July, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
397 
of young snappers were found dead in 
the road where they had been run over, 
on Sept. 14, and a live one on Sept. 27 
and 28 respectively, the last more or less 
plastered with soil, as though just up 
out of the ground. 
J. T. N. 
CHAMBERLESS 
GUNS 
(continued from page 386) 
A MONG systems of boring that have 
recently been occupying consider- 
able attention over there is one that 
is referred to as the chamberless gun, 
that is, as its name indicates, a gun with 
barrels that have no chambers to receive 
the cartridge, the cone being entirely 
eliminated. One of the strongest advo- 
cates of this system of gun boring is 
Dr. Charles Heath. Professionally he 
is one of the world’s greatest surgeons 
who has secured the highest honors 
abroad and has appeared before medical 
congresses of the United States and 
many other countries. His recreation in 
life is the art of wild-fowl shooting. He 
is president of the British Wild-Fowlers 
Association, a naturalist of distinction 
and a recognized authority upon the 
lives and the habits of wild-fowl. To the 
study of gun making, for he is keenly 
interested in the subject, he has brought 
all of that keeness of perception that 
has made him noteworthy in his profes- 
sional field. Dr. Heath’s wild-fowling 
guns, and he has a very fine collection, 
are bored without chambers and use a 
long, very thin brass shell. His success 
with these weapons has led to their being 
copied by many of his friends. 
For many years emphasis has been 
laid upon the importance of using very 
tight and very thick wads over the pow- 
der to prevent any possible escape of gas. 
Dr. Heath’s chamberless guns are based 
upon the theory that the possibility of 
the escape of gas has been unduly exag- 
gerated and that, as a matter of fact, 
there is no escape of gas around the wad 
worthy of mention and if there be any, 
it is so slight that it is more than com- 
pensated for by the reduction in the 
friction of both the wad and the charge 
passing up the barrel, all of which re- 
sults in an increase of velocity with a 
consequent improvement of range and 
penetration. 
In further development of this theory 
it is pointed out that the thick wadding 
is expanded by the blow caused by the 
explosion of the powder. The examina- 
tion of a fired wad will confirm this 
opinion. Further, it is said along these 
same lines that the ordinary paper cart- 
ridge case is compressible and at the 
moment of explosion is reduced to at least 
one-half of its original thickness. Guns 
ordinarily are so bored and chambered 
that the diameter of the tube slightly in 
< advance of the mouth of the cartridge 
is that of the cartridge uncompressed, 
therefore at the moment of discharge, 
when the cartridge is compressed, the 
load of shot has to pass from a larger to 
' a smaller cylinder and this cannot be 
accomplished without considerable wedg- 
f CONTINUED ON PAGE 414) 
fquAioy 
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