
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JuLy 6, 1907. 
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GANT BG AND GUN 
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The Shotguns of Our Fathers. 
(Continued from page 1014.) 
825 the ninth edition appeared of a small 
work by Ezekiel Baker, a London gunmaker. 
It was called, ““Remarks on Guns and Fowling 
Pieces,’ being the results of fifty years’ prac- 
tice and observation. 
Baker’s opinions were that guns of I3 bore 
should have barrels 34 inches long, and be 
loaded with 21% drams of powder and 2% ounces 
of shot. If of 17 bore the barrels should be 
from 32 to 34 inches, and the load 2 drams of 
powder and 2 ounces of shot. Double guns of 
18 bore should weigh 6 pounds 12 ounces and 
have barrels of 30 to 32 inches; the load being 
134 drams of powder and 134 ounces of shot. 
A double gun of 22 bore-should weigh 6% 
to 6% pounds, the barrels should be 30 to 32 
inches and the loads 1% drams and 1% ounce 
For wildfowl Baker recommended a si 
10-bore with a 44-inch barrel loaded with 
drams of powder and 3% ounces of shot, or a 
12-bore with a 4o-inch barrel, weighing from 8 
to 10% pounds and loaded with 3 drams and 
3 ounces.. He says that every gun should be 
tried to find the exact charge which suits best, 
but “in general I have found that 2 drams, or 
2 pennyweight and 6 grains (54 grains) is the 
proper amount for 2 ounces of shot.” He does 
not state what he considered the best sizes of 
shot, but they must have been large, in order 
to obtain sufficient penetration with , such 
moderate proportions of powder. 
In the year 1800, Baker was employed by the 
Government in making the first rifles with 
which British troops were ever armed. These 
weighed 9% pounds, the barrel being 30 inches 
long, with grooves having one-quarter turn in 
the whole length. The balls weighed twenty in 
the pound, and the powder charge he advised 
was one-third the weight of the ball. He re- 
marks that this pattern rifle was ‘adopted by 
a military commission at Woolwich, after being 
tested against many rifles from America and 
various parts of the continent of Europe.’ He 
advocates a half-pistol grip and gives an en- 
graving of a rifleman firing from the back 
position. He seems to have been acquainted 
with elongated bullets, but they were doubtless 
badly shaped, for he says, “I have fired balls 
of various shapes, but none answer so well as 
round.” 
It is a remarkable fact, that although Baker 
had practically shown the great advantages of 
a slow twist and large powder charge for 
spherical ball rifles, yet the other English gun- 
makers, I believe without one exception, made 
their rifles with grooves having a twist of one 
in 30 to 48 inches. The consequence was that 
moderate charges of powder were necessary to 
prevent the balls stripping; the trajectories 
were high, and the rifles weak in power com- 
pared with their calibers. The almost universal 
charge was the bullet-mould full of powder, 
which amounted to only 1%4 drams for a 16- 
bore, 2 drams for a 12, and 2% for a to-bore. 
When great penetration was required, the only 
plan adopted by the gunmakers was to enlarge 
the caliber; until the system of slow twists and 
large powder charges was revived about 1858 
by the late Captain Forsyth, Conservator of 
Forests in Central India: Previous to this date 
sporting rifles had been made with two grooves 
and a belt round the ball to fit them. These 
were, I think, more accurate than the poly- 
groove rifles at distances beyond 100 yards and 
could be loaded with larger powder charges, 
although made with the same quick snirals in 
the grooves. Unfortunately. few of the gun- 
makers took advantage of this, and many of 
the rifles had the barrels put together for the 
old-fashioned charges of the bullet-mould full 
wn 
had one 
carrying belted balls 
weighing 17 to the pound, and the barrels made 
two groups, about 6 inches apart, at 100 yards, 
of powder. I 
if loaded with more than 2 drams of coarse 
grain powder. [ afterward bought another 
carrying belted balls of 13 to the pound. It 
shot beautifully into a 4-inch bull at 100 yards 
with 3’ drams—but even with 3% the balls 
began to strike apart, through each barrel re- 
coiling to its own side. 
It was doubtless in consequence of using 
small charges that Gordon Cumming’s rifles 
were very efficient against elephants. He said 
that his two-groove was the best he ever had, 
yet with it he fired thirty-five balls into the 
shoulder and head of an elephant at short 
ranges, and then finished killing him with five 
more from a rifle carrying 6 to the pound. On 
many other occasions the rifles showed want 
of power, not only on elephants, but on smaller 
pachydermata, such as rhinoceros, giraffe and 
buffalo. 
The system advocated by Forsyth resulted in 
a vast improvement of trajectory, penetration 
and stopping power. I had a 16-bore breech- 
loader carrying round balls with 41%4 drams of 
powder. The barrels were put together so as 
to shoot into a 4-inch bullseye at 100 yards, up 
to which distance no allowance was needed for 
trajectory. In the year 1832, a ninth edition ap- 
peared of “The Shooter's Guide,’ by B. 
Thomas. Little is added to the information 
contained in the 5th edition of 1816, excepting 
a mention of percussion cups, invented by a 
Mr. Joyce, which are stated to be entirely free 
from any tendency to corrode the breech of 
a gun. 
Colonel Hawker was the most reliable of all 
the writers upon shotguns whose works ap- 
peared in the early part of the nineteenth 
century. He had many weapons made to order, 
of all sizes, from light fowling pieces to enor- 
mous punt guns, and his statements are the re- 
sult of actual trials at targets and upon game; 
or of observation of the shooting of other 
people’s guns. The seventh edition of his book, 
of which I have lately obtained a copy, was 
published in 1833. It is embellished with a 
lithograph portrait of the author and with some 
quaint copper-plate engravings, illustrating the 
dresses worn by sportsmen, and scenes of wild- 
fowl shooting. It also contains matiy small en- 
gravings showing the internal structure of guns, 
etc. 
Hawker considered stub-twist barrels to be 
stronger than those of Damascus. In writing 
about the methods of boring, he Sayse in 
throwing shot from a barrel, closeness and 
strength cannot be combined beyond a certain 
proportion of each. With common sized guns, 
the usual mode of boring is to leave a cylinder 
for about three-fourths of the barrel, and let 
the remaining part be gradually relieved to the 
muzzle (always taking care in a flint gun, but 
not in a detonator, to preserve a little tight- 
ness or contraction just where the shot first 
moves). All this must be done with the most 
delicate possible gradation, and in so small a 
degree that even some gunmakers can scarcely 
discover it.” 
By “relief’ he means enlarging the barrel 
near the muzzle, by “opening” the enlargement 
at the breech—and he gives the following de- 
tails of the boring of the five best guns he ever 
saw fired: 
A single swivel gun with barrel an inch and 
a half internal diameter, 7 feet 314 inches long, 
and. weighing 62 pounds. 
Cylinder 32 inches, relief 49 and opening 64 
inches. 
A double swivel gun weighing 193 pounds 
with barrels 98 inches long. 
Cylinder 33, relief 50, and opening 15 inches. 
\ 

A single stanchion gun with barrel 7 feet 9 
inches long and weighing 69 pounds. 
Cylinder 31,. relief 52, and opening 10 inches. 
A single gun “musket-bore and weight” 
(proBably 11-bore). 
Cylinder relieh 72; 
inches, 
A 14-gauge double gun weighing 8% pounds. 
Cylinder 21, relief 5, and “tight behind’ 6 
inches. ° 
With regard to the last-mentioned, Hawker 
adds that “a common sporting gun having 
necessarily short barrels and being fired many 
times in a day, one must adopt an inferior 
mode of getting friction in order to prevent 
leading.” He considered that barrels had been 
shortened too much from the old-fashioned 
lengths of 3 or 4 feet, and remarks that be- 
cause those of 30 inches had been found to 
shoot as well as longer ones, at the short 
ranges of gunmaker’s premises, many had cut 
them down to 28 inches or less, but that even 
the best shots were more liable to miss with 
these because a long barrel gives a more ac- 
curate aim, and lessens recoil. He says, “To 
avoid all extremes I should recommend small 
barrels never less than 32 nor more than 36 
inches in length. 
“Mr. Joseph Manton, who knows as much as, 
if not more than, any man in Europe about a 
gun, assured me, after innumerable experiments, 
he has proved that 2 feet 8 inches for a 22-gauge 
barrel is the best proportion for a sporting gui. 
I have now proved that a short gun has no 
chance with a long one, in keepting the shot 
well together at long distances. The experi- 
ment must be tried with guns on a gigantic 
scale by which we can make every observation 
in the clearest possible manner. I have dis- 
covered that the larger the gun the longer must 
the barrel be in proportion.” 
He adds that a 14-gauge with a 36-inch bar- 
rel will keep shot more closely together at 
60 yards, than one with a 32-inch barrel, al- 
though no difference might be discovered at 
short ranges. He considered a 14-gauge to be, 
on thes» whole, the most destructive gun, but 
says that, with a very accurate shot, the size 
is not of so much consequence for killing or- 
dinary game, because a lighter gun can be 
aimed with more quickly. The proving of 
guns in England at this period was made with 
bullets, 13% drams of powder being used with 
each ounce weight of lead. 
Hawker always maintained that a flint-lock 
gun shot with more force than a percussion, 
because the powder was more perfectly burnt; 
but he also admitted that game could be killed 
with more certainty with a percussion lock, 
because the explosion was more rapid after 
aim was taken. . 
In directions for loading, he advocated equal 
measures of powder and shot as “the sure pro- 
portion for strong and good shooting” in flint 
guns; but in detonators three-quarters measure 
of powder to four-quarters of shot. (It must 
be remembered that the powder used for 
muzzleloaders was of finer grain and gave more 
muzzle velocity than the same measure of* the 
kind used in breechloaders.) 
With regard to the actual quantities, he writes 
for flint guns, “to load a single gun of six, or 
double gun of seven, eight or nine pounds’ 
weight, take a charge which holds precisely an 
ounce and a half of shot; fill it brim-full of 
powder, from which first prime and then put 
the remainder into the barrel: to this add the 
same measure bumper-full of shot. Some little 
difference of charge will, of course. be required 
between a 22 and a 14-gauge: and in this we 
may be guided by the shoulder, observing at 
the same time the proportion -of each here 
recommended; but unless the gun is very heavy, 
and opening 7% 
21 
2272, 


