of the shooter. Perhaps a dull, dark gray 

 finish can be put on steel, or the sight 

 might be made of a dark gray mineral 

 cement, or of horn. As a rear sight, I 

 recommend a short leaf sight, instead of the 

 step sight used on the 44 caliber rifles, with 

 9 frets, each fret representing 50 yards. 



I prefer the Colt action, for it can be 

 used as a double actor, and thus such a 

 rifle could be fired as rapidly as a double 

 action revolver. Furthermore, the sliding 

 action on the forestock enables the shooter 

 to keep a continual hold of his gun, hence 

 he does not jerk the gun stock down from 

 his shoulder as he would if in a hurry 

 •while using a gun of lever action. For 

 those using the lever action, I suggest the 

 finger lever of the Winchester model 1873 



131 



