384 
of the old weapons were not needed. Witness 
the newest arm that Uncle Sam is giving his 
troops. This rifle is shorter and lighter than 
most Continental weapons, and yet it is said to 
be the best of them all. 
A man who will shoot a 12-bore, burning 34 
drams of nitro, and driving 14 ounces of shot, 
all day, firing perhaps two hundred shots, will 
fight shy of a 50-caliber high-velocity rifle that 
does not give by several pounds so severe a 
recoil. I have shot almost every rifle that is on 
the market, and, though I acknowledge that 
when target shooting recoil is felt more than 
when shooting at game, I hold that it is always 
most moderate in an American rifle. The 
manufacturers are too clever to put out a rifle 
that kicks very badly—it would not sell. 

2, 60 ft. (bs. 52 Se/f loading 

S/O" 4 GF Se loading 




-JO-JO 
‘SAU Sfhecorerl 


"303 British 




"FF WCF. 
“BO U.S.A, 



« dO Rimless 


” ‘GS- 70-500 


0 n GF S-SOSMmelkesess. 
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» $5070. W.4-V. 
» 12 Bore . 8 - Ysmakecless. 

GRAPHIC TABLE OF RECOILS 
The engineer is fond of a graphic explanation, 
and in such a matter as comparative recoil I 
think we may well follow his example, so I have 
drawn up a table in this form that may interest 
some and enable them to decide just what the 
new rifle is to be. W.. HiacS; 
Middletown, Conn. 
Out of Dat 
Could you inform me through RECREATION 
whether the old pattern Colt’s powder and 
ball revolvers are fairly accurate for target 
shooting ? 
Would the .44-caliber army pattern (m. 1.), 
advertised by various sporting-goods houses, be 
suitable for the above? 
What would be the proper load and what 
grain of powder? Are the round bullets equal 

RECREATION 
to the conical for the above purpose? Would 
ordinary lead be too soft for the bullets, and 
if so, what alloy would be necessary, and would 
the bullets need to be lubricated? Would 
wads be necessary over powder before seating 
the ball? A. B.C 
New York. 
[Your pistol is better fitted for a museum 
than for target shooting. ‘Try five grains of 
F. F. G. powder and a round ball. Insert the 
ball directly upon the powder. The bullets 
used with these ancient pistols were of pure 
lead, and the service charge generally varied 
between 15 and 25 grains of fine-grained 
powder.—Ep. | 

Uses the .45 S. A. 
As I am a constant reader of RECREATION, I 
should like to see something about revolver and 
pistol shooting. I use the Colt .45 S. A. 
revolver, 5% inch, which I think is the best 
revolver made. A good many of the readers 
are anxious to see the S. A. in swing-out cylinder 
and lighter weights. Now I don’t think that 
would be any great improvement over the old 
S. A. Colt. The revolver would be lighter in 
weight and could be loaded a little quicker, 
but the muzzle would, of course, fly up more in 
firing. It would be a good target revolver, no 
doubt, in the small calibers, if made heavy 
enough. 
I object to carrying a heavy revolver about at 
the waist myself, as I can only use my revolver 
about once a week. If we all had to carry our 
revolvers around every day on a belt, just as 
do some of the people in the West, who use 
their revolvers daily, we should soon become 
used to the weight and not notice it. 
As to ‘“‘improvements” in the Colt S. A., I 
don’t think they could improve it much, as all 
the parts are strong and simple and work 
perfectly. There is just one little thing, 
though, which I think could, perhaps, be im- 
proved upon, that is the way the base-pin is 
locked in the frame. In my newS. A. Colt the 
pin is locked by a small screw running through 
the frame and engaging with a small pin with 
slot, thereby necessitating the use of two screw- 
drivers to loosen them before the base pin can 
be removed. Now I think a small locking 
button, with an arm to engage with base-pin to 
lock it, could be put in the frame without 
weakening it. Have the head of the button 
checkered and a small, strong spring put under 
the head. Make this spring so strong that any- 
thing coming in contact with it would not un- 
lock the base-pin. Any one taking pride in his 
gun should see that this style of locking base- 
pin would be a blessing to users of the Colt S. A. 
