210 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 18, 1882. 



lives there "or thereabouts," and we shall leave it to them 

 to look him up and see that he is punished as the base 

 demands, 



1 would like to oiler just one. suggestion and drop the 

 matter, viz: that the club hold their next annual hunt in 

 October. They can then have a much larger variety of 

 game at the supper table, and besides it will look so much 

 better. K. 



Wohcester, Mass., April 7, 1882. 



PHILADELPHIA NOTES. 



LARGE flights of redhead and blackhead ducks visited 

 Barnegat and Tuckerton bays last week ; and I am told 

 traveling flocks are still passing these grounds. This agrees 

 with the reports that come from Havre de Grace, the Gun- 

 powder and Bush rivers, and other points in the Chesapeake 

 Bay, that the fowl are fast leaving and almost entirely gone 

 to the northward. A few days since two of the writer's 

 friends, one from Newark, N. J., and the other being quite 

 near Barnegat, having gone to the latter place in hopes of 

 having brant shooting, "struck" these flights of redhead and 

 blackhead ducks and had rare sport. The birds were all on 

 the move, bound north, but paid visits to these decoys, the 

 wind being favorable in the line of travel. 



I hear direct from both Barnegat, and Tuckerton, 

 that brant have all disappeared, except a few poor cripples 

 that can't get away. Snipe have lately come to our "stamp- 

 ing" grounds south of Philadelphia, on the New Jersev and 

 Delaware sides of the river (whenever the meadows are suit- 

 able to them) in increased numbers. The weather has been 

 favorable, and the birds have not been so wild. Good bags 

 are daily made. Those who have been to the Slaughter 

 Neck, Prime Hook, Poplar Woods, and Milton Creek 

 marshes in Delaware, return with splendid sharings. Most 

 of the snipe killed by the gentlemen who have chosen these 

 last named places as their grounds were found at Milton 

 Creek. We will now have uninterrupted shooting until the 

 snipe are off in pairs for the north and northwest to breed. 

 What a pity it is to feel we are killing in April and May 

 many birds with eggs in them. Yet we do it because the 

 law allows it. 



Next month the residents of the rural portions of Phila- 

 delphia will be again troubled by the hordes of boys who 

 have become affected with the bird-coliecting mania, and 

 who, with specimen and cane gun in hand hang- around 

 every orchard or piece of woodland which may be fre- 

 quented by the numerous species of warblers w r hich pass 

 through our latitude from the 1st of May until the middle of 

 March. There are but few of these youngsters who know 

 one variety from another, and still fewer who do not sell 

 many skins to the milliner. Everything from a tit to a 

 thrush that comes within range is shot at and pocketed. If 

 charged with illegal shooting, these boys answer, "We are 

 collecting for scientific purposes." Dr. Twaddell, of West 

 Philadelphia, knows full well how intolerable this nuisance 

 is becoming. His woods and orchards being favorite and 

 inviting spots for all the warbler tribe, as well as those of 

 youthful collectors, he is overrun with such popgunners 

 from the, first appearance of the early coming black and 

 white creeper until the resident varieties begin laying, and 

 then the eggs are wanted for scientific purposes. There are 

 many more gentlemen who make a similar complaint. Can't 

 something be done to qualify collecting for scientific pur- 

 poses? 



But few anglers of Philadelphia started for the trout 

 streams of Pennsylvania the beginning of the season; but 

 this week will take all who are not fond of snipe shooting to 

 try the speckled beauties. One friend, a resident quite near 

 Pine Creek, Pa., has already fished with fly a favorite pond 

 situated on the course of this stream and 'took some good 

 fish. Your correspondent has promised himself a repetition 

 of last year's trip to these waters, of which you shall have 

 piu-ticulars. The first of April, 1881, came in with a little 

 snow on the ground; 1 remember I had my overcoat on. 

 When I made my first cast, my line fell "all in a heap." 

 Trout were rising and so off came my overcoat. Homo. 



RIFLES AND RIFLE BULLETS. 



TO SHOOT ROUND BALLS FROM A BREECH-LOADER— BREECH 

 VS. MUZZLE, ETC. 



SOME of your correspondents seem to be puzzled with the 

 problem of shooting round balls from a breech-loader. 

 Others seem to have had "good success with them, but there 

 are several calls from the unsuccessful ones for information 

 as to how to do it. 



To be able, to shoot round balls is often very convenient, es- 

 pecially for small game and target-shooting at very short 

 range. But to tell any one how to do it is often a very puz- 

 zling matter. I suspect the truth of the matter to be 'that to 

 make them shoot as well from the breech, as the longer balls 

 is quite as often a matter of pure fortune as of skill. In all 

 the rifles ] have tried there seems to be a certain amount of 

 "hit it" which seems accidental, for the same conditions that 

 make good shooting with one rifle will fail with the next one 

 of the very same calibre. 



I have 'never succeeded in getting round balls from a 

 breech-loader quite as accurate as when shot from a muzzle- 

 loader, although about one in seven or eight go a little wild 

 in spite of all I can do. But I can make the rest go cloee 

 enough for all close shots. The trouble appears to lie first in 

 the want of sufficient bearing on the barrel. I have tried in 

 vain to make the cone work from the breech. I here mean 

 a cone, not a conical ball, but a true taper from butt to point, 

 such as was sometimes shot from the muzzle-loader, and 

 which had no bearing except what was given by swedeing 

 into the barrel with the guiding starter; not over \ of an inch 

 of bearing at the most, and generally less. To overcome this 

 difficulty a round ball should be chosen a. size or two too 

 large, and swedged till it has about 1-6 or 1-6 of an inch of 

 cylindrical body. But perhaps the first thing you then learn 

 is that this won't do. Perhaps it is too large, perhaps too 

 small, a Very slight difference ia size often making a great 

 difference in accuracy. 



Often a heavy leather wad would made a difference. Or 

 perhaps the shell will need cleaning at the mouth, and hot 

 tallow poured in upon the bullet. Or perhaps the ball will 

 need hardening with tin. Upon one thing you may depend, 

 viz., that hardening will not hurt it. The harder I make 

 them the the more accurate I find them. They must also be 

 as perfect in shape as any balls. Bullets bought in gross like 

 buckshot will seldom do, as too many are misshapen. Many 

 of these will fail even when loaded from the muzzle. You 

 may have to try all these things with various modifications 

 and alterations,' and still fail, with full charges of powder, 

 because the rifle is cut with too quick a twist and too hollow 



a groove for such swift bullets, with such short bearing. I 

 have never had a failure that I could lay positively to such 

 cause, for I never tried them in exactly such a rifle. 'But such 

 might be the case. Round bullets must also be loaded with 

 much care about getting them perfectly straight in the shell. 

 The neck left by the moulds should be cut off squarely and 

 put downwards and iu the centre. But remember that the 

 main thing is to try. fry and keep trying until you succeed. 

 If you do not succeed in the end with hard bullets, well 

 swedged to a very tight fit, it will no doubt be because the 

 rifling is too shallow and quick in its twist for such swift 

 balls with so little bearing. It is best with any rifle to begin 

 with very small charges, dropping a bit of square or round 

 stitch in the shell so as to partly fill it, and pouring a small 

 charge around it. Seat the bail as near the end as possible. 



Patched balls work better in general than naked ones. But 

 here again arises a new puzzle. Balls pushed into the shell 

 with a patch beneath them, as in a muzzle-loader, cannot be 

 relied on. Two or three may go well and deceive one. But 

 a dozen or fifteen shots told' ft very different tale with every 

 rifle I ever tried ; and this even when the rifle was cleaned 

 after every shot. And by the way you must be careful, or 

 every way of loading may thus deceive you. as many of the 

 balls will go true in most, any case. Especially is this so if 

 the. rifle be a good one, Beware how you cry "Eureka." 



By shooting over a ground where you can' easily pitch up 

 the patches, and pitching up the patch for examination after 

 every shot, you will soon find that the main difficulty is the 

 stripping of the patch or a part of it from the ball. 



This will occur in two ways. 



1st, By getting too far back on the ball. 



3d. By rolling over on itself beneath the ball. 



As a ride, neither of these happens to the whole of the 

 patch if a heavy wad or two be put beneath it. It will hap- 

 pen only with a part of it. But that is generally euough to 

 ruin accuracy. Some of the patches will be found to have 

 taken the rilling so close to the edge in places, that part of 

 the ball must have touched the grooves. At other times a 

 part of it will be found cut and frayed in a manner that 

 plainly shows that the edge must have caught, turned back- 

 ward and rolled back between the main part of the patch and 

 the. ban-el. 



As this almost never occurs with a muzzle-loader even 

 when quite dirty and when the patched ball is pushed directly 

 upon the powder without a wad between, it is fair to assume 

 that the difficulty occurs at "the shoulder." 



By "the shoulder" I mean the place where the ball crosses 

 the edge of the shell and passes into the grooves. A name- 

 less correspondent of Forest and Stream says I write ' 'as 

 if a rifle had a bulb at the bottom like a thermometer for the 

 ball to wallow around in." I have no doubt this gentleman 

 is by nature a kind and gentle being, whom a frenzy of in- 

 dignation at my atrocious heresy about breech-loaders has 

 bereft those keener perceptions which depend upon a serene, 

 unruffled soul. One whose finer sensibilities are outraged by 

 the vile insinuation that a breech-loader is not the tiptop type 

 of earthly perfection, something worthy in every respect of 'the 

 gods themselves, can scarcely be expected to reason calmly. 

 But when such insinuation comes from one who has used" a 

 breech-loader for many years, who uses one still and would 

 use nothing else, then, at then, the mildest breast necessarily 

 is lashed into a fury that permits no reasoning at all. One 

 renegade is worse than ten Turks. The vilest of all traitors 

 is he who goes with us nine steps of the way and then splits 

 off on the tenth. He is infinitely worse than the man who 

 takes not a single step with us but differs in principio, in toto 

 aud ail infinitum. And is it not a religious duty to harry such 

 a wretch'!' For whom were the hottest tires of the inquisition 

 heated I Not for the infidels who differed in iota, but for the 

 heretic who differed on the one hundredth point after agree- 

 ing perf eotly on the other ninety-nine. Upon whom were 

 Claverhouse and Ms dragoons sent out with red right 

 hand and whetted sabre? Upon the .Jew, the Catholic or the 

 infidel? Not at all. Only upon the dissenters who differed 

 in a hair's breadth or two from the Church of England. All 

 this is proper enough. The man who differs entirely knows 

 no better. He is to be judged according to his opportunities. 

 The liberal soul can tolerate him. But the wretch who has 

 the opportunities, who knows his whole duty, yet doeth it 

 not, he is the wretch indeed. 



Therefore it is that this gentle being, whose namo I know 

 not, doth so rage against the heretic who thinks a breech- 

 loader must necessarily have at the bottom a wallowing hole 

 for the bullet. 



Now, the aforesaid heretic, who is so fallen from grace as 

 to think that the sporting rifle of the present not "quite so 

 super-gloriously perfect as it may be in the future, begs leave 

 to intimate with fear and trembling that to have the effect of 

 delivery, a naked ball a little untrue into the grooves or 

 stripping or cutting a patch, it is not necessary that there 

 should be a widening of T ^ of an inch in the barrel where 

 the cartridge joins the grooves, any space at all between the 

 grooves and the edge of the cartridge, or any sharp or square 

 edge at all where the barrel opens into the* chamber. You 

 may take a rifle in which you can push a ball gently down 

 from the muzzle into the shell, and through a hole in the 

 bottom of the. shell push it back again without knowing (if 

 shell and barrel be kept clean and smooth) when the ball 

 crosses from one place to the othor. In my double rifle I 

 can run a tight leather wad down, passing it into and out of 

 the shell without feeling any shoulder or widening. The 

 same when tunning a patched ball down. 



There is, nevertheless, a difference between the shell and 

 the grooves that tells heavily on a ball crossing at high speed 

 from one to the other, Of course I do not mean that it 

 always tells heavily. But unless much care is used it will do 

 so often enough to make your shooting unreliable, such as an 

 average of once or twice iu five shots. This difference is 

 particularly striking in loading a breech-loader from the 

 muzzle. Although I can feel no change in my double rifle 

 yet, unless I fill the shell flush with a wad and let the ball 

 rest there, without ramming, it will not be accurate. If the 

 ball remains wholly above the end of the shell the rifle will, 

 at thirteen yards, shoot into the same hole; but if the ball, 

 either from insufficient filling of the shell or from ramming 

 get only half way into the shell, it shoots the same as if put 

 clear in, to wit, wild for three or four shots out of ten, 

 Hence, there is a place there which affects the bullet in pass- 

 ing quickly, and I care not whether it be called a shoulder, 

 or a bulb, "or a wallowing hole. 



While I think of it I would also apologize to the aforesaid 

 gentleman of the outraged sensibilities for using the word 

 "cone" so carelessly as to make him think I meant a "conical 



While on this topic this heterodox individual would further 

 apologize to the aforesaid orthodox gentleman for taking it 

 for granted that the said orthodox gentleman knew, how the 

 ball in a muzzle-loader was patched aud loaded. The said 

 heretic might have known that no orthodox gentleman would 

 SUlly his fair purity of soul with the slightest knowledge per- 

 taining to such an abomination as a muzzle loader. Luce the 

 immaculate who said lie was proud to say that he never had 

 read Shakespeare, such a one must keep his virtue untainted 

 even by the knowledge of evil. 



The surest way of obviating this difficulty, that I have 

 found, is the use of a patch of buckskin put around the ball 

 like a collar. With this I can make the round ball shoot 

 very near perfection from my double rifle. I have picked up 

 many of the patches and found no sign of stripping or rolling 

 over on them. It seems to be too thick along the "edge to do 

 either, yet soft enough to be compressed tightly around the 

 ball, and thus obviate the general difficulty of too thick a 

 patch. To do this requires, however, great care in loading. 

 Selecting soft buckskin of about the thickness used for 

 gloves of medium thickness, 1 cut a collar that will go around 

 just once inside the shell. Putting a solid wad upon the. 

 powder the buckskin collar well cued is set around inside. 

 The. ball is then put in, using care to get it straight, and the 

 shell then passed into a retaining tube or loader of strong 

 iron the size of the gun chamber, so as to keep the shell from 

 bulging. The ball which fits very tightly is then driven in 

 with a rammer, having a counter sunk 'head so as not to 

 bruise the ball. The upper edge of the buckskin, which is 

 always cut If or li inches wide is then twisted around. Care 

 must be taken to have the buckskin always of the same thick- 

 ness and length. 



To show how extremely capricious this round ball is when 

 loaded from the breech 1 give the following facts: For a 

 long time I used parchment in the above way, finding it works 

 very well, but not so reliable as the buckskin, which is as 

 nearly perfect as 1 am shoot any ball from a shell. But if 

 the parchment were either too thick or too thin, too hard or 

 too soft, it was liable to strip or roll over two or three times 

 out of ten. A piece of short sack smeared with hot tallow 

 and being about the same, thickness as the buckskin when 

 comprised between the ball and the shell, loaded in exactlv 

 the same way, with the utmost caie and with the edge 

 twisted over much better than could tag done with the buck- 

 skin, made the most miserable work I ever saw, scattering 

 about five shots out of ten all over a foot square, at only 

 twenty-five yards. On picking Up these patches about half 

 were found rolled over as you would roll one under your 

 hand and cut all to pieces, yet the gun was cleaned at every 

 shot. A piece of fine Unen smeared in the same way aud 

 doubled around the ball worked very well, though not as 

 well as the buckskin. On the whole, I think it safe to pro- 

 nounce the accurate shooting of round balls from the breech 

 a thing impoasible to reduce to rale, but one to be found out 

 only by repeated trials. 



Some of your correspondents seem to have hard work with 

 round balls loaded even from the muzzle. As I had fried 

 only three breech-loaders in this way, I did not say that all 

 would work well when so loaded, but the presumption is that 

 all rifles not choked if bevelled a little at the muzzle, will 

 shoot well, so if care be used not to push the ball too far down. 

 Very shallow grooving and quick twist might of course make 

 it inaccurate with large charges of powder. I can, however, 

 assure any one of this, that you can load from the muzzle in 

 one half the time that you can load a round ball in a cart- 

 ridge so as to be sure that it will go straight. 8o that when 

 th re is no haste I find an actual saving of time and trouble by 

 loading from the muzzle 



Some of your correspondents have been so inbued with a 

 spirit of charity toward the aforesaid heretic as to temper 

 justice with mercy. Some have been carried by it even to 

 the ysrge of temerity. I was amazed at the following para- 

 graph from "C." 



"Thus even in the best breech-loaders there seems to be 

 loom for improvement in the chambering and arrangement 

 of the cartridge, and it is evident that the superior accuracy 

 of the muzzle-loader which I have mentioned is merely owiug 

 to tiie manner in which the ball rests in the barrel," 



Mr. E. A. Palmer, though apparently disagreeing with me 

 actually sustains me. He says he has found the same diffi- 

 culty of which 1 complain, the ball being seated below the 

 grooves. He says: 



"Now I don't want it understood that I think that a 

 breeon-loading rifle using naked bullets or even patched 

 bullets if loaded and handled iu a slovenly manner will com- 

 pete successfully with a good muzzle-loader, for it will not. 

 The crust of burned powder at the mouth of the chamber 

 must in every case be all removed and tne bullet in no case he 

 left partly in the shell." 



Note these last remarkable words, "the bullet in no case 

 be left partly in the shell," Now look my article on the rifle 

 of the future over again and see if this is 'not the sum total 

 of all my heresy, to wit, that a rifle in which the ball is 

 started belo w the grooves is not as good (all else being equal 

 of course) as one in which the ball is started in the grooves, 

 I took especial pn ins in that article, to say that by "muzzle- 

 loader I meant a rifle in which the ball was left in the groovi s, 

 no matter whether it had a movable breech-block or not. 

 The breech-block has nothing to do with the question. By 

 breech-loader I meant one in which the ball is seated in the 

 cartridge. 1 Was compelled to use these two terms in antag- 

 onism to avoid constant circumlocution. 



Mr, Palmer says be is surprised that I should haveallowed 

 this thing to bother me a moment. It bothers me because I 

 can find no quick and efficient way of putting in the ball for 

 a hunting rifle. Placing the ball in the barrel as he sug- 

 gests will do very well in target shooting, but for hunting "a 

 ball must tit so tight that it cannot possibly slide with jarring 

 or falling; etc. Especially is this so for a double gun. I 

 know half a dozen ways of putting in a ball ahead of the 

 cartridge so that it will fit tight enough with safety. But 

 they are all as slow as pushing in from the muzzle, and some 

 are even slower than that way, or else they strain the 

 breech action of a snap action gun. What I want is to 

 awaken makers to this defect, They will quickly enough 

 devise the remedy. Instead of being "lulled asleep by the soft 

 voice of flattery as they have been, and feeling savage al a 

 poor heretic for awaking them for nothing, they want to be 

 told of every defect in a way to make them believe it. The 

 American rifle maker has triumphed over great and annoying 

 difficulties in bringing the breech-loader (I mean the sporting 

 breech-loader all through this article) to its present high ex^ 

 cellence. He can speedily overcome what remains if the 



ball," thus further harrowing his heart strings with the world will stop regarding every one as a fool or old fogy 

 assertion that a cone cannot be accurately snot from a who does not fully join the almost universal screech i 

 breech-loader. I meant a cone, tree-taper from butt to point, 1 do not go as tar as "F. J.' in thinking that a muzz! 

 as mentioned above, | loader is the most accurate at even 300 yards. I doubt if 



