510 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Sept. 24, 1910. 
Tests with an Open-Bored Gun. 
It frequently happens that an old and favorite true 
cylinder gun becomes so large in the bore as to cease 
to be strictly definable as ot twelve-bore caliber. The 
standard size of this gauge of gun is .729 of an inch, 
but tins is somewhat m tlie -nature of a minimum, and 
the average runs nearer .732. In the case of a worn or 
second-hand gun, which has been polished on sundry 
occasions, the effects of past neglect, frequently the 
gauge is as much as .740 of an inch. This is actually 
the diameter of a twelve-bore card wadding. The inside 
diameter of the cartridge case is about .730 of an men, 
but, considering that at the moment of discharge the 
cartridge tube is expanded against the walls of the 
chamber by a three-ton pressure, it can well be under¬ 
stood that the charge of shot emerges from the car¬ 
tridge with a diameter of at least .740 of an inch. It 
seems wrong in theory to throttle the charge back to a 
diameter of .732 of an inch, and it has several times been 
suggested that guns would give more regular and re¬ 
liable results if barrels were made rather wider in the 
bore than is the present practice. At any rate, in view 
of the great importance which recent articles and argu¬ 
ments have accorded to true cylinder boring, it is par¬ 
ticularly appropriate to ascertain under what conditions 
the best true cylinder results can be obtained. A single- 
barrel tube of .740 diameter has accordingly been pre¬ 
pared for comprehensive testing side by side with the 
standard barrel which has figured in previous exptr.- 
ments reported in these columns. Mr. Henry Holland 
is among those who have shown an altogether special 
interest in problems connected with the boring of true 
cylinder barrels. it is Ins experience that no gun is 
more difficult to regulate for a satisfactory standard of 
performance than the true cylinder. Hitherto, its bor¬ 
ing has received least attention in these columns, though 
from many points of view it is the only really standard 
boring that exists. The effect produced by choke is so 
dependent on its distance from the muzzle, and on gen¬ 
eral shape and dimensions, that a standard form giving 
standard results is practically impossible to obtain. The 
true cylinder barrel, on the other hand, can be bored 
with absolute exactitude, within, for instance, so small 
a limit of toleration that the diameter nowhere varies by 
more than half the thousandth of an inch. The pattern¬ 
ing properties of cartridges fired from a gun so bored 
should prove at least as instructive as examining the 
behavior of some unknown and perhaps unrepeatable 
degree of choke. The present experiments are rendered 
unusually difficult by the inability to define the result 
to be aimed at. The counting of pellets in the thirty- 
inch circle certainly defines the degree of regularity from 
round to round; but whether the higher or the lower re¬ 
sults are the best is difficult to say. To reduce the prob¬ 
lem to concrete instances, the following are the proof gun 
results of five lots of cartridges loaded with smokeless 
powders, which have been in stock for some time, and 
whose behavior is well understood. 
Table I. — Proof gun results with cartridges hand-loaded 
for pattern tests: 
Schultze, 42gr. 
, 1 l-8oz. 
Pl 
ressure. 
Recoil. 
Pattern. 
Velocity. 
1. 
3.06 
tons 
10.70 in. 
medium 
1088 
o 
3.38 
•• 
10.64 “ 
lather open 
1073 
3. 
3.14 
10.50 “ 
medium 
1085 
Av. 
3.19 
10.61 “ 
E. C., 33gr., 
1 l-16oz. 
1082 
1 . 
3.02 
tons 
9.82 in. 
open 
1041 
9 
3.22 
9.74 “ 
medium 
1108 
3. 
2.85 
9.64 “ 
medium 
1062 
Av. 
2.94 
“ 9.73 “ 
Smokeless Diamond, 
33gr., 1 l-16oz. 
1070 
1 . 
2.98 
tons 
10.12 in. 
scatter 
1031 
2. 
2.30 
9.82 “l 
medium 
1081 
3. 
2.82 
9.62 “ 
good 
1026 
Av. 
2.70 
9.85 “ 
Red Star. 33gr. 
, 1 l-16oz. 
1046 
1. 
2.82 
tons 
9.42 in. 
medium 
1034 
9 
2.82 
9.32 “ 
good 
1031 
3. 
2.78 
9.46 “ 
medium 
1031 
Av. 
2.81 
9.40 “ 
Yicmos, 33gr., 
1 l-16oz. 
1032 
1. 
2.78 
tons 
9.26 in. 
medium 
1021 
2. 
2.94 
“ 
9.30 " 
medium 
1C01- 
3. 
2.98 
9.46 “ 
medium 
1031 
Av. 
2.90 
“ 
9.34 “ 
1018 
Sixty-five cartridges in all were loaded, making thirteen 
of a kind, three being set aside for the ordinary proof 
test, and the remaining ten for taking patterns, half from 
one kind of barrel and half from the other. The proof 
gun itself is bored full choke to concentrate the charge 
on the electric wires, whose fracture registers the arrival 
of the charge. The pattern is not disturbed by making 
the velocity measurement, and the pellets are, there¬ 
fore, finally caught on a whitewashed target twenty-two 
yards from the muzzle of the gun. The differences of 
spread and general arrangement which are visible from 
the firing point are carefully recorded, experience having 
shown that they differ only in degree from those which 
occur at the usual forty yards distance. 
With Schultze we find a full standard pressure from a 
H/goz. charge, also a standard velocity with patterns 
verging from medium to rather open. With E. C. the 
pressure is nicely inside a three-ton average, but the 
result is achieved with the aid of one rather low shot. 
Looking at velocity, there is one very high shot and two 
low ones; but the first velocity may have been abnormal, 
due to the cartwheel pattern having so scattered the 
pellets that the record was based on only two pellets as 
against the usual five pellets which normally break wires. 
The Smokeless Diamond results show a lower average 
pressure and velocity, with one scattered pattern in the 
three rounds. Ked Star in all four departments of the 
test is phenomenally regular, a characteristic which has 
previously been remarked upon in connection with this 
particular sample of the powder. V iemos, which is of 
Cogswell and Harrison manufacture, behaves very sim¬ 
ilarly to the powder preceding it. Hence there is a 
graduation and variety of results whicn should display 
the characteristics of the barrels under a wide range of 
practical conditions. Here, then, are the results ob¬ 
tained with the two kinds of cylinder barrels at the 
usual forty yards distance. 
Table 44. — 4'ellets in 30-inch circle at 40 yards: 
Standard .732-inch Barrel. 
Smokeless 
Schultze. 
E. C. 
Diamond. 
Red Star. 
Yicmos, 
148 
102 
122 
126 
122 
125 
10814 
108 
114 
124 
12S 
112B 
124 
134 
145 
107r.it/. 
96 
109 
130 
118 
102 
71 
85 
100c.it', 
117 
Average . 
...122 
98 
110 
121 
125 
Average 
of all results, 115. 
Opened 
Bored 
.740-inch Barrel. 
Smokeless 
Schultze. 
E.C. 
Diamond. 
Red Star. 
Yicmos. 
96 
13S 
121 
121 
124 
146 
94c.it/. 93c.it/. 
107 
124 
64c.it/. 
148 
145 
128 
139 
120 
136 
127 
125 
90 
116 
121 
142 
132 
107 
Average . 
.. 108 
127 
126 
122 
117 
Average of all results, 120. 
On the face of things, it is apparent that the wide 
boring, so far from showing any marked improvement 
in behavior, displays a slight increase of the objection¬ 
able happenings, characterized by the initials c.ic., de¬ 
noting cartwheel patterns. It will be seen that several 
patterns of practically the average count have been so 
marked. This is because the central portion of the 
pattern, viz., the point at which aim was taken, was 
practically bare of pellets for something approaching a 
toot diameter. The thirty-inch circle, however, included 
a sufficiently thick circumference of pellets to enable an 
average number to be recorded as in the circle. This 
could not be accomplished in the case of full choke guns, 
where the ruling average is two hundred or more, but 
with a cylinder gun the scattering is seldom so great as 
to exclude an average count of pellets. For cartwheel 
patterns the circle is struck approximately front the 
center of the mark aimed at, on the principle that it 
would not be fair to diverge a couple of feet from the 
line of aim to catch the thickest part of the ring of 
pellets surrounding the blank center. Two cartwheel 
patterns and two instances of balling gave the necessary 
margin for the wider-bored gun to display superiority of 
result. In point of fact, the cartwheel patterns were 
three in .place of the previous two, and, though the 
balling was not repeated, this particular characteristic 
must be subjected to a more exacting test. In this con¬ 
nection it may be recollected that balling w'as con¬ 
stantly experienced when shooting twenty-bore Magnum 
cartridges of 2% inches length. Mr. Leeson, of Ashford, 
and also a private correspondent, whose initials, E. C. 
I’., will be recollected by many readers of this paper, 
denied that particular guns owned by them were subject 
to this fault. In each instance the barrels, though nomi¬ 
nally twenty bore, were actually eighteen bore, thus mini¬ 
mizing the throttling of the charge in the act of passing 
into the barrel; just, in fact, as. the present .740 barrel 
is supposed to carry out the same idea in a twelve bore. 
The fact that the open-bore cylinder barrel gave five 
more pellets in the circle on the average than the ordi¬ 
nary standard barrel possesses no special importance. 
There was no coincident improvement in evenness of 
distribution, or in any of the other qualities which are 
observable by the person making the experiment. More¬ 
over, if higher patterns are alone to be the test of 
efficiency, the simpler way of producing the required 
result is to bore the barrel with a small degree of choke 
sufficient to convert the gun into an improved cylinder. 
The whole object of the experiment would thereby be 
defeated, since the idea is to ascertain if true cylinder 
boring, with its admitted advantages at the shorter 
ranges, can be made to give rather more evenness and 
consistency of result at forty yards than guns in gen¬ 
eral are capable of showing - . From a practical point of 
view, both sets of results are excellent; but from the point 
of view of this experiment the larger boring does not dis¬ 
play sufficient difference to show that enlarging the bar¬ 
rel produces any effect, let alone a useful one. Mr. 
Holland has selected from his stock a twelve-bore double 
gun, which has reached .740-inch diameter by the ordi¬ 
nary processes of wear and tear. This gun will be shot 
in comparison with the single experimental barrel here 
reported upon, and it may possibly happen that some 
fresh fact will be evolved.-—The Field (London). 
Cincinnati (O.) Gun Club. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 47.—Not for a number of 
weeks has there been so large an attendance of shooters 
as were present to-day. It seemed much like old times. 
Johnson outdid himself, breaking 92, and leading the 
field, his nearest competitor being R. Trimble, who 
broke 91. Connelly got rather a poor start, but got 
down to business in the last 50 and finished with 83. 
“Willie” was over to help swell the crowd, and a u h~*ueb 
he makes no claims to being a clay-bird shot, he finished 
a long way from the foot of the list. Brown and 
Kirschner are only occasional visitors—if they came 
oftener their scores would improve w'ithout doubt. The 
two Heiles started in the game this summer and have 
made good progress in the sport. 
The club will hold a tournament on Sept. 27 and 28, 
for which programs have been mailed. It will be a 
jack rabbit shoot, 200 targets each day, the last 100 on 
the second day being a handicap event. The jack rabbit 
is a pretty good scheme, in that every shooter gets'paid 
for u nat he breaks, but it holds out small inducements 
to the expert amateurs. The prospects for a large at¬ 
tendance are good, as very many of the local men, who 
have dropped out of the game for a year or more, are 
going to take up their old shooting iron for this oc¬ 
casion only. 
Events: 
1 
2 
3 
4 
Total. 
Tohnson . 
24 
22 
23 
92 
1 rimble . 
25 
23 
20 
91 
Connellv . 
20 
22 
24 
83 
Brown . 
15 
20 
21 
70 
72 
Schuler . 
21 
19 
17 
Kirschner . 
16 
19 
20 
71 
hape . 
23 
21 
63 
A f leile . 
17 
16 
it; 
62 
E Heile .. 
17 
19 
52 
Kaelin . 
12 
A Bird . 
6 
Indianapolis Gun Club. 
Indianapolis, Ind.. Sept. 17.—The day at the Gun Club, 
Sept, li, was marked by perfect conditions and good 
scores. Parry and Bar scored 95 per cent, in practice 
from the lbyd. mark, while Hanger, Van Nest and Parry 
each broke 20 straight. 
I" what proved to be the final contest for the second 
Jlalhstite trophy, Parry, at the limit distance of 22yds 
broke 49 out of 50, and scored his third win. We believe 
this to be a record under the conditions, the targets 
being thrown 50yds. His former winning scores at same 
distance were 46 and 47. 
Dixon, at 18yds., was the runner-up with 47, and had 
previously scored 46 and 47. 
Grounds and traps are being put in order for the biv 
shoot next month. 
Events: 12 
Targets: 20 20 
Wan Nest . IS 20 
Moller . 16 15 
Lewis ;. 14 17 IS 
Dixon . 17 19 IS 
*Barr . 19 IS 19 
Moore . 17 16 19 
Parry . 19 IS 20 
Neighbors . 12 13 
Britton . 16 15 17 
Iiauger . 20 .. 
Stitle . 17 16 19 
Rafert . 16 16 
Walsh . 15 19 
No. 7 
4 
5 
6 7 8 
Shot 
20 
25 30 20 24 
at. 
Broke. 
15 
80 
72 
19 
.. 19 .. 
104' 
S3 
60 
49 
lo 
.. ..16 
104 
85 
23 
.. 15 .. 
105 
94 
is 
.. ..16 
104 
87 
.. 17 .. 
80 
74 
14 
60 
39 
.. 17 .. 
80 
65 
20 
.. 13 .. 
65 
53 
.. ..16 
85 
68 
14 
65 
46 
23 .. .. 
70 
57 
was at 10 pairs; .Vo. S at 12 pairs-. 
Ballistite trophy, 50 targets: 
Parry . 
Moller . 
Yds. 
Targets. 
24 25 
90 9 A 
Total 
49 
Dixon . 
24 
21 
16 
23 
23 
23 
19 
22 
21 
22 
Moore . 
Britton . 
*Barr . 
Wan Nest . 
■^Professionals. 
45 
Buffalo Audubon Gun Club. 
Buffalo N. Y.; Sept. 17.—At the Audubon grounds 
yesterday afternoon some extra good scores were made. 
Dr. W. C Wootton’s score of 74 out of 80, a 92 per cent 
gait, speaks for itself. In shooting for the class badges, 
4 resident Edward Cox made a straight, followed by 
\\ ootton and Kelly, who each had 19. B. E Freeman 
won Class B with 16. and Jack Reed walked off with 
4 lass C with 19. Lambert Cannon, although in Class C 
again carried off the high honors in the Reed handicap : 
trophy, with a straight score. This makes his second 
win, and hereafter he will shoot from the 18yd mark- 
one of the conditions of the trophy contests. Scores’ 
Dr W C Wootton... 
Class A. 
■ 19 
19 
IS 
IS 
74 
A1 Keily . 
17 
19 
18 
17 . 
71 
Ed Cox . 
16 
20 
16 
17 
69 
P Bernhard . 
17 
15 
17 
19 
6S 
J L ralcott. 
18 
16 
16 
16 
66 
\\ H Smith. 
18 
18 
15 
15 
66 
W F Hopper. 
16 
16 
15 
19 
64 
(J Lambert . 
14 
17 
IS 
15 
63 
S Freeman . 
Class B. 
14 
16 
17 
18 
\ Bargar . 
17 
15 
17 
14 
63 
H Mesinger . 
18 
15 
14 
14 
61 
H Mesinger . 
. 
18 
15 
14 
14 
61 
Doc Woods . 
15 
12 
16 
16 
59 
Edward Reinecke ... 
Class C 
16 
16 
20 
18 
. 70 
Jack Reed . 
16 
19 
15 
18 • 
6 S 
Dr Burke . 
16 
14 
17 
18 
65 
C T Wilson. 
16 
16 
17 
16 
65 
E Cannon . 
15 
15 
18 
16 
64 
Charles Oehring _ 
12 
13 
15 
16 
56 
K Mitchell . 
12 
10 
15 
10 
47 
C Jenkins . 
17 
17 
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