Oct. 8, iqio.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
591 
The Possible Range of Shotguns. 
There are limits to the possible range of a shotgun 
which are not as a rule as well understood as they 
should be. Arguments are constantly used urging an 
improvement in one direction or another, the arguer as 
a rule assuming that if his dreams could be realized the 
efficiency of the shotgun would thereby be increased. 
So far from his assumptions being true, the compen¬ 
sating disadvantages as a rule overwhelm the theo¬ 
retical gain. Some people, for instance, believe that 
an increase of velocity would produce a proportionate 
increase of efficiency, whereas the net result, after tak¬ 
ing due account of all related circumstances, would be 
unfavorable. The human mind instinctively yearns for 
progress, and the cold-blooded doubter who argues 
that progress is impossible takes the unpopular line and 
certainly opens himself to the retort that some of the 
best inventions in history received like treatment. So 
far from these reflections on hi.- enthusiasm being justi¬ 
fied, the expert is, as a rule, in the forefront of progress, 
at all times endeavoring to elucidate and define future 
developments, either for his personal gain or to main¬ 
tain Ins reputation as a successful prophet. He differs 
from the amateur and from the uninstructed public in 
possessing a greater experience of past failures and suc¬ 
cesses; further, his knowledge of theory enables him 
to conduct complex mental investigations where the 
ordinary mind would prefer what it pleases to style 
practical experiments. Theory and practice are, of 
course, best worked in double harness, since sound 
theory forms the best basis of uractical exoenments. 
From the point of view, therefore, of acquaintance 
with theoretical and practical .gunnery it will be inter¬ 
esting to review some of the possible improvements in 
the shotgun having for object either increase of range 
or greater certainty of action within the present limits 
of range. Taking first of all the question of increasing 
velocity with a view to extending range, it must be 
remembered that analogies derived from military arms 
are inappropriate for shotguns, because an increase of 
rifle velocity is coincident with a decrease of weight 
of the projectile, whereas with shotguns the charge 
of shot must be maintained as a substantially unalter¬ 
able quantity. 
The single missile, whether it be a military or sport¬ 
ing bullet, either hits or misses, and the cower re¬ 
quired is contained within the single projectile. In a 
charge of shot the conditions are quite different. About 
one per cent, of the total charge will produce the de¬ 
sired result, but a given space must be so covered 
with pellets that, whatever position the bird may oc¬ 
cupy within that space, the necessary three or five 
pellets, whatever the number may be, must be there to 
do their work. Increase of velocity cannot, therefore, 
be accompanied by such a reduction of the charge as 
will keep the recoil within limits governed by the 
weight of the gun and the physical robustness of the 
shooter. The weight of a gun is roughly fixed by the 
standard size of the human race, and recoil being in 
the nature of a necessary evil, every means of decreas¬ 
ing the same is eagerly adopted. Velocity increases 
would therefore be resented so long as they involved 
noticeably greater recoil. If powder-makers so im¬ 
proved their products that recoil was diminished to an 
extent enabling velocity to be increased, it is possible 
and even probable that the sportsman would elect to 
take the benefit in the form of greater ease and comfort 
rather than adopt the alternative of a more powerful 
cartridge. 
■' The great vogue, for instance, of 33-grain powders, as 
compared with the earlier 42-grain type, is apparently 
due more to their low recoil properties than to the 
possibilities they represent of giving a higher velocity, 
while maintaining a given standard of recoil. Such 
velocity improvement as can be obtained without in¬ 
creasing recoil must accordingly be restricted to di¬ 
minishing the effects of air resistance encountered by 
the shot during flight. Various proposals have from 
time to time been made for diminishing the skin re¬ 
sistance set up by irregularities on the surface of the 
shot. The so-called chilled shot is supposed to suffer 
less deformation during the process of expulsion from 
the gun, but though this kind of shot has been exten¬ 
sively Jested and used on a practical scale, no particular 
benefit has been definitely proved. The possibility of 
making progress in this direction can be investigated by 
means of Bashforth’s tables dealing with the flight of 
projectiles, but familiarity therewith shows that the pos¬ 
sible margin for improvement is' extremely small. 
Another aspect of the mathematical treatment of the 
question is afforded by calculations of the increased 
ranging power which extra muzzle velocity produces. 
Roughly speaking, a 200ft. per second rise of velocitv, 
which is enormous from the recoil point of view, adds 
but 10yds. to the ranging power of the pellets com¬ 
prising the charge. The net increase is, however, very 
much less, because birds are hit with fewer and fewer 
pellets as the range increases, and the balance must be 
restored by using a heavier charge. If this objection 
was met by using a heavily choked gun the conditions 
would then be analogous to lengthening the distance of 
rifle shooting practice without proportionately enlarging 
the bull. At Bisley this apparently anomalous process 
does take place for reasons of convenience, but as the 
shooter is sure of hitting the target, the worst trouble 
that ensues is a general lowering of scores; but when 
the target happens, as in game shooting, to be a moving 
object, which consists of nothing but bull, with no 
white to indicate the position of misses, the conditions 
are much more difficult for the shooter. 
At the present time a range of 25 or 30yds. is nicely 
within the shooter’s power of doing clean work with a 
gun giving, roughly sneaking, a 3ft. spread of shot. 
He knows, bv instinct the amount of forward allowance 
for each kind of shot, and his errors of estimation and 
manipulation are covered by the spread of the charge. 
* e?® * ,e ^ or . war fl allowance as varying from nothing 
i° “‘h, according to the conditions of the shots pre¬ 
sented, it will be seen that a fairly simple relation exists 
between a 3ft. spread and a maximum forward allow¬ 
ance of 6ft. A full-choke gun gives practically this 
amount of spread at 40yds„ and the pellets still have 
sufficient power to stop anything that is fairly struck. 
Vet full-choke guns are not successful even where high 
birds are frequently encountered, and their failure may 
be explained by the relation which exists between a 3ft. 
siiread and a forward allowance increased some 50 per 
cent, above the 6ft. limit assumed for 30yds. shuoting. 
The argument might be further developed by assuming 
that long shots are generally taken at high birds, and as 
high birds are generally fast flyers, 9ft. is probably an 
insufficient maximum allowance for shots taken at 40yds. 
range. Whatever may be the precise figure, the fact 
remains that shooters show a sad falling off from their 
usual form when asked to take really long shots, while 
keepers and other onlookers are aware that in such cir¬ 
cumstances the proportion of wounded birds is unduly 
great. From a marksmanship point of view, it seems 
reasonable to assume that if a 3ft. spread of pattern at 
30yds. typifies the conditions of high efficiency for ordi¬ 
nary game shooting conditions, at least the same angular 
space should be filled with pellets at the further ranges. 
This would mean that 3ft. at 30yds. becomes 6ft. at 
60yds., and as area advances as the square of diameter, 
the amount of shot necessary to fill a 6ft. circle would 
be four times that required for a circle of half the 
diameter; therefore, what one ounce will perform at 
30yds., four ounces, and no less, will do at 60. But, 
even so, another most important correction requires to 
be introduced. The size of pellet which is effective at 
30vds. would be useless at 60; in fact, the weight per 
pellet would need to be at least double (as a matter of 
fact, this would hardly be enough) to assure anything 
like an equal hitting power. This would mean that if 
No. 6 shot sufficed for 30yds. shooting. No. 3 would be 
necessary at 60yds. The same comparison holds good 
as between sizes 7 and 4 respectively. An equal density 
of equally effective pellets covering a 6ft. diameter of 
circle may be adopted as representing the minimum re¬ 
quirements of the shooter for accomplishing at 60yds. 
the results he has regularly aclveved at 30yds. It thus 
becomes necessary to adopt an eight-ounce shot charge 
to fulfill the stated requirements. An 8-bore gun takes 
two ounces of shot, and a 4-bore takes just over three 
ounces, so that a shooter would need a swivel gun of 
about 1 li in. bore to give the same shooting efficiency 
at 60yds. that a shoulder gun gives at half the distance. 
The apparently enormous multiplication is due to the 
necessity to increase the charge by a higher power than 
even the square of the range. If muzzle velocity could 
be increased a sufficient amount to neutralize the added 
distance, the shot charge would only need to be in¬ 
creased at the square of the distance. 
The illumination from a lamp diminishes as the square 
of the distance, but light rays travel infinite distances 
with unabated velocity. They also move in straight lines. 
A charge of shot possesses the same disadvantages as a 
lamp from the point of view' of capacity to operate at 
long distances, but it has its own added defects of a 
diminishmg velocity and a generally erratic behavior as 
regards the flight of its component pellets. According 
to these arguments, even a 4-bore represents but a small 
relative increase of ranging power compared with the 
high price that must be paid by u'ay of extra weight to 
carry and manipulate, and the extra cost and cumber¬ 
someness of the ammunition. 
The most logical attitude is to admit the limitations 
that exist, and bv abstaining from taking long shots 
safeguard the conditions of sport for another day. Con- 
s’dering that an ounce of shot will perform such a large 
range of services, and that two ounces show so little 
improvement on one ounce, it seems reasonable to as¬ 
sume that some kind of unseen limit exists for re¬ 
stricting the range of the shotgun. Rifles are appar¬ 
ently not subject to the same rule. but. even so, the 
increased range at which shots are taken in deer stack¬ 
ing is not everywhere regarded as an unmixed benefit. 
With the shotgun the improvements of a hundred years 
have apparently not added a single yard to the ranee at 
which game mav be shot. Possibly this is a benefit of 
which the full value is not immediately apparent, but so 
far as a review of the practical conditions can show, each 
year will bring some improvement of detail enhancing 
the comfort and enjoyment of the shooter, but wild birds 
will remain out of range as heretofore.-—The Field 
(London). 
Shooting Fish Awing. 
Honolulu. Hawaii.-—Imagine trying to hit an animated 
blue rock with a shotgun during an earthquake, when 
the bird goes out of the trap, unknown anglewise, and 
plumps out of sight within a 30vds. flight. Imagine 
that, and you have some idea of what it is like to bang 
No. 7 after flying fish. 
Talk about the easy mark aeroplanes make! Forget it! 
and go out some morning after fish on the wing. You 
will be in a position to talk understandingly af'er that. 
A new sport has iust been born, and YVaikiki Bay, 
Ffawaii, is its birthplace. For the first time in the 
history of field and gun have flying fish been flushed 
with a power launch and shot on the wing. It was a 
brand new experience in the hunting line which 
promises to win many devotees in short order. 
Taking pot shots at fish on the wing is sport of the 
first water; affording jjlenty of exercise in the good sea 
air, giving the ojiportunity for quick shooting, provid¬ 
ing for the use of all the alertness contained within a 
man, and—being not too hard upon the quarry. 
The idea came to Jack Young, of Young Brothers, 
only a few weeks ago. He has been plying the waters 
of the bay at all hours of the day and night for many 
years, and had grown accustomed to seeing the buzzing 
bluefish leap out of the water as his launch plowed 
past. But day after day the sight of those fish scurry¬ 
ing ahead of the launch interested him. and then tlie 
idea was born: ‘‘Shoot them on the wing,” he 
thought. 
The young boatman made a few preliminary experi¬ 
ments as his time permitted, and satisfied himself that 
he had discovered a sport that would discount ordi¬ 
nary trapshooting a hundred per cent. So yesterday 
morning, just as the sun was peeping over Diamond 
Head, his launch chugged out of the channel wilh 
the pioneer expedition to the shooting grounds. In this 
party were W. T. Lynch, of Chicago, passenger traffic 
manager of the New York Central Railway system; M. 
F. Ihmsen, general manager of the Los Angeles Ex¬ 
aminer, and H. P. Wood, W. L. Morgan, and R. O. 
Matheson, of Honolulu. 
There was a nice little chop to the sea, just sufficient 
to keep the bows, where the lookout marksmen sat, on 
a bob to windward, a roll the other way, and a shave 
with an upturn. The motion failed to shake the nerves 
of the gunners, however, and a sharp lookout was kept 
for the first school. 
This came with a great scurry of blue wings just as 
the boat swept around the last channel buoy and headed 
toward the sun. the fish taking to the streak that the 
sunshine made in the water. 
"There they are!” yelled Ihmsen, and bang went 
Lynch’s gun. It would have been a sad day fer that 
flying fish family if the launch just then hadn't lifted 
its nose over a roller, and the shot scattered Waikiki- 
wards. 
From that time on the shots came fast and furious, 
and the dipnet came into commission. For three hours 
the sport was kept up, the best combination of land and 
sea sport yet discovered. With shark fishing there is 
likely to be more disappointments than successes. With 
flying fish shooting there is almost a certainty of sport. 
Besides this the beautiful little sea-birds, ranging from 
ten to fifteen inches in length, are very tasty eating. 
The native Hawaiians catch them for this purpose by 
the thousands. Their method of doing this is interest¬ 
ing as it is successful. As many canoes as possib'e 
are pressed into service, which ferm a large half circle 
about the school, which is then driven before the ad¬ 
vancing boats by beating upon the water, into nets 
spread to intercept the frightened fish. The flying fish 
always remain near the surface and may be driven in 
this manner for a long distance. When the fish are 
stopped by the net the ends are quickly brought around 
together, and the catch is scooped up by the canoe 
load. Roderick O. Matheson. 
Frontier Rod and Gun Club. 
Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 25. —The opening autumn shoot 
of the Frontier Rod and Gun Club was a very successful 
one. thirty-five sportsmen taking part. The Dunkirk Gun 
Club were welcome visitors and a more jovial, enthusias¬ 
tic bunch of sportsmen never faced the traps. The club’s 
flagship conveyed our Dunkirk friends to John Volz’s, 
where covers were laid for twenty. A fine fish and 
chicken dinner was enjoyed, during which manv toasts 
and roasts were heard in response to A. C. Suckow. 
With all respect to those who took part, noisy Adam 
included, Mr. Russell, of uphill stream fame, was an 
easy favorite. 
DUNKIRK GUN CLUB. 
At Dunkirk. At Buffalo. 
Tyler . 20 47 19 23 
Schweda . 19 19 14 23 
Tousley . 20 15 11 24 
Hopper . 20 22 
Parker . 20 22 13 18 
Murphy . 18 21 14 14 
Russell . 15 23 20 16 
Wrattan . 17 14 13 10 
Moser . 15 13 12 16 
Coon . 19 12 17 19 
Loeb-Koch . .. 10 12 
183 17S 143 175—679 
FRONTIER ROD AND GUN CLUB. 
Eichberg . 23 22 19 19 
Dewald . 20 16 16 16 
Rernhart . 23 24 
Wakefield . 20 19 21 22 
McKenna . 18 14 18 IS 
Kamman . 20 1 5 20 11 
Ratcliffe . 21 14 18 21 
II LBz . 12 20 16 18 
Faber . 16 15 11 16 
Rowland . 19 16 17 13 
Suckow . .. 22 19 
192 175 178 173—718 
39 
Events: 1 2 3 4 5 6 *7 
Targets: 10 15 25 25 15 10 25 
Talcott . 6 14 21 18 8 9 11 
Faber . 4 10 11 16 . 
Parker . 5 10 23 17 10 8 10 
Russell . 9 13 20 16 11 7 12 
Tousey . 4 11 11 24. 
Tyler . 6 13 19 23 12 9 14 
Wrattan . 7 13 13 10. 
Schweda . 5 9 IS 23 8 6 16 
Loeb . 2 9 15 8 12 .. .. 
Dewald . 10 11 16 16 . 
Coon . 7 11 17 19 7 6 .. 
McKenna . 4’ 9 18 IS 7 7 .. 
Kamman . 4 13 20 11 7 6 .. 
Moser . 5 9 12 16 4 4 .. 
Peasland . 3 12 19. 
Eichberg . 5 9 19 19 13 9 14 
Rowland . 6 12 17 13. 
F Striker . 5 7 12 . 
Keintz . 4 8 14 . 
Philiippbar . 7 11 15. 
Wakefield . 4 13 18 22 7 8 9 
L Striker . 7 9 17. 
Bowling . 5 2. 
Murphy . 4 6 14 14 . 
Koch . 8 7 16 10. 
Suckow . 24 22 10 9 .. 
Tax . 22 19. 
Utz . 17 18 9 7 .. 
Cox . 14 .. 8 8 .. 
Gohn . 13. 
Daw . 11 . 
Butler . 11 . 
Ratcliffe . 21. 
*Doubles. 
