
Lessons of the Sea Girt Meeting 
Among} the¥ lessons well impressed on the 
minds of the riflemen at the late tournament of 
the National Guardsmen at Sea Girt, N. J., 
was that the barrels of the Government rifles 
wear out quickly when firing the hard metal- 
covered bullet. Worn-out barrels were very 
much in evidence. 
The writer was particularly interested in this 
phase of the tournament, and had gone prepared 
to measure the barrels that were brought to him. 
He was tented with Dr. W. G. Hudson and John 
Taylor Humphrey, and hasa record of upward 
of three hundred barrels that were measured, 
some from nearly every State in the Union, and 
the greater number of them measured above 
.3095 inch .and some as high as .3135 inch. 
The results when shooting at 1,000 yards with 
such a barrel, when using a bullet measuring 
the standard size of .308 inch, can easily be 
imagined. Some of them did very good work at 
the shorter ranges, but were out of it at the long 
distances. 
Some shooters who were fortunate enough to 
get a different rifle, after their visit to our tent, 
stated that our measurements confirmed their 
suspicions and accounted for the poor work that 
they were doing at the long ranges. 
One barrel was found to measure .305 inch. 
It was, however, badly fouled with an adherence 
of the metal from the jacket of the bullet. The 
barrel was corked up:at the breech and filled 
with Dr. Hudson’s solution. The component 
parts of this solution are as follows, the quanti- 
ties given being sufficient for the treatment of a 
half dozen barrels: 1 ounce ammonium persul- 
phate ; 200 grains ammonium carbonate; 6 
ounces ammonia, 28 per cent; 4 ounces water. 
The ammonia mentioned is what is known as 
“stronger ammonia,” containing 28 per cent. 
ammonia gas. The ammonium carbonate and 
persulphate should be pulverized and left in the 
solution for a-half hour, in order that it may 
become thoroughly saturated. A convenient 
method of manipulation is to force a cork into 
the chamber of the rifle and fill the barrel to the 
muzzle. 
There was an interesting test of two sharp- 
pointed bullets of the Spitzer type, at 1,000 
yards, with the new Springfield rifle, by Captain 
Hof, of the United States Ordnance Depart- 
ment. A muzzle velocity of 2,750 feet was ob- 
tained. We understand there were between 
thirty and forty shots fired in the barrel. The 
rifle was brought to our tent and it showed 
cupro fouling toward the muzzle for about six 
inches. It was treated with the solution for 
about an hour. The results showed that much 
of the cupro fouling was removed. It was 
thought best, however, to give it another test, 
and it was left in the barrel over night. There 
was but a slight trace of cupro in the morning, 
demonstrating the fact that the solution will 
clean the worst barrels if left in them for about 
an hour. With a muzzle velocity of 2,750 feet 
per second, to the minds of the experienced the 
barrel might be expected to have been well 
coated with metal from the jacket of the bullet. 
With this example before us, a conundrum 
arises to the mind of the writer: If the Krag, 
with a velocity of 1,950 feet per second, wears 
out barrels rapidly and cupro fouls them, what 
would a velocity of 2,750 feet be expected to do 
in that line? 
The writer, who for the last thirty-five or 
forty years has had more or less experience with 
the manufacture of arms and ammunition, fully 
realizes that it is very much easier to find fault 
with guns and cartridges in general than it 
would be to correct many of the so-called imper- 
fections, and he desires to impress on the 
minds of his readers that the following is not 
written in any spirit of pessimistic criticism or 
fault-finding. At the suggestion of Dr. Hudson, 
I made and took to Sea Girt with me a tool to 
withdraw bullets from loaded cartridges. It 
was fitted to the loading press which was on ex- 
hibition. One evening while various visitors 
were with us, I withdrew nine cartridges, 
United States ammunition issue of 1906, from 
a bandoleer and with the above tool took them 
apart, carefully preserving every kernel or grain 
of powder in each shell. Dr. Hudson weighed 
the charges on a pair of apothecaries’ scales and 
Mr. Humphrey wrote down the results, which 
were as follows: 35.1, 35.2, 34-6, 33-9, 34.6, 
34-7, 34-9, 34.3 grains weight. This shows 1.3 
grains variation from the lightest to the heaviest 
charge. The weights of five of these bullets 
that were taken from the shells were as follows: 
