m«ms3-9wm i a a mm 
Small-Bore Guns. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Nov. 3 .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
J. Ed. Vaughan has just received a 7%lb. 16-gauge, with 
32in. barrels, which he had made to handle 3drs. of 
powder and loz. of shot. He thinks it will prove a 
wonderful gun; but this thing of making a 16 into a sort 
of narrow-gauge 12, does not accord with my philosophy, 
nor does the ounce of shot suit. It would seem that 
sportsmanship would be better served by building these 
guns to handle a lesser charge of shot and do the work 
with it, rather than by attempting to make them vir¬ 
tually what they are not by putting a load almost suited 
to a larger gauge in them. The 16 should not exceed 
6%lbs. in weight. One of its chief advantages is the 
ease with which it can be handled, but this is sacrificed 
by making it as heavy as a 12; indeed, I cannot see any 
particular advantage to be gained in this way, as a 
properly made 16 of 6%lbs. will safely handle all the 
powder that can be put into a shell of ordinary length 
and %oz. shot, the standard charge. The 20 can be 
made a little lighter, but not proportionally, as locks, 
stock, frame, etc., can hardly be reduced much in weight, 
the saving coming largely out of the barrels, and three 
or four ounces is enough to take off. Vaughan’s gun 
was made heavy to handle as much like his 12 as pos¬ 
sible; he does a great deal of trapshooting, and did not 
want to get used to a different handling gun. 
I believe guns ought to be graded according to the 
amount of shot they handle. I cannot see much differ¬ 
ence in the killing circles of 16s and 20s with %oz. of 
shot. My own 16s seem able to handle %oz. of shot 
with surprisingly good results; in fact, I use that charge 
a great deal for bird shooting. It makes a smaller pat¬ 
tern circle than % and nearly as dense at the center. 
Overloading small-bore guns with shot is a mistake. 1 
heard of an Englishman who had a 20 made to shoot 
S^drs. and l%oz. shot, weighing as much as a 12. That 
seems to me to be as foolish a thing as a man could do; 
the gun could not do any better than a 12, probably not 
nearly as well, as the shot column in the barrel is too 
long, and would be very apt tO' ball. Likewise the pres¬ 
sures would mount up to a perilous figure, and the 
sharp, jolty recoil would be more noticeable than in a 
12, I should imagine. 
Let the 20 be confined to %oz., the 16 to %oz., and 
the 12 to l%oz. One of the best game shots I ever knew 
used in his 12, loz. of shot—never more. Keep the shot 
charges down; give them a full powder charge to drive 
them, and if the gun be bored right, you will attain a 
maximum of velocity—and penetration—with a good 
working pattern in the small bores. Too much shot 
builds up recoil, cuts down velocity, and gives no ad¬ 
vantage except a somewhat larger spread, which can be 
had with a 12 if that is what the gunner is looking for, 
in which case he had better refrain from the small-bore 
shotgun. . Edwin L. Heddeely. 
Views on Small-Bore Loads. 
The following communication appeared in a recent 
issue of the Shooting Times: 
Sir—The extract from an article by Edwin L. Hed- 
derly in Forest and Stream, which you gave in the 
Shooting Times of the 12th inst. is very interesting, 
and indirectly opens up the old question of small-bores. 
I suppose, so long as there are shooters there will always 
be divergent opinions as to the best bore of gun to be 
used, as well as the size of shot and loads. I thought it 
was already demonstrated beyond question (at least, on 
this side of the “herring pond”) that the 12-bore was, 
taken all-round, the best game gun; yet, to read Mr. 
Hedderly’s article, one ought to be convinced that for 
duck-shooting (and I Suppose we should include geese 
■md other wildfowl) the 16s and 20s are amply sufficient, 
for Mr. Hedderly says that with these guns he accounted 
last season for 1005 ducks out of some 4000 shot, and that 
small-bore guns killed most of the remainder, and adds 
that here (his club’s grounds) any good shot who sticks 
1° , hls IS thought to want to rake flocks for extra 
, 1 F,t s * I hen we are told of the tremendous velocity and 
oi / j ® power of his 16-bore 28in. barrel, loaded with 
3%drs of powder and %oz. of shot (No. 6), and weigh¬ 
ing bibs. 5oz. 
• A i! th if I s . v f7 iuteresting (and there is much mor 
m Mr. Hedderly s article), but then it must not be foi 
gotten that American and English duck shooting ar 
materially different. In the former you have thousand 
of birds coming and going, and being ensconced in ree 
wAM i, -° th .u r hldes > a shooter has mostly easy chance: 
well within the power of a 16 or even a 20-bore in th 
SSww a d ^ cent shot, even with so small a charge c 
No - 6 shot. So it would be here in England unde 
sirmlar conditions; but I venture to say that in thi 
country the man who relied upon either a 20 or a 2 
- th ‘he %oz charge of No. 6 shot, driven wit 
the 3/ 2 drs. which Mr. Hedderly uses, would find hi 
wlfich .J Sma 1 °- ne ’ unIess under ideal condition- 
W t c i are . '> e exception, and not the rule, here 
Most wildfowlers on this side of the water will 
fancy, rather emulate Mr. Hedderly’s old friend Tak 
Danz, and rely upon not less than strong 1 "s ’ usfn 
No re K P ^n dlng y t heavy charges and biggef shot tha 
No. 6-that is, if bags are to be made. At "east thlt i 
my opinion and experience. ieasi, tnat i 
Developments in Sporting Guns. 
UiPln^r 5 ^'" 1 ^ measure "upon 
ireli 
tne plate. It became apparent that the gun threw tl 
charge on the average 9 inches A," Vfi ■ 
aimed at on the 40 yards target. The genera" effec^of" 
f,? n r St n nt devlat ! on of this character is that the shooter 
usefully employing only three-quarters of the charge coi 
tamed in the cartridge. Patterns erring in the unwar 
direction are much more excusable thin those wTh 
downward tendency. The general effect of such an 
error as the one named would easily be to degrade a 
shooter, naturally belonging to the first rank, to an 
inferior position. The tendency to use light charges, 
not only from 12-bores, but also from guns of 16 cali¬ 
ber, necessitates far greater attention than has ever 
before been given to the utilization to the greatest ad¬ 
vantage of every pellet in'the charge. Disputes between 
gunmaker and customer as to whether barrels correctly 
center their charge on the spot aimed at betray the pos¬ 
sibility that errors have been made in the fixing of 
stock and other material dimensions. 
The recent growth of popularity of the 16-bore intro¬ 
duces a new set of questions, which, as long as the 12- 
bore alone had to be considered, settled themselves auto¬ 
matically. A gunmaker recently received an order for 
a 16-bore to weigh about 6 pounds. The gun ultimately 
produced weighed 5 pounds 13 ounces, being thus out of 
touch to the extent of 3 ounces with the opinion of many 
of the best gunmakers that weapons of this caliber 
should never be made to weigh less than 6 pounds. The 
above weight was apportioned as follows: Barrels, 21bs. 
14oz., or 49.5 per cent.; stock and action, 21bs., 7^oz.; 
fore-end, 7*£oz. 
The general practice in 12-bores is for the barrels to 
represent about 46 per cent, of the total weight of the 
gun. This would give 2 pounds lO 1 /^ ounces barrels for 
the above weight of 16-bore, a value that comes much 
nearer sound practice than the real figure. For instance, 
here are the weights of a 16-bore gun by Powell, of 
Birmingham, which was remarkable for pleasant handling 
properties, and at the same time had a size of stock 
which satisfied the eye as well as the hand: Barrels, 
21bs. lO^oz., or 44.5 per cent.; stock and action, 21bs. 
15V 2 oz.; fore-end, 15y 2 oz.; total weight, 51bs. 15%oz. 
The two sets of figures are eloquent in showing first, 
how not to build, 6-bore guns, and second, the proper 
fulfillment of technical requirements in respect thereto. 
The first gun was a thorough disappointment to the 
owner and proved itself clumsy in handling and quite 
incapable of firing a full charge. This was because the 
stock had been unduly starved in dimensions, so achiev- 
mg the generally fragile appearance which is associated 
with a lady s gun, though in the present instance the 
customer was a man. A West End assistant was re¬ 
cently heard to brag that it had taken him three hours 
to persuade a sportsman, genuinely desirous of having 
a 16-bore, into taking a 12. Mis-spent energy of this 
description is preferable to taking an order for a class 
of gun of which the leading principles of design have 
not been fully worked out. 
Whether or not the time has come for forwarding 
another development tending to emphasize the differ¬ 
ence between recent and old guns is not quite certain, 
but there is nevertheless a great deal to be said in 
favor of more highly choking the right barrel than has 
hitherto been customary. Up till ten years ago the 
sportsman was in the habit of ordering the right barrel 
to be cylinder and the left some degree of choke, varying 
from half to full, and gunmakers were in the habit of 
giving a concealed choke to the right cylinder barrel to 
close in the shooting to the desired extent. From the 
time when the late Mr. Walsh resented the introduction 
of improved cylinder boring as a breach of faith, till 
now, when it is everywhere accepted as the most open 
shooting boring permissible for modern sport, it has 
steadily grown in popularity. Within the last twelve 
months the. definition of improved cylinder boring has 
been moved up from 140 pellets out of 304, viz., 46 per 
cent., to 50 per cent., which means an extra dozen 
pellets in the 30-inch circle at 40 yards. Even so it is 
open to question whether sporting conditions really re¬ 
quire that the right barrel should be less heavily choked 
than the left. With driven birds the first barrel cannot 
be delivered too early at the advancing pack or covey. 
1 he chance single shots which present themselves during 
walkmg or driving are quite as often distant as near. 
I he bird that presents a fast crossing shot at 30 or 
yards from the gun, gives a clean kill or a clean 
miss chance from a half-choke barrel, but the area of 
spread of an improved cylinder has an immense propor¬ 
tion of space containing only odd pellets, which are 
liable to wound rather than bring the game promptly 
into the bag. It is well understood that the cylinder 
system of boring owes its popularity to the general as- 
sumption that most game is shot at very short ranges, 
this may be true in a large number of instances where 
shooters refrain from taking the longer shots in the 
belief that they are out of range. There is, however, a 
large proportion of even short-range shots where the bird 
is visibly hit, but not stopped by cylinder barrels, where 
it is reasonable to suppose that a greater degree of 
choke would have avoided the inhumane middle course, 
the whole subject bristles with opposing arguments of 
the most evenly balanced character; and yet out of the 
whole medley of ideas there seems to arise the possibility 
that the best gun may be the one where both barrels 
give identically the same shooting, viz., 60 per cent of 
the pellets in the circle at 40 yards. This would cor¬ 
respond with a pattern of 184 pellets of a full charge of 
No. b shot, which would be reducable to 153 pellets if the 
charge was 1 1-16 ounce of No. 5y 2 , or 139 pellets of 
No. 5 size.—Arms and Explosives. 
Meadow Springs Gun Club. 
Philadelphia Nov. 6.—Cordery was high man in be 
events, one at 25, the other at 50 targets, in the clu 
shoot to-day. He scored 69 out of 75 in the total of 1 
two events. 
The club shoot at 25 targets was a handicap at 
targets, with a target allowance, added to the sco 
Cordery broke 22, which with his allowance of 2 
his score 24. Murdock, Hewlett and Clegg were eh 
second with 23 each, as follows: 
Cordery . 
H. T. 
. 2 24 
Hoffman . 
Murdock . 
. 4 23 
Hewlett . 
. 3 23 
Weston .. 
Clegg . 
George . 
Canbos . 
Laws . 
H. T. 
0 21 
0 20 
0 IS 
0 17 
0 13 
In the 50-target event, Cordery’s 45 was far ahead of* 
scores: 
Targets: 10 
Cordery . s 
Murdock . 8 
Clegg . 7 __ 
Rees . 8 12 
Wertz . 6 
Hoffman . 7 
Weston . 6 
George . 6 
Laws . 6 
Canbos . 5 
scorec 
CO 
0> 
Only 
ough 
this 
event. 
15 
10 
15 
Total. 
14 
9 
14 
45 
9 
8 
11 
36 
12 
6 
8 
33. 
12 
20 
14 
20 
12 
19 
6 
12 
12 
"l 
25 
5 
. . 
11 
5 
10 
'Rifle Range and Gallery. 
National Board for Promotion of 
Rifle Practice. 
Washington, D. C., Nov. 6. —Few persons not 
familiar with rifle practice have any adequate idea of the 
work entailed in running off the great national rifle 
matches which are held annually. These matches were 
established by Congress, which provided the trophy, and 
the expenses are .borne almost entirely by the National 
Government. They are shot under the auspices of the 
National Board for Promotion of Rifle Practice, and 
under the direction of the War Department. They draw 
together the one thousand best marksmen in the United 
States; they require the services of a thousand regular 
troops and one hundred army officers. They set the high 
water mark in military rifle shooting. They are therefore 
of considerable importance to the country, and some 
facts in regard to them will be of interest even to citizens 
who never expect to shoot. 
The national matches consist of a national team match, 
a national individual rifle match, and a national pistol 
match. The first is open to teams of twelve representing 
the infantry, cavalry, navy, marine corps, military and 
naval academies and the organized militia of the several 
States and Territories. The individual rifle and pistol 
matches are open to all citizens of the United States. 
There are no entrance fees, and Congress provides liberal 
prizes. All matches are shot with the current military 
arm of the United States, and the Government furnishes 
the ammunition, for the matches and for preliminary 
practice. The expense of training the teams and sending 
them to the national matches is borne by the States and 
Territories from the $500,000 annually appropriated by 
Congress for rifle practice in the National Guard, and, in 
passing, it may be remarked that the gathering together 
of the best shots from all parts of the United States, the 
testing of _ ammunition, the ideas exchanged, and the 
stimulus given to rifle practice is worth more than the 
matches cost many times over. 
Lieut.-Col. R. Is. Evans, executive officer of the last 
three matches, is now at the War College drawing up 
his report of the matches for 1909, which were held at 
Camp 1 erry, Ohio, in August last. It is significant of 
the importance of_ these matches that the work is con¬ 
tinuous. By the time the report for one year is in hand 
the work of preparation for the next year’s matches is 
under way. I he season for outdoor rifle shooting prac¬ 
tically closes Sept. 15, although it continues here and 
there until November, and even later. But as soon as 
outdoor practice ends, the indoor practice begins and a 
team no sooner reaches its home State than aspirants for 
the next year’s team are put in training. 
To run off a series of matches like these, although the 
actual shooting takes but four or five days, involves 
months of preparation on the part of the executive staff. 
When Col Evans presented his report for 1908 to the 
National Board it was resolved that the Secretary of 
'\^ r requested tO‘ appoint him executive 
othcer for 1909, which was done this spring. It was then 
necessary for Col. Evans to get together his personal 
statt, and several months were spent in selecting them. 
1 his time was necessary partly to secure the best officers 
available, and partly because the constant shifting of the 
army made the task difficult. The following staff was 
finally selected: Major Walter H. Chatfield, 27th In- 
iantry, assistant executive officer and chief range officer; 
Capt. \\ llliam L. Luhn, 10th Cavalry, post adjutant; 
Eieut. Benjamin F. Miller, 27th Infantry, post quarter¬ 
master; Maj. Frederick S. Foltz, 15th Cavalry, statistical 
officer; Capt. Robt. U. Patterson, Medical Corps, post 
surgeon; Major William A. Phillips, Ordnance Depart¬ 
ment, ordnance officer; Lieut. Orlando C. Troxel, 10th 
Cavalry, assistant to the adjutant; Lieut. William W. 
Overton, 15th Cavalry, assistant to the quartermaster; 
Major William Morrow, Porto Rican Regiment; Capt. 
George C. Saffarans, 2d Infantry, and Lieut. Roger C. 
Alexander, Corps of Engineers, assistants to the statis¬ 
tical officer. 
At the national matches the executive officer is 
supreme authority on the firing line. What he may do 
may be questioned later, but for the time being he is in 
absolute authority, and all questions arising are re¬ 
ferred to him for final settlement, and there is no appeal 
on the range. His assistant, as the title indicates, is in 
charge of the range and pit officers. Each team is 
entitled tOi a representative on the range or in the pits, 
and about one hundred Regular Army and National 
Guard officers are utilized for this purpose. During the 
last national match, approximately one hundred Regular 
Army and forty-five National Guard officers were on 
duty. the range and pit officers alternate so that they 
get experience in both capacities and also are relieved 
of the monotony attendant on service in the pits, where 
those who serve are designated as “sand rats.” The 
range at Camp Perry has! 210 targets with 50 targets at 
each of the ranges employed in the national match. 
Consequently all the teams shoot at the same time, 
under the same conditions. The post adjutant assigns 
the officers, and acts practically as the personal repre¬ 
sentative of the executive officer. The duties of the 
post quartermaster are many and varied. Camp Perry 
