
By Carlos C. Holly 
THE TABLES TURNED 
The man from the city finds he doesn’t know everything, after all, and that a chickaree is not a squirrel, from 
a sportsman’s viewpoint 
the bullet is recognized by the fact that the 
bullet-marks in canvas or wooden targets are as 
nearly as possible circular, and is due to the 
action of the resistance of the air upon the 
bullet. 
This turning action of the air upon the 
bullet does not come into play when the axis of 
the bullet is truly tangential to the trajectory, 
therefore it is only when the bullet has got its 
nose above the trajectory that the turning effect 
begins to take place. It is probable that the 
turning effect never quite keeps pace with the 
flight of the bullet along the trajectory, so that 
the nose of the bullet on the average keeps 
slightly above the trajectory. The air would 
then be highly compressed in front of the 
bullet and underneath it. Now suppose the 
bullet is spinning with a left-hand twist, there 
would be greater friction between the under- 
side of the bullet and the compressed air than 
between the top side of the bullet and the un- 
compressed air; therefore, the bullet would roll 
to the left. Again, the spin of the bullet would 
tend to drive the compressed air from under 
the bullet to the right; consequently, there 
would be greater air pressure on the right side 
of the bullet than to the left; therefore, the bullet 
would be edged off to the left. As the range 
increases the velocity of the bullet and the 
resistance of the air decrease, but the spin of 
the bullet remains nearly the same, and the 
curvature of the trajectory increases; therefore, 
under these conditions the nose of the bullet 
would tend to keep higher above the trajectory 
and the cushion of compressed air below the 
bullet would be greater than the amount of 
drift at long ranges. Another explanation of 
drift ascribes it to what is known as gyroscopic 
action. This somewhat difficult theory is not 
so probable as that just given, to our mind, as 
owing to the small diameter of a modern bullet 
in proportion to its length the gyroscopic action 
should not be pronounced enough to cause the 
drift, which we know actually occurs. 

On Grouse Shooting 
The best of upland bird-shooting in the East- 
ern States is afforded by the ruffed grouse, and 
for the benefit of those who are not “‘old hands,” 
