The first thing for the novice to do is to get advice. The difficulty will not be in the getting but in the selection afterwards. The majority of experienced shooters will not bother the novice with their views, but will advise him to go to the best gun-maker he can afford to employ and take his advice; but this amounts also to taking his guns, and it may be that a novice can do much better than that. The majority of shooters when they know what they want can possibly afford best guns from best makers, and perhaps have enough sport to justify the 180 guineas that a pair will cost. But all shooters at the beginning cannot afford to find out their requirements upon anything of the sort; this is proved by the much greater number of second and third grade than of best guns made and sold every year.

Besides, the majority of gun-shops are stocked heavily with second-hand and second-quality guns, that can be bought from £15 to £25 each, and the most difficult second-hand guns to find in London are those of the best makers, who only turn out one quality, namely the best, which are worth more.

It would be an invidious selection to name the best gun-makers, and impossible besides, for their products are the offspring of the brain, eye, and hand of the cleverest workmen,—sometimes, but rarely, their nominal makers,—and these craftsmen are human: they change, and even die. That is the reason that the best guns of one season do not always come from the same shops as the best of another. But not one amateur expert in a hundred, and not one shooter in ten thousand, will be able to detect the difference by external examination. It is there, and is important; and some day the gun that has not passed a master in the prime of critical observation will have an accident and break down, just at the wrong moment probably; whereas the best work of a best gun-maker will wear out its barrels, and then another pair, before anything goes wrong with its works, and before its splendid fitting and superior metal allow the barrels and the action to suggest divorce proceedings, by gaping in each other’s presence.

But if one cannot name the best makers and continue to live, it is possible to get over the difficulty by suggesting that most gun-makers have price lists of second-hand guns in their possession, and from these lists the status of the various gun-makers in the country can be gathered. But even this is not quite a reliable method, for those makers who turn out second and third quality guns may be represented by their best, or their worst, in these lists, whereas the men who have only one sort can only be represented by the best.

Then, again, the fashion changes, and guns which a few years ago were best and latest fashion are soon out-dated, and then they rank in price with second or third quality guns that are made in the latest fashion. Thus a hammerless gun is not now fashionable; it must be hammerless ejector, and for choice with a single trigger. Then hammer guns of the best make can be bought for a sixth of their original cost, just as muzzle-loaders are totally unsaleable except in the Colonies.

Instead, therefore, of giving 180 guineas for a pair of hammerless ejectors by a best maker, the novice may for about a third of the sum procure a pair in every way as good by the same maker, if he foregoes the ejector part of the latest fashion. But, in order to make sure of fair treatment, dealing only with the most reputable establishments is advised, because it has been known that the less particular traders have themselves altered an old-fashioned gun into an ejector, and sold it as the gun of a first-rate maker, whereas it would have been more properly described as their own work. However, there is always a check on this kind of thing, because every gun is numbered by those makers whose weapons are worth having, and a letter to the maker, giving the number and description of the gun, will probably be the cause of detection of any fraud of this kind.

In order satisfactorily to buy second-hand guns, a shooter should know exactly what bend, length of stock, and cast on or off he takes, and should also be able to measure these dimensions for himself; for it is not wise to have a second-hand gun altered to fit, not even if it is done by its own maker.

The best way is not to throw up a gun in the shop and buy it by the feel. There it may feel to fit when it does not do so; and it is possible to discard as ill-fitting the very gun that is exactly right. It is only out of doors at moving objects that most people handle a gun as they do at game. Consequently it is cheap in the end to go to a shooting school and be measured for a gun. There the beginner will be tested in every way and for every class of shot and angle of aim. It is not intended to suggest that shooting schools do not make mistakes, for they do. But the wise man will not be satisfied until he has been able to handle the try gun in a satisfactory manner when bent to his proposed measure. That is to say, the schoolmaster and the pupil have got to agree before either are likely to be right, and if the pupil cannot agree with one master he can try another.

The author knows one fine performer who placed himself in the hands of two experts in close succession. The stock measurement of one was cast-on, and a good deal of it; that of the other was cast-off, and also much of it. He had guns built to each. Naturally one might say they were both wrong, but as a matter of extraordinary fact they were both right; for this fine shooter performs equally well with both guns, and would probably do so with any other weapon. Of course he is the exception, and it would be unwise for others to attempt to shoot alternately with two guns as different as these are, because the practice with one would be unlearning for the other.

The object of taking much trouble to get a true measure, in writing, is that the testing of many guns, by putting them to the shoulder, alters a shooter’s method of doing this; and although the change may be only slight and temporary, it is enough to prevent an accurate selection in a gun-shop. The written measure reduces the number of guns to be tried, or handled, by 90 per cent., which greatly assists the process of selection, not only in the way named above, but by allowing more time for a thorough trial of each.

If a young shooter is going to shoot in parties, and not by himself, the bore of his gun is practically settled for him. It must be 12 bore, because otherwise he can be no help to other shooters in the lending of cartridges, nor they to him. This is very important, and becomes more so in exact degree as bags increase. The ammunition cart cannot be everywhere at once, and the work to be done by a host’s servants should never be unnecessarily added to when they are most busy.

On the other hand, it is quite permissible to take a 20 bore on to the moors to shoot over dogs in early August. Some people think that a 20 bore shoots closer than a 12 gauge, but that is a mistake. It spreads its shot quite as much as the larger bore, but it has fewer shot, and consequently the pattern is thinner. Few people have either kind bored to shoot as closely as possible, but when each is so bored the 12 gauge will always be the more powerful, unless heavy 20 bores are built to shoot 12 gauge loads.

This does not imply that a shooter will always get the most out of a 12 bore.

Lightness of weight assists walking, and also quickness in shooting, so that it is possible in some hands for the worst gun to do the most work. It is the fashion to use a pretty heavy gun for driving; the greater the head of game there is, the more certainly does one require a gun to kick but little; and there is no cure for kick except weight. For shooting over dogs the weight is generally a greater objection than recoil, because the number of shots fired will not be likely to be so many as to make a heavy recoil unbearable by too frequent repetition. Still, for the sake of a slight difference of weight, it is not usually necessary to have different guns for driving and for shooting over dogs. There is a mistaken idea that only a heavy gun will shoot a heavy charge well, but this is not so. Some years ago there were a good many 4¾ lb. 12 gauge guns built to shoot full 12 bore charges. Some of them shot as well as 7 lb. guns, but there are good and bad of all weights and gauges.

It is by no means urged that a 12 bore for walking up partridges and shooting grouse over dogs should be as light as those “feather-weights” were, because recoil was unpleasant from them, even if only a few shots were fired. The contention is merely that a light 12 bore will kill as well as a heavy one, provided it carries the same charge and load, and its barrels are as long as the heavy gun’s tubes. The only possible difference will be caused by the greater jump of the light gun, and this jump may in some light weapons uncentre the pattern. That is not a subject to speculate about, but is one for trial.

But it is not only light guns that sometimes do not shoot true. No double rifles can by measurement ever be put together so that both barrels shoot to the same place. This is accomplished by trial and regulating. It is done by wedging the muzzles farther apart or bringing them nearer together as the case may require. In the making of shot guns measurement is supposed to be enough; but a large percentage of guns do not centre their loads on the spot aimed at, and the two barrels frequently shoot to a different centre. Possibly choke bores are most liable to this fault; at any rate, they are much more easily detected, because their patterns are smaller than those of cylinders, and a variation from centre is more easily noticed.

When this inaccuracy occurs, people may say that the shooter is in fault and not the gun. Gunners are satisfied with such statements, although they would reject a rifle that shot with a quarter of the inaccuracy.

A gun-maker’s business is to show true shooting, and to keep a gun tester to do this work, and to show that all guns sold shoot true and well, and that all rifles can make small groups. Naturally the young shooter will believe himself to be in fault when he sees these men make central shots time after time with a gun or rifle that will not do it in novice hands. But some of these experts discover at the first shot where a barrel throws, and make the necessary allowance for it in each succeeding shot.

In order to be able to do this, a man must have wonderful confidence in himself; but some experts are well able to shoot one shot only from each barrel of a rifle, and then regulate it with no more evidence. Others are obliged to make a group with each barrel in order to negative their own faults of aim, or “let off.” That will possibly be the young shooter’s form; and if it is unfortunately so, all the same he is the man who is going to use the weapon, not the gun-maker’s expert, and consequently his own test is the best for him, no matter how blundering it may be.

There is no wisdom in being satisfied or put off with anything less than perfect central shots of the shot gun. The relative position of the shot centre in regard to a small bull’s eye is not easy to put into figures, but it can be grasped by the mind at a glance. The author has seen some close-shooting shot guns that only put the edge of the 30 inch circle of shot on to the bull’s eye. This represents an inaccuracy of 15 inches, and is very bad indeed, but 3 inches of inaccuracy is more than equally bad, because it ought not to exist; it is the worse because it is so difficult to find out. At the best there is only a 15 inch limit of inaccuracy of aim in a 30 inch pattern at going-away game. That is small enough for most people who shoot swerving partridges, twisting snipe, and rising grouse. Three inches of inaccuracy of gun reduces the man’s limit of inaccuracy to 12 inches. Is it enough? The author believes that most guns are out double as much as this 3 inches at 40 yards, and that the reason is that they are not usually treated to the same process of regulation spoken of for double rifles.

Were it not that the shot strings out into a long column with as much as 30 feet between the first and the last pellet at 40 to 50 yards range, it would be barely possible to kill at all when the pace of the game makes great allowances in front necessary.

This may be said: that 3 inches of inaccuracy is not much when many feet have to be judged, and that is perfectly true, and if the gun’s 3 inches of inaccuracy were always in the same direction as the game is going—that is, 3 inches too forward or too backward—there would be nothing in it to trouble about; but it is just as likely to be an error at right angles with the line of flight of the game, and then it does matter very much indeed. Even if a miss does not result, but if the aim is true, the game will then be made to fly through the thin part of the circumference of the shot column. For instance, if game is coming directly over the shooter, and a gun inaccuracy of 3 inches makes him shoot to right or left of the line of flight, that error is increased by his own inaccuracy or the “curl” of the game, which together may easily accomplish the other 12 inches, and then the game would be outside of the column of shot of a choke bore at 40 yards. A full choke has not a killing circle for straight going-away game of more than 26 or 28 inch diameter at that distance. On the contrary, a true cylinder has a killing circle of 40 inches.

This appears at first glance to be a very great advantage to the cylinder user, but in practice there is not much in it, provided the choke bore shoots truly to centre. If it does not, it is absolutely worthless, whereas the cylinder, with an equal fault, is a bad gun but not worthless. The reason of this is that the cylinder spreads more than the choke. The “full choke” always clusters its shot in the centre, and although the aim of gun-makers may be to get an even pattern, it cannot be done with a full choke gun, and would not suit everybody if it were done.

The author is inclined to think that a cylinder, or modified choke bore, is better than a full choke for any distance or purpose for which a full choke bore, with an even distribution of pellets, is better than another with a central clustering of pattern. Possibly pigeon shooting is an exception; because there is no use in killing outside the boundary, so that very long shots are not much wanted, and quick, hard shooting and an even, large pattern are required. But with game, accuracy of aim is preferable to extreme quickness, if either has to be sacrificed to any great extent. You go out to shoot to please yourself, and nothing will accomplish that pleasure so certainly as constantly killing game at distances that other people cannot reach. Tall pheasants and high wild duck try a gun as well as a gunner, and if the latter can keep in the line of flight he can shoot at some angles and at slow birds twice as strong with a choke as with a cylinder, but the timing of the shot is not as easy for one as for the other.

The shot spreads laterally nearly half as much again for the cylinder, but if you can keep your gun in the direction of the line of flight, that extra lateral spread will only help you for fast birds crossing at right angles. This is the least difficult thing to be done in killing driven game. The most difficult is accurately timing the shot, and here the gunner has the advantage of the longitudinal spread of the shot; in other words, a column of pellets some 30 feet long, at 40 or 50 yards, is sent in front of the game, which has to fly through the column as the latter passes the line of flight. The cylinder has slightly the longer column, and the column is slightly thicker through.

Correct timing implies that no part of the column of shot passes the bird before his head is in it, or after his legs are out of it. But this absolute accuracy of measuring the allowance in front, as well as timing the “let off,” must be very unusual.

It may be said that it is not easy to keep the gun in the direction of the line of flight, but the author cannot agree to that, except when the game swerves after the “let off.” If it does that, a spread of shot the size of a barn door would probably miss it, and the one-third bigger lateral spread of the cylinder than of the choke bore will not assist once in a hundred times.

These views, although not perhaps expressed, are largely acted upon in practice. Soon after choke-bore guns came in they became very unfashionable for game shooting, and the author was himself dreadfully unfortunate, for his form dropped 50 per cent. But the reason was that his first choke bores were not central shooters, and it was then very difficult to get guns of that boring that were true. That it was no fault of choke bores as such, the author proved by having his guns rebored, and although they afterwards shot even closer than before, they killed in the new condition.

One fault which is very bad in choke bores, and counts against shooting straight-going and straight-coming game well, far more than with cylinders, is that of patches without any shot in them in the outer edge of the circle. What is meant here is not a misdirection of the load but an erratic spread of it. In a close-shooting weapon this fault is almost as bad as a misdirection, but differs in this, that the patch varies its position with each shot. These patches sometimes extend from the outer edge to very nearly the centre of the pattern, and consistent shooting when they occur is impossible. They are not chance happenings, and can be obviated by good boring and good loading. The author thinks they most often occur when the shot can be shaken in the cartridge, and it may be that a size of pellets which do not lie evenly on the outer circle on the wad assist in deforming the pattern.

But theory is of no use, and it is the gun-maker’s business to sell a gun that he can show has none of these faults. Whether he overcomes them by a change in size of shot, quantity of them, or in an alteration of brand of powder, matters nothing to the shooter, and is not his affair. Enough has been said when the gun-buyer is placed in a position that it took the author many years to arrive at in regard to the choke bore, namely, that everything on the plate that is bad is not the fault of the shooter, but of the gun-maker.

There is another advantage of the choke bore. It shoots No. 5 shot at 50 yards as hard as No. 6 is shot by a cylinder at 40 yards, and the pattern will be quite equal at 50 yards with the large shot to that of the cylinder’s small shot at 40 yards.

This is very important in shooting at straight coming or going grouse. The farther off the first bird can be taken, the more certainly will the others be killed. No. 6 shot has enormous energy when the speed of a quick advancing bird is added to the speed of the shot. If it gets in the bird, it will go a long way through him; but when grouse are coming low, and dead straight to the gun, they glance the small shot like a shower of hail upon a duck’s back. Consequently more heavy shot will get in, although fewer will hit.

The kind of gun to be bought can hardly be determined until the shooter has settled what size of pellets he wants to use at various game. Messrs. Kynoch sell more than twice as many No. 5 shot as any other size. No. 6 comes next, and Nos. 7 and 5½ are nowhere.

With a cylinder gun only placing 100 pellets of No. 6 shot in the 30 inch circle at 40 yards, one could not expect great work from No. 5 pellets on birds as small as partridges walked up. The pattern would be too open at 40 yards, and the penetration unnecessarily high at 25 yards.

Some, at least, of No. 6 shot has penetration for a slow partridge flying dead away at 40 yards. With a very quick driven bird shot at behind, it has not more than enough penetration beyond 30 yards. The pace of the retreating game reduces the energy of the impact, but there is very little glancing off the feathers when they are struck from behind. The author is inclined to say that in shooting coming game all glancing is away from the game, and from behind all glancing from feathers is into the bird. He has himself heard the clatter of the shot on a straight-coming duck at about 30 yards when no damage whatever was done. At a low skimming partridge coming straight for an open gateway in which the writer was standing, he has shot, as at a sitting mark, for there was neither swerve nor rise or fall; he has seen the earth kick up all round the bird at about 25 yards, and has not been any nearer bagging the game. Surely nothing but glancing shot can account for such escapes.

A bird partly crossing can be killed farther away, but a partridge coming dead on, in spite of the increase of impact caused by its speed, is far out for a cylinder and No. 6 shot at 30 yards, but with a choke bore and No. 5 shot it is well within range at 40 yards. Then a fast going-away driven bird is 10 yards nearer than it looks if you have No. 5 pellets in the gun, and a good deal farther off than it looks if you have No. 6.

So far only the actual bringing down of game has been considered, but there is the question of ethics too. With all shot there is some distance at which a body shot ceases to be effective, and when killing must depend on hitting a vital exposed part, or the wing. As the body is more than twice as big as these exposed vitals, namely the head and neck, it follows that the body will be hit twice as often as these vital parts. Beyond the distance at which body shots will kill, it follows that the shooter wounds twice for every head he bags. Consequently there is a wounding distance for each kind of shot pellet for straight going and coming game.

This wounding distance, for No. 6 shot, the author would be inclined to place at all ranges beyond 30 yards and up to 100 yards; for No. 5 shot, all distances beyond 40 yards and up to 120 yards. But as most people do not shoot at game beyond 50 yards, for practical purposes the wounding distance is from 30 to 50 yards with No. 6, and from 40 to 50 yards with No. 5 shot. Full-feathered partridges are the birds alluded to. August grouse can be killed farther away with much more certainty.

In all the public London trials of guns the patterns of cylinders have not averaged as high as 100 pellets of No. 6 in the 30 inch circle at 40 yards range. With 1¼ oz. of No. 6, of 270 pellets to the ounce, about 250 pellets in the same circle have been frequently obtained at the same 40 yards range from choke bores. But the majority of guns sold as cylinders now will put as many as 120 pellets in the circle, and the author has seen one of Holland’s put 160 pellets in that circle. In this gun there was no noticeable choke bore when a barrel gauge was used at all distances within 8 inches of the muzzle. The author did not attempt further to learn how this barrel was bored, and it would not be fair to expose it if he knew, which is not the case. But now that the principle of boring is well understood, there appear to be several methods by which a similar result would be possible. The barrels are known to stretch very considerably under the pressure of the powder-gas, and consequently any treatment of the barrels at the muzzles that would prevent them stretching with the rest of the barrel would act, more or less, like a modified choke. This might be done perhaps by an external thickening of the barrel, or by a hardening of the metal just at the right spot.

However, to prefer a cylinder that gives a high pattern to a modified choke bore that does the same, is only a fad. The former is difficult to obtain, and the latter is everywhere; and it is not the modified choke that so often is made to shoot untrue to centre, but the full choke.

The disadvantage of the choke-bore pattern is that it may plaster the game at distances nearer than the cylinder does. To compare the two patterns made at 20 yards, it is difficult to believe that the choke is almost as free from plastering as the cylinder. As a matter of fact there are several reasons for the well-known surprise that it does not often plaster feathered game.

The birds are not often coming straight at the gun nor going quite straight away from it, and any tendency to cross the line of aim is equivalent to allowing the game some benefit for any slight inaccuracy of timing the shot, and any wrong allowance in front. For instance, perhaps 5 inches too much allowance in front, with otherwise correct timing, at 20 yards, might very well allow half the shot column to go past a slow bird before he flew into the remainder of the shot column, which would be equivalent to shooting at a motionless bird with only half the pattern.

On the other hand, a very fast bird may fly right through the shot column before more than half of it has passed his line of flight. When the bird is caught by the centre of the head of the column at 20 yards range, he has but 10 inches to fly to get out of the line of flight of the shot from a full choke bore. The last pellets in the load will not be travelling more than 700 feet per second, and fast game is often going at 100 feet per second and more, although newly started game in still air may not often exceed 60 feet per second. But probably the real reason why good shots especially do not plaster their game at near distances is that they always shoot well in front, with a view to hitting only in the head and neck. At short range the slowest pellets are quite equal to killing whenever they hit straight for a vital part, exposed or otherwise. A shot aimed well forward with the intention of almost missing, by premature arrival of the pellets on the line of the bird’s flight, is almost sure to result in the cleanest kind of kill, brought about by two or three shot pellets in the head and neck and none anywhere else.

This also is often accomplished even at long distances, but not in the same way. Then the shot that succeeds must be well timed to get the bird’s body into the thickest of the pellets, and one of the reasons why the body is not plastered is that from most angles of impact, on a coming bird, the body shots glance off, and only the head, neck, and wing shots tell. The only great chance of smashing winged game that occurs is in near shots at going-away game, and then, whether a man holds a cylinder or a choke bore, he will assuredly give lots of “law,” even if, in doing so, the game passes out of sight.

There is an idea that the killing circle from a gun can be mapped out by geometric progression. That is to say, that if lines are drawn from the muzzle to the extremity of a 40 inch circle at 40 yards, you will be able to measure off, or calculate, the killing circle for straight-away game at any distance. That is not so. At the nearer distances the size of the killing circle is regulated by the pellets that, at 40 yards, are outside of it altogether. There they are too thinly scattered to count for chances. Thus the killing circle of a cylinder and of a full choke have no relationship to each other, or to geometric progression of the spread of pellets for each distance.

The author has measured many patterns at different distances, and he believes that the following table shows very truly the diameters of the killing circles covered, on the basis of that pattern which was regarded as thick enough to kill game in the cylinder days. That is to say, the latter sort of gun was tried at 40 yards where it spread fairly evenly over a 40 inch circle. But its proper distance was 30 yards, and at that range nothing else at any other distance gives the shooter an equal chance with No. 6 shot.

In the above table each circle of shot has been marked with a reference letter, which is intended to imply—

A, that all pellets will have enough strength to kill if they only hit the body, and in direct line for a vital.

B, that only the fastest pellets in the load will have enough strength to kill by body shots, and that at least half the pellets will only have enough strength to kill if they hit head, neck, or wing.

C, that none of the pellets will kill by body wounds, but only the small number that chance to hit head, neck, or wing.

The pellets that come under the description applied to C can be greatly extended beyond the distances named, and at ranges to which it would be foolish to apply the term “killing circles.” Thus the author has seen a roe deer killed at 60 yards with No. 6 shot from a 12 bore. Lord Walsingham has made four consecutive shots with No. 5 shot at wild ducks at an average range of about 88 yards, or, to be accurate, at 84½ yards, 89 yards, 84 yards, and 114 yards. But these lucky shots in vital spots do not affect the question, except to show that it is difficult to apply a limit to the killing power of even weak pellets when they strike head, neck, or wing. Outside the zone marked A one is certain to do some wounding without killing the game, but although many pellets will hit without being straight for vital spots, others will probably kill the same bird. But in the C zone it is always two or three chances on wounding to one chance of killing.

The reason for attempting to draw a distinctive line between these zones for the different guns and loads is that there is far too much unhealthy, random shooting at game, which gives rise to prolonged agony, while the sportsman is dining well, and, as he believes, sleeping the sleep of the just. Even on the baser score of economy and next year’s sport, it is wise to wound no more game than human blundering compels, and not to lay ourselves out to wound by attempting to kill when the chances are so bad that the wild shooter would not risk them upon a horse-race, much less in a mere commercial speculation.

There has often been controversy on the difference of penetration from a choke bore and a cylinder. When penetration was taken by recording the number of sheets of paper, or boards, pierced by one pellet, or even by three, the choke bore always won. But really this was merely a double counting of pattern, because when two guns shoot with the same velocity of shot, that which has the best pattern will also have most pellets through. That is how it came to be settled by the public London gun trials that choke bores had materially the most penetration. As a matter of fact, nobody knows which has most penetration. Sometimes the number of sheets pierced by half the shot which hit a penetration testing pad will be in favour of one, and sometimes of the other gun, and moreover the difference in piercing by the pellets of the same discharge may be as much as two to one.

Chronographic testing for time over a range has never proved very satisfactory, for the instrument makes but one record of time for 300 different pellets, which are known to vary in velocity over some ranges by 300 foot-seconds, and in striking velocity by 200 foot-seconds.

This was brought out by the late Mr. Griffith, who as manager of the Schultze gunpowder works had great opportunities, and took them. Powder-makers may very well use the chronograph in testing powders at 10 yards range. At this range Mr. Borland of the E.C. Company informed the writer that he could never find a difference between small shot and large pellets; which goes to prove that at the distance they have not scattered longitudinally enough to make the chronograph the absurdity it becomes when it records one time for 300, all various.

But once the chronograph was used for small shot on the right principle. This was when Mr. Griffith applied it to his revolving target experiments.

This table is only inserted because the figures contained in it have hitherto formed the bases of public knowledge and calculation; it is corrected and superseded by another on page 44. Its errors consist in no deduction for the natural spread of the pattern and in the multiple adopted being based on the striking velocity of the first five per cent. of pellets.

He did this to discover the longitudinal spread of the shot pellets at various distances. If ever the chronograph could be used for taking differing shot velocities, this appears to be the way. But it has never been repeated, and some results appear to throw doubt upon their own accuracy. The various lengths of the shot spread on the targets moving at 200 f.s., at right angles with the line of fire, were as follows upon the top lines. On the bottom lines in the table the shot pattern spread, caused by the 200 feet per second, is multiplied by the ratio of greater speed of shot than the 200 foot-seconds of the revolving target. So that in the following table the bottom lines, in respect of each gun, represent something near the true length of shot column at each distance. The speeds taken in the foregoing table can be gathered from the Griffith figures on the next page. But if, for the 30 yards range, the truer mean speed of the shot column is wanted, this is equal to the striking velocity of the most forward pellets and the velocity of the rear of the column added together, and divided by two. For this calculation there is a slight inaccuracy originating in the following tables, because the striking velocity of the rear pellets has been taken at the full range, instead of at the length of the shot column less than the full range. This position can only be found by trial and error. It will vary the results by a yard or two. Inches have been disregarded in the tables.

It is often said that we want guns to send their shot up all together, but if we had so to time our “letting off” as to cause the game to fly on to a knife edge, with the shot spread out like a tea-tray, it is doubtful whether we should hit oftener than with a rifle. Lord Wolseley tells of seeing an officer who by means of a soldier’s rifle killed a wild goose flying high overhead.

Keeping the line of flight for such a shot would not be difficult, but the timing and allowance in front could not often be so cleverly arranged. That is the reason why there is a good deal of doubt whether we want to decrease the length of shot columns, and besides, if we did wish it, probably it could not be done. It is observable that the extra half-dram measure of powder materially increased the choke bore’s lengths of shot columns. It also had a very great influence in the increase of velocity at all distances.

The length of the column of shot from the cylinder gun is longer than the spread from the choke bore, and the longer the range the longer is the column; but strangely, at long range, according to these trials, one striking velocity of the first pellets in the load was exactly the same as that of the last pellets to strike the revolving target, although mean velocities for the range were very different. This almost shakes confidence in this chronographic record, but as the penetration tests always show more variation between pellets than the differences in any of these revolving target and chronographic records, it may be that the apparent paradox of pellets getting farther behind but nevertheless maintaining the same speed as those in front can be explained by a constant change of leaders, and if so, also of followers necessarily.

These phenomena do not occur except at the extreme distance of 55 yards, and they are totally absent even at that distance with the choke bore and 49 grains charge. It seems therefore only to be possible when the pellets have dropped to a low velocity. At shorter ranges there is sometimes an impact difference of 200 feet a second between the pellets of the same load. So that it is material to know the force of the whole charge, and the time up the range of the leading pellets is no guide, as differences equal to 320 f.s. have occurred in one load.

As these are the only chronographic tests of shot pellets ever made with a view of finding out what really takes place, the striking velocities of the various proportions of the load at different distances are given here. But although this represents the only use of the instrument for this purpose, on truly scientific principles, ever recorded in print, the author would be sorry to affirm the absolute accuracy of the instrument on this or any other occasion, although the relative accuracy of one record to the other is much more likely to be correct.

The (42) and (49), after the description of the gun in the table on p. 41 refers to the load of Schultze powder, and in all cases 1? oz. of shot No. 6 was used.

In order to arrive at striking velocity from these trials, it was necessary to compare the time taken at one range with that taken at another range by a different cartridge.

That in some cases the leading pellets are recorded as slower than those behind them, is not, as would at first sight appear, an absolute disproof of accuracy, because it may be that the leading pellets are constantly dropping back, and others are becoming leaders. Obviously the fastest pellets lose speed at the greatest rate, and obviously, also, the leading pellets get least help and give most to their neighbours, by setting up air disturbance, or a breeze, in the direction of the load.

We all know from paper pad and strawboard tests that the penetration of pellets from the same discharge often varies as two to one. Some of these records do not confirm this; but as they can only be accurate on the assumption of that which must be true—the fluctuation of relative positions of the pellets in flight—this adds to their value, because that assumption is also required to explain the greater known variation in penetration than the most indicated in these tables of speed.

The above remarks have been founded on the comparison of the chronographic time of one load at one distance with that of another discharge fired 10 yards farther away; and the mean speed over the 10 yards has been taken as the striking velocity at the midway distance of the 10 yards. This is how Mr. Griffith worked out the striking velocities. And from his figures the length of the shot column can only be got at by making some use of a comparison between shots fired at one range and those fired at another. In other words, the length of shot column approximately found, as described, when divided by the difference of time between first and last pellets, brings out the average velocities of the shot column, at the instant of the leading shot striking the target, too high. That is to say, the previous length of column having been found too much, is taken merely as a basis, to indicate the position in the rear at the length of the column away from the target at which to search for the speed of the lagging pellets, and, with these found, and the speeds of the leading pellets already found, from the table upon page 41, the average speed has been discovered, and actual time between first and last being known, the length of column has been re-found in a way that must be as accurate as any records can be that are based on two different discharges and the chronograph.

Taking the length of the column of shot, it is clear that the difference of time in seconds between the first and last arriving pellets, divided by the length of the column in feet, will give the mean velocity of the shot column at the instant the first pellets struck the target. The amended figures are tabulated on the next page.

It has lately been attempted to show that Mr. Griffith’s measurements are not supported by the results on a target passing at 75 feet a second at right angles with the line of fire. But this speed is not enough to prevent the irregular spread of the shot pellets from misleading. In other words, the faster the movement of the target the less will the elongation of pattern depend upon the accident of pattern, and the more it will depend upon the length of shot column and its speed. Besides this, birds at 75 feet per second are not the difficult sort that people want to learn to kill in a wind.

In the following table it is seen that in one case the column is no longer at 50 yards than at 40 yards, and we may be quite certain shot columns are not so in reality:—

The only way that this extraordinary result can be explained is this: Mr. Griffith shot at his revolving targets set behind a hole of 4 feet diameter made in a steel plate, and the question arises, Would not any shot pellets that were only travelling at 382 feet a second drop out by the force of gravity, and never pass through the opening at all at the longer ranges? They would take a considerable fraction of a second to reach the 55 yards range, and pellets would drop a foot by the force of gravity in ¼ second, therefore some of them would not pass through the 4 feet opening. On this assumption, instead of the 50 yards columns of shot being of the lengths stated, they must be very much longer, with a continuous dropping of the weaker shot all up the range.

It is often asked how it happens that so few fast driven birds are wounded. They are either killed or not hit as a rule, even when they are high up. Another query is as often heard: “Why are fast birds more difficult than slow ones?” It appears that one answer can be supplied from the tables already given to both questions. It is often said that it is difficult to lead “tall” birds enough, but the farther away game is, the slower the gun has to move in order to race, and beat it, so that this is evidently not the explanation. Taking the corrected length of the various columns of shot at most of the ranges above 30 yards, and comparing the average speeds of the fag end pellets, as given in the table, with the distance they have to go, while the bird has merely to go from 2 to 4 feet to get out of their line, it will be found that game at 60 feet per second cannot get clear of any part of the shot column if it is timed properly, whereas game at 100 feet per second will clear about 40 per cent. of the length of column in some cases, and only incur danger from 60 per cent. as he flies through it. This seems to be ample reason for the greater difficulty of fast game.

Here are a few examples with the 42 grain charge: allowing 6 inches for half the length of the bird, and adding this to the diameter of flying shot column at various ranges, it is found that in order to get clear while the shot column is passing, the bird at 60 feet per second takes .041 of a second. At 100 feet rate of flight he will take .025 of a second, and the shot takes but .022, so that the game does not get an advantage here at 30 yards. But at 40 yards the slow bird takes .05 of a second and gets no advantage; the fast one takes .03 of a second, and here the time of the column is .036, so that, however good the timing, the bird misses some shot. At 50 yards it is still worse for the slow bird, which takes .062 of a second to get through, and better for the fast one, that takes only .037 of a second, when the shot occupies .046 of a second for the whole column to pass.

There is not much difference for the 49 grain charge from the choke bore. At 30 yards the shot column takes .027 of a second to reach the distance after the first pellets are up. The 60 feet a second bird takes .041 of a second, and the 100 feet per second bird takes but .025, or a less period than the shot column. At 40 yards the slow bird takes .050 and the fast one .030 of a second, and the shot occupies .042 of a second. At 50 yards the times are .062 for the slow bird and .037 for the fast one, and the period taken by the shot column is .050 of the unit of time; so that at the longer range the best timing possible would only give the game 37
50 of the shot he would have as a slow bird.

The cylinder bore, with its longer column of shot and wider spread as well, is a little different in effect. At 30 yards the period occupied between first and last pellet is .034 of the second, and the slow game takes .050, and the fast .030 of a second. At 40 yards .049 is the period for the pellets; and .062 and .037 of a second those for the quick and tardy game, so that there is twelve parts in every 49 of the shot rendered useless in spite of the best possible timing and the truest of allowances in front. At 50 yards the shot pellets occupy .057 of a second for the rearguard to come up to the distance, and the game takes respectively .075 and .045 of a second for the slow and the fast. So that, again, one gets all the benefit as if he were still, and the other cannot do so under any circumstances.

In the last case, at 40 yards, every misjudgment of distance to allow ahead by 1 foot is equivalent to .016 of a second off the total of .049 second occupied by the shot column, so that 3 feet of error will be equivalent to a total miss for the slow bird, whereas for the fast bird every foot of error is equivalent to .010 of a second, and 5 feet of error in judgment in allowing in front, may enable you to hit with the tail end of the shot column, but only to wound most likely.

The best shot gun experiments ever made with the chronograph, therefore, show that if you have to aim 5 feet in front, and do aim 10 in front, you do not necessarily totally miss at 40 yards; whereas if, instead of aiming 5 feet too much in front, in like circumstances, the gunner aimed 5 feet behind, or, in other words, dead on the mark with a still gun, a hit would be impossible: the game would never be in the line of the shot after the trigger was pulled. This would be so, even although the gun was following round with the bird; so as to ensure no loss consequent on the time occupied by the pull of the trigger. It is clearly better to aim greatly too much in front than a little too much behind.

Even before the author ever engaged in driving game, he had shot at the first bird of a covey and killed the last one, 7 or 8 yards behind. In shooting driven game this is not an uncommon experience for beginners, and is a very useful lesson; for nobody has ever had the opposite experience, and killed the first bird when shooting at the last. But when this shooting at the pigeon and killing the crow occurs, it is not always because of so vast a misdirection as is suggested. Five feet of error at least may be accounted for by the longitudinal spread of the shot, besides something more for the lateral spread. Indeed, two birds in the same covey, one 8 feet behind the other, have been killed at one shot; but it rarely happens. Nevertheless, when one of the two is much the further away, as well as behind, then a bird a very much greater distance than 8 feet behind the one shot at and killed, may also fly into the shot, and die too. In practice, however, it is very much easier to miss a whole pack of grouse that look to be near enough together to kill a dozen at a shot. If one tries to do a bit of “browning,” it is generally not the birds that are “done brown.” If it is not the survival of the fittest that has evolved grouse that look so much nearer together than they are, it must be a wise provision of nature in the interests of sportsmanship.

From what has been said, it will be gathered that when game is crossing fast, wounding is caused by bad timing. The game is either through the shot column before much of it has reached his line of flight, or he has not reached the shot column when the majority of it has passed his line of flight. In either case he gets but a small proportion of the shot pellets correct timing would have given to him. Wounding zones and killing circles as applied to straight-away game have little to do with it. Provided timing is right, superficial “wounding zones” help the kill, because the game that passes through them also passes through the bulk of the shot column before or after. Even patchy patterns on the whitewashed plate may be quite evenly distributed to the game flying through the section of the column of pellets. One thing that is perhaps worth noting is that if the head of the column of pellets, or first arrivals of the pattern, surround crossing game evenly, the bird will have so short a distance to go that he may be out of the circumference of the shot column before a quarter of the pellets have come up to his line of flight, and if he loses a tail feather and drops a leg it will not be because of a large wounding zone of shot in the superficial target sense; indeed, a larger wounding zone of that kind might help in such a case: the fault will be because the game had not to fly through the whole section of the column of shot.

Actions of Guns

The actions of guns were at one time so important that gun-makers were selected by reason of the merit of their patents. The tendency of the early actions to part from the barrels at the false breech was so great, that actions became of the first importance. Patents are now run out, and consequently every gun-maker can select the best and make it, and may be trusted to do so provided the weapon is to be paid for at a figure that pays for best work and best material. If this is not the case, still the gun-maker will put in the best action that can be made for the money to be charged; in other words, he will put in the cheapest good design of action, but not necessarily good workmanship. When dovetails are used to join up the barrels and the false breech, it is not because the design of action is not good enough to do without them, but simply that the workmanship or fitting is not good enough. Often the third grip does not fit, and is only for show.

What has been said of actions applies also to ejectors. If all the patents have not run out, plenty of good ones have done so, and the gun-maker has a great choice and nothing to pay for it.

The principle of the ejector is that with split extractors there is a connection between the fall of the tumbler or hammer and an ejecting mechanism, or lock in the fore end of the gun. The opening or closing of the gun after firing is made to cock the tumblers, strikers, or hammers, and also to put the ejector at full cock, or otherwise bring it ready for action, then when a shot is fired the fallen hammer or tumbler, or its re-cocking, is made to react on the ejector at that stage of the opening gun when the extractors have already moved the empty cartridge-case. The undischarged cartridges are therefore extracted, but not ejected, and the used cases are ejected.

Safety of Guns

The safety bolt placed upon hammerless shot guns is very necessary. It ought, when placed at safety, to prevent the lock springs working, and should prevent the possibility of the scear being released from the catch, or bent, or scear catch. Mr. Robertson, proprietor of Messrs. Boss & Co., has shown conclusively that a slight rap on the lock plates will disconnect any scear catch, and so let off the gun when not at safety, unless it is also protected with an interceptor, which is moved out of the way of the falling tumbler, or striker, only by the pull of the trigger. Mr. Robertson’s own single-trigger action is also a safety action, even when very light trigger pulls, such as 1 lb., are employed.

The strength of barrels is assured by the proof of them at the London, Birmingham, and foreign proof houses, with loads and charges larger than for service. Anyone in doubt about purchasing guns and rifles would be well advised to write to the Proof Master for the literary matter issued for the protection of the public and guidance of the trade. This changes from time to time, but at present it gives very full information of the meaning of the various foreign proof marks as well as of our own.

Cross-Eyed Stocks

It is often suggested that a thumb-stall which stands up and blocks the fore sight from the left eye is an assistance to right-shouldered shooters, and sometimes it is. But as it has no effect on the manner of bringing up the weapon, it must require revision to get the correct aim if the weapon is not brought up correctly. The author thinks that a long course of shutting the left eye will force the right eye into becoming governing eye by habit. Some people have neither eye greatly the governor, so that each has an influence on the manner of the “present,” and helps to fix the point the gun is brought up to. This point may be half-way between the extended lines from the two eyes to the foresight, and permits of no real alignment until the gun is moved after presentation, which is always slow. For such men nothing but shutting one eye will be of much use, but for those who have a controlling left eye it is different, and a cross-eyed stock, or shooting from the left shoulder, is to be recommended. Those who have a control eye need not necessarily be able to see the game with it. Provided they see the latter with one eye and take alignment of the breech and fore sight with the control eye, that is enough. If the eyes are pairs—that is, not crossed—and produce on the brain but one image of an object focused, then the direction of the alignment over or upon the game or target is accomplished in the brain, and the hands obey. That is to say, the left eye may be unable to see the sights, and the right eye may be unable to see the game, but as the images on both are superimposed on the brain the aim is quite correct for normal eyes. A beginner thinks this impossible, but if he uses a thumb-stall, and blocks the fore sight from the left eye, and puts a card over the muzzle, so as to block the right eye from seeing the target, and then focuses the latter, and not the fore sight, he will soon become unconscious that he is blocking out anything from either eye.

As the ability of the eyes has had to be referred to here, it may be well to remark that any normal eyes can see the shot in flight against the sky, and this ability has been used to advantage in coaching shooters. To see this phenomenon, stand slightly behind the shooter, and look for a little darkening of the sky in the direction of the aim; it will be easily seen about the time the shot has spread to a foot, or so, diameter. Whether anyone can see the shot much nearer than 15 yards or farther away than 20 yards is questionable; the spread of the pellets reduces the dark shade-like appearance, and it vanishes. Consequently, experts who see clay birds apparently in the middle of the pellets may be quite correct at short distances, and appearances may be absolutely wrong for game or clay targets at distances farther away than the shot can be detected. The bird may have flown another two yards by the time the shot intersects its line of flight. Consequently, this ability of the coach to see the shot should only be relied upon at about 20 yards range.