THE REFERENDUM 
cartridge than the .32-40 Winchester, and the 
.303 Savage, as loaded by the Savage Com- 
pany, is a more powerful cartridge than either 
U. M. C. or Winchester. In tabulating the 
figures below, I have, therefore, taken the 
Marlin figures for the .32-40, the Winchester 
figures for the .30-30 and .32 Special and the 
Savage figures for .303. They line up as 
follows: 
Grains 
Bullets Velocity Energy 
ee ce iin bce cdewe 165 2,000 1,464 
EE oc sees saan 170 1,960 1,449 
a ee i 170 = 2,050 1,585 
8 2 el 190 2,000 1,514 
It will be seen that on the basis of energy the 
.32 Special stands first. Now, it follows that 
in order to get the full benefit of the bullet’s 
energy it must stop within the body of the 
object hit, and with the small calibers, in 
order to bring this about, they must mush- 
room perfectly. 
I am an advocate of the .303 Savage, and 
hence am perhaps prejudiced, but I have 
always fancied that the Savage .303 mushrooms 
more perfectly and delivers its energy better 
than anyofthe bullets namedabove; still it will 
be seen from the figures that the .303 and .32 
Special are nip and tuck for first place. There 
is only one thing about the Winchester Special 
which I think might affect the situation, and 
that is the comparatively slow twist of the 
rifling. The Savage bullet spins faster, and 
it is my impression that this makes it a much 
more destructive bullet than the .32 Special.. 
My advice to those desiring a Winchester 
rifle would be to get a .32 Special, or those 
preferring the Savage to use the .303, as loaded 
by the Savage Company. Neither the .32-40 
Marlin nor the.30-30 Winchester is as power- 
ful or efficient as the two above. They are all 
right as to accuracy and velocity, but they 
have not the weight of bullet necessary to give 
them the fullest striking energy, and the latter 
is what counts. Lewis R. Gwyn. 
Tarrytown, N. Y. 

Fond of Trap-Shooting 
Mr. Thos. M. Wilson’s letter, on trap-shoot- 
ing, in your August issue pleased me greatly, 
as doubtless it did many others. 
- The progress made by this form of recrea- 
tion'has been really astonishing. I can re- 
member well the old glass balls, and how we 
used to}bang away at them with the old 
“‘fusee” sand black powder. The prevailing 
method of testing the penetration at that time 
was to shoot at a’fgreased duck, that is, in 
the locality from %which I am writing. A 
number of tame ducks were caught and gener- 
ously besmeared with ordinary lard or butter. 
383 
They were then placed about sixty yards from 
the gun, and fired at. If killed, that gun was 
considered a good shooter, and its owner was 
forever after praising its remarkable per- 
formance. 
As near as I can come to understanding the 
principle of inanimate target-shooting, it is 
supposed to, as closely as possible, imitate the 
actual experience of shooting in the field. I 
have never understood why so many, in fact, 
the great majority of trap-shooters, throw the 
gun to the shoulder before calling ‘‘pull.” 
This movement, in my humble opinion, should 
be performed after the target has left the trap. 
I have never yet seen a man in the field 
walk to ‘fa point,” put his gun to his face and 
yell “get out!” Should a ‘‘point” in such a 
case happen to be a “fluke,” then that man 
would certainly be responsible for the cigars. 
I should very much enjoy another discussion 
of this point by the trap-shooting readers of 
RECREATION. 
And also it seems to me that the big and 
small bore ‘‘cranks” must. all have died, 
judging by their recent silence. I had sup- 
posed that the introduction of the various new 
.45 and.so caliber high velocity cartridges by 
the cartridge companies would start the subject 
rolling again. FRED. C. KIEFER. 
Central Islip, L. I. 

Comparative Recoils 
There is no doubt that American riflemen 
show more intolerance of recoil than most 
others. There is a sufficiently good reason for 
this; no one absolutely enjoys recoil, and the 
early settlers being forced to use rifles that fired 
a light charge, in order to economize in am- 
munition, learned to shoot so straight that they 
found a pea rifle deadly enough for all they had 
to do. When the West began to be opened up, 
however, they ran across grizzly, elk and 
buffalo, and then their little Kentucky rifles 
began to fail them. But they had become 
accustomed to a very light recoil, so, in order 
to shoot a fairly heavy charge without feeling 
it, they added weight to their arm. 
This, to my mind, accounts for the heavy 
Sharpe rifle becoming such a favorite with the 
plainsmen. Modern shooters know that much 
of this weight and also the inordinate length 
