GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



377 



shot, trying to devise some method to 

 control the spread. All their efforts were 

 failures, or nearly so. During the past 2 

 years I have given the matter considerable 

 attention, and can now load buckshot so 

 as to make any desired pattern, from a 6 

 inch to a 6 foot spread. To my surprise, 

 I found that nitro gas would not burn a 

 fine silk thread; so, shaving up a little 

 lead from each buckshot, I strung them on 

 a thread by welding the lead back with 

 the thread in the cut. Not a shot will 

 leave the thread, and all will go into a 

 small circle. 



Another way is to cut the string into 

 3 pieces and load with a thin wad be- 

 tween each set of 3. Best of all, unless 

 you want an extremely close pattern, is 

 to attach a tail of medium sized cord to 

 each shot. These tails should be 2 to 4 

 inches long; the longer the tail, the closer 

 the pattern. The tails act as rudders and 

 keep the shot from curving. Use shot 

 that chamber 3 in smallest place in bar- 

 rel, if choke bored. Try this method. It 

 will surprise you. My gun will scatter 

 the shot over a 10 foot circle at 10 rods 

 without this method of loading. With the 

 string tails, it will throw them all in a 30 

 inch circle at same distance. 



I believe if more of our deer hunters 

 would use the gun with which they do 

 their quick wiring shooting, fitted with a 

 Remington rifle barrel, less wild shooting 

 would be done, and consequently fewer 

 wounded deer would be left in the woods. 

 Two years ago I got 3 deer with buckshot 

 in thick brush where I could not get a 

 rifle shot. Last year the rifle did it all. 

 To be ready at all times and under all 

 conditions, you need the gun and loads I 

 have described. 



E. A. Kemp, Greenville, Mich. 



500 

 600 

 700 

 800 



ACCURACY OF THE .30 U. S. RIFLE. 



I have just been reading some of my old 

 copies of Recreation and note Jay Bee's 

 absurd article on high power rifles in the 

 March number. It is a well known fact 

 that the .30 U. S. magazine rifle is more 

 accurate at all ranges than the .45-70-500, 

 and the following figures, taken from the 

 Scientific American Supplement, prove it 

 beyond a doubt. They show the radius of 

 the circle that will contain 10 consecutive 

 shots fired by an average marksman, from 

 the .30 Krag-Jorgensen and from the .45- 

 70-500 Springfield, at ranges of 100 to 1,800 

 yards: 



.30 U. S. Mag. .45-70-500 



Range. Rifle. Springfield. 



Yards. Inches Inches. 



too 1.2 1.3 



200 2.1 2.7 



300 3.3 4.2 



400 4-7 5-8 



6.2 7.6 



7-7 9-5 



9-3 11.6 



hi 138 



900 13.0 17.0 



1000 14.9 21.4 



1 100 16.8 



1200 19. 1 



1300 21.8 



1400 25.0 



1500 28.7 



1600 33.0 



1700 38.0 



1800 44.0 



No records of the accuracy of the 

 Springfield rifle have been obtained beyond 

 1,000 yards, although it was shot up to 

 3,500 yards. It must be remembered that 

 these tables were published over 2 years 

 ago. Since that time ammunition for the 

 .30 U. S. has been much improved, and no 

 doubt even better results could now be 

 obtained with it. 



Jay Bee says no high power rifle is 

 fitted with sights that will compensate for 

 drift. I presume he means a wind gauge. 

 In this he is also wrong, as the '95 model 

 .30 caliber Winchester military rifle is fitted 

 with an excellent wind gauge sight of mili- 

 tary pattern. I am expecting a single shot 

 rifle from the Winchester factory soon 

 which will be for the .30 U. S. cartridge, 

 will weigh g l / 2 pounds, and will have a 30 

 inch round band, fitted with military wind 

 gauge sights. I believe this arm will be 

 very near perfection for long range target 

 shooting. 



Jack Pattern, Orange, N. J. 



EFFECT OF CERTAIN CHARGES. 



Will some scientific reader of Recrea- 

 tion tell me why most rifles shoot higher 

 with light than with regular charges? I 

 mean by light charges, the powder loaded 

 loose in the shell and the bullet set in the 

 muzzle of shell as in regular loads. I have 

 tried them in 4 different rifles, a .40-70 Bal- 

 lard, a .50-110 Winchester, a .38-72, '95 

 model, Winchester, and a .32-40. All ex- 

 cepting the Ballard shoot 4 to 6 inches 

 high at 40 yards when the gun is sighted 

 point blank. With the regular charge in 

 the Ballard the sighting remains the same 

 for all loads at point blank range. How a 

 bullet can rise above the line of the bore 

 and still shoot accurately is more than I 

 can understand. They all seem to shoot 

 as accurately at short range as the heavy, 

 loads. Why the Ballard should shoot all 

 loads the same and the others not is still 

 another stumbling block for me. The only 

 difference I can see is that its bullets do 

 not fit so tightly as the others do. The 

 .40-70 loaded with 20 to 40 grains of black- 

 powder and a bullet from 175 to 240 grains 

 makes a fine cartridge for short range. I 



