GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



211 



my chronometer. The animal kept dogged- 

 ly on, and at the end of exactly 30 seconds 

 reached the line of fire and fell with" a 

 shattered skull. 



Overcome at my great discovery I sat 

 down and mopped my coldly perspiring 

 brow. By a fortuitous accident I had 

 stumbled on a new law of ballistics, to wit, 

 "When shooting at a target moving to the 

 right at the rate of 2 miles an hour, make 

 no allowance for drift." 



Only one trifling circumstance marred 

 the joy of discovery. A slight chromatic 

 aberration due to the imperfect lenses of 

 my telescope had deluded me into shooting 

 as a bighorn what proved only a common 

 sheep. Its owner was wrathful and obdu- 

 rate, and that droll mistake cost me $25. 

 But Galileo was also persecuted; and, after 

 all, it's worth something to have made a 

 discovery which totally eliminates the fac- 

 tor of drift from the problem of long range 

 shooting, providing the object will kindly 

 move in the right direction at the proper 

 speed. W. S. Crolly, St. Albans, Vt. 



FOLLOW MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUC- 

 TIONS. 



In his interesting article, "The Pistol 

 from a Western Standpoint," printed in No- 

 vember Recreation, Dr. E. F. Conyngham 

 advises his readers not to use factory am- 

 munition, but to load their own. 



For some years I have loaded my re- 

 volver cartridges with Ideal tools. The re- 

 sults have been excellent; but I question 

 the wisdom of the advice as a general prop- 

 osition. There is no doubt that home 

 loading sometimes produces velocity and 

 penetration equal or even superior to those 

 of the factory cartridges ; but it rarely pro- 

 duces uniformity. The amateur may weigh 

 his charges to a nicety and may load with 

 the greatest skill and care, and still not 

 obtain uniformity, without which accuracy 

 is impossible. At short range, good work 

 may be done, while long ranges show the 

 defects of the ammunition to a surprising 

 extent. The reason for the greater uni- 

 formity of factory loads will be appreciated 

 when one stops to think that no 2 lots of 

 powder, even from the same mill and for- 

 mula, will give the same results. I am in- 

 formed that the manufacturers of powder 

 adopt a standard powder; that is, they say 

 that a powder which gives a certain velocity 

 when loaded in a certain way is the stand- 

 ard. Powders when so tested may develop 

 velocities greater or less than the standard. 

 By thoroughly blending lots of powder 

 above and below standard an approxima- 

 tion to the standard may be obtained. To 

 secure the standard velocity with powder 

 not quite standard requires a slight change 

 in the size of the charge. Cartridge fac- 

 tories, knowing the proper charge of each 



lot of powder purchased, and loading thou- 

 sands of rounds, are able to set their load- 

 ing machines to secure the standard ve- 

 locity. Unless the amateur possesses the 

 same knowledge, he can not hope for the 

 same results. 



Factory loaded cartridges opened by ama- 

 teurs are sometimes found to contain more 

 or less powder than expected, and their in- 

 accuracy is inferred. On the contrary, this 

 variation in charge is proof of the care of 

 the factory in loading. 



The danger of loading is small to an ex- 

 pert, but great to the average amateur. 

 The following story, told me by the pow- 

 der expert of a well known powder com- 

 pany, illustrates this : 



The expert was seated in his office one 

 day, when a man entered carrying a paste- 

 board box. One arm was in a sling and 

 he was generally torn up. In fact he look- 

 ed as if he might be a game hog after an 

 interview with Coquina. 



"Are you the expert of this company?" 

 he asked. 

 "Yes, sir," was the reply. 

 The visitor emptied his box on the table 

 and spread out numerous twisted and 

 broken fragments of metal and wood, some 

 of which looked like pieces of a ci devant 

 gun. Then, striking an attitude beside his 

 relics, as if to include himself in the ex- 

 hibit, he said, 



"That's what your d n powder did." 



The expert gravely nodded. 

 "It seems to have developed considerable 

 energy," he remarked. 



"Well, what are you goin' to do about 

 it?" ^ 



"Did you read and follow the instructions 

 on the can?" asked the expert. 



"Read 'em? Yes. Follow 'em? I guess 

 I been shooting a gun 20 odd years, and 

 when I can't shoot more than 2 drams in a 

 10 gauge gun, I'll quit shootin'. No, sir; 

 I used 5 drams." 



"What would you think of a man who 

 put 10 drams of black powder in his gun?" 

 "He'd be a blamed fool." 

 "Well, sir, what you put in your gun was 

 the equivalent of 10 drams of black pow- 

 der. The inference is obvious. We furnish 

 powder and instructions for its use, but we 

 can not prevent their falling occasionally 

 into the hands of 'blamed fools.' Good 

 morning, sir." 



R. R. Raymond, First Lieut., Corps of En- 

 gineers, U. S. A. 



JAMMED A SAVAGE. 



I had long anticipated a trip into the 

 woods for the express purpose of killing a 

 moose. I had a rifle which I knew was 

 reliable, but having read so much about the 

 Savage and its adaptation for killing large 

 game, I decided to buy one and discard my 



