PRACTICE AND THEORY. 



Editor Recreation : 



A few days ago I had the pleasure of hold- 

 ing a long chat with Major E. Taylor, the 

 widely-known authority on ballistics. Like 

 all other men of vast experience, the Major 

 is by no means as well assured that certain 

 accepted theories are absolutely correct, as is 

 the tyro. The man who knows it ail is gen- 

 erally a beginner ; the veteran, who has given 

 half a lifetime to the study of projectiles, 

 powders, calibers, and shot in general, is usu- 

 ally modest and not at all inclined to dogma- 

 tize. 



A good deal of attention is being paid just 

 now to an automatic pistol by the United 

 States Government. Although it is undoubt- 

 edly true that a man who can shoot accu- 

 rately and quickly, can do most effective 

 work with a .38-caliber revolver, in the 

 hands of a poor shot the .45-caliber is the 

 more trustworthy weapon. For this reason, 

 the government is now experimenting with 

 a view to putting an automatic pistol of that 

 caliber in the hands of the soldier. Speci- 

 men cartridges were seen which had rim- 

 less bases, and metal jacketed bullets, and 

 this type will, it is thought, be most prob- 

 ably decided upon. 



As an all-round shot, Major Taylor's rep- 

 utation is too well known to need endorse- 

 ment by me. And, hence, it is interesting to 

 learn that he has satisfied himself that the 

 upward throw of a heavily loaded revolver, 

 when fired, has no effect whatsoever upon 

 the trajectory of the bullet. Careful experi- 

 ment has shown that the bullet has left the 

 barrel before the upward movement takes 

 place ; were it not for this, it would be im- 

 possible to hit a man with the bullets from a 

 heavily loaded revolver, unless you aimed at 

 his feet, when you might, possibly, blow the 

 top of his head off. 



Another experiment has upset a pet theory. 

 We have always been told that any rifle 

 would shoot inaccurately from a rest ; yet, 

 Major Taylor has succeeded in getting won- 

 derful shooting out of his Krag at 1,000 

 yards, the rifle being shot from a vice-like 

 rest. So certain is the experimenter that he 

 can duplicate this result ?t will, that he has 

 offered to shoot such a rifle against one held 

 by any marksman whomsoever, the marks- 



man to shoot prone or in a back position, as 

 he may elect. 



In view of this experiment, how are we to 

 believe in all those fine-spun theories about 

 flip and jump? One movement, however, has 

 been noticed, and it seems to have been too 

 obscure to have attracted much attention 

 from practical shooters. It was found that 

 there was a movement of rotation in the bar- 

 rel, opposite to the direction of the twist. 

 This can be accounted for by the pressure of 

 the bullet against the guiding shoulder of the 

 rifling. 



Major Taylor has found that the principal 

 drawback to pure lead bullets is the ease 

 with which they fuse, and the fact that they 

 shrink more when cooling than those con- 

 taining a certain admixture of tin. This is 

 recognized by such firms as the Ideal Manu- 

 facturing Company, which require to know 

 the composition of the bullet a prospective 

 purchaser proposes using before they under- 

 take to make a mould for him. Some of the 

 formulae given for bullet alloys are certainly 

 alarmingly complicated, and it is difficult to 

 see how metals having such widely differing 

 specific gravities ar.d fusing points, can be 

 kept intimately mixed while the casting of 

 the bullets is in progress. It would seem 

 that out of a batch of bullets there must be 

 much difference in their composition. 



In the' Major's collection of bullets there 

 are some that exhibit well the resistance of 

 water. Soft point bullets, fired into an experi- 

 mental tank, have been more upset by mere 

 contact with the water than similar buliets 

 fired through a series of pine boards. Firing 

 into water, however, permits jacketed bullets 

 to be recovered uninjured, and in a condition 

 to be examined for marks of the rifling. Such 

 bullets, by the way, are a means by which the 

 depth of the grooves, and their width, as well 

 as the shape of the lands, may be ascertained 

 readily. All that is needed is a measuring 

 instrument reading to 1-1000 of an inch. 



The United States government and the 

 large rifle manufacturers have their more 

 elaborate methods, but riflemen can find out 

 a great deal about the interior of his rifle, 

 by simply forcing a bullet through the bar- 

 rel, and then taking careful measurements 

 of the projectile. 



— St. Croix. 



So 



