IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
11 
penetrated the vital parts of the pheasant. Shot-pellets do 
not, however, travel with equal force, as is evident from the 
considerable percentage of the charge that adheres to the first 
few sheets of the penetration pads (see notes after Series III.). 
Finally, the superficial area of our selected lo-in. square 
(Series II.) is about three times larger than that contained in the 
outline of the under-surface of a cock pheasant. The average 
number of pellets out of the twenty-seven (Series II.) which are 
likely to strike with a killing velocity at 40 yds. perpendicularly, 
are not, therefore, more than four or five, and of this small 
number one or two would have to pierce, or strike so as to 
stun, vital parts of the bird to bring it down. 
Target for Testing Perpendicular Penetration of a Gun. 
To obtain penetration records I fixed nine Petitts's pads side 
by side in a frame of thin wood, so as to form a fiat surface 28 in. 
by 30 in. A dozen of these targets were made, and the part of 
each target where the pellets were most numerous, after a series 
of shots, was marked with a circle of i ft. in diameter. The 
penetration of the pellets in these selected circles is given 
in Series III. Every target of Petitts's pads served twice by 
reversing it. 
Sheets marked ' cracked through ' were those in which light 
could be seen through the pellet marks when they were held 
against a lamp or a window. Sheets marked ' slightly cracked 
or indented ' were the additional ones in which light could not 
be seen through the pellet-marks on them. 
A Petitts's pad consists of forty-five closely pressed sheets of 
thick and hard brown paper, 10 J in. by 9 in. — made of a standard 
