IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
29 
The Distortion of Shot-Pellets. 
It is a sorry thing to see the shape of shot-pellets after 
being fired from a gun. If they could only leave the barrel, 
where all the damage to them occurs, in their proper spherical 
form the patterns and penetration of our guns would be greatly 
improved. As it is, if examined with a magnifying glass, they 
are more like brickbats and rough chunks of iron slag in shape 
than anything else. Their very irregular outlines, whether hard 
or softer shot be used, must check their velocity to a great 
extent, as well as make their line of flight deviate from the true 
direction ; but whether their distortion causes them to diverge 
more in perpendicular shooting than in horizontal I cannot 
say. Possibly it does. 
A good example of the distortion of shot is to fire a charge 
at some cakes of soap or into a mound of snow. After extracting 
some of the pellets, cover one side of a piece of glass with gum 
and sprinkle them on its surface. Then throw the picture on 
a white sheet with a magic lantern. 
