The time has not yet arrived for us to have a smokeless powder as
regular in its action and as little affected by heat as black powder
was, neither have we as free an igniting powder, which is of less
moment.
Nitro powders have greatly improved of recent years, and would doubtless
have continued the progress, but they have been brought up, and to a
standstill, in the last two or three years by a sort of trade agreement,
or an invention of “standard” loading, which may be supposed to have had
its origin in the wholesale cartridge trade, since it is impossible that
it can be good for sportsmen, or for those who try to fit shooters with
their personal requirements, or, in other words, try to load a
sportsman’s gun according to the individual requirements of gun and man.
We are still in the dark ages of “pressure” testing, or trying the
strength of powders by the work they do upon plugs inserted through the
walls of testing guns, and, outside, in contact with lead or other metal
that the explosion, in moving the plugs, crushes. In doing this the
powder-gas does “work” which would be correctly measurable in foot-tons,
but is supposed to be measured in static pounds, which is similar to
dropping a weight upon a scale balance and mistaking the weight for the
work done by the drop. For instance, if we drop a pound weight a foot on
to a scale balance, the work it does is equal to one foot-pound. But if
we place it on the scale gently, it will just balance one pound on the
other side. One is weight and the other is energy, which are not
comparative terms. Yet in testing powders the fashion is to take the
measure of some unknown proportion of the energy and to call it static
pounds.
On the other hand, the fashion is to make the exactly contrary mistake
in testing guns for shooting strength. The flattening of the shot
pellets on a steel plate is the result of energy; here the flattening of
lead by which “pressures” are erroneously taken is ignored and scouted,
and velocity is considered the thing to judge by, although it is only
the velocity of one pellet out of three hundred which, at 20 yards, vary
by as much as 300 foot-seconds mean velocity.
In a lecture delivered by the late Mr. Griffith, of Schultze Company
fame, it was said quite truly, and with proper pride, that the velocity
of shot had increased during the last twenty years by 100 feet per
second at 40 yards. During this time recoil has been reduced very much,
only apparently in defiance of the law that action and reaction are
equal and opposite.
Recoil is equal to the total momentum of shot, wads, and powder-gas, and
what the powder people have done is to reduce that portion of recoil
that was not represented by momentum of the shot, but was represented by
the momentum of waste powder-gas.
Consequently, what has been got rid of in twenty years is some momentum
of powder-gas, which has served two purposes—first, by permitting some
extra strength of powder, to put some extra momentum into the shot
pellets, and to somewhat reduce recoil in spite of this. That then was
the tendency of the powder-makers, when suddenly they were brought to a
standstill by a catchword, “standard” loading and “standard velocity.”
There would have been some sense in “standard velocities,” had it been
impossible to increase velocities without also increasing recoil; but
nobody believes that. The tendency has not only been the other way, but
it represents the one and only great improvement in powders that has
been made since nitro propellers were first invented. There is still a
large proportion of recoil due to the “blast” after the shot has gone,
or the momentum of lost powder-gas. It is not nearly abolished, and is
only reduced. Consequently, it was no time to say, “Now we have arrived
at perfection, and beyond this point it is a fault to go, and
consequently we fix as a standard 1050 foot-seconds mean velocity at 20
yards as the correct velocity, above and below which nobody must attempt
to carry ballistics of shot guns.” That may suit wholesale
manufacturers, because it is a standard easy to accomplish in bulk, but
here is what it means as a check to progress.
First, if we take a peep at Mr. Griffith’s own celebrated revolving
target trials of just twenty years ago, we find that his mean velocities
of those trials were _all_ more than 1050 foot-seconds at 20 yards
range. They were for the three guns and loads used 1073, 1124, and 1062
foot-seconds. But he has quite truly told us that during these twenty
years the velocity has increased 100 feet per second. Consequently, the
“standard loading” sets back the clock more than 100 foot-seconds and
more than twenty years. That is not all: those beautiful trials
exhibited the fact that the last pellets in a load had from 221 to 300
foot-seconds less mean velocity than the first, so that “standard”
loading may mean 1050 foot-seconds for the first pellets, and 750
foot-seconds for the last, at 20 yards range. These trials were all
conducted with cartridges loaded with 1⅛ oz. of shot. But years before
that, when fine grain black powder was used, and gave to 1⅛ oz. of shot
much higher velocities than those named above, Sir Fred. Milbank shot
his 728 grouse in the day with ⅞ oz., on the ground that the ordinary 1⅛
oz. gave too little penetration—that is, too little velocity.
The only possible arguments left to put forward against increase of
velocity are two:—
1st, that greater pressure adds to the necessity of weight of gun.
2nd, that more velocity spoils patterns.
The reply to the first is that the improvement of powders and increased
velocity has been attained, as stated, by other means, and without
increasing pressures; and, second, if pressures were increased it would
not matter to the shooter who uses best metal in his guns, because it is
quite easy to build 12 bore shot guns under 5 lb. that are quite as safe
as 7 lb. guns; and weight is consequently adjusted by reason of the
incidence of recoil, and not by reason of the weakness of steel.
The second proposition is equally groundless, and it is answered by the
fact that not one in a hundred men use the fullest choke boring, and if
velocity opens out patterns too much, ten shillings spent on a little
more choking, by recess at the muzzle, will bring back the pattern in
spite of the tendency of the greater velocity to open it out.
The means adopted by the powder-makers to effect the improvements
referred to above have been to lighten the charge of powder, or to
compress more fixed gas into a smaller solid weight. This statement more
particularly applies to the light (33 grains) bulk powders. By “bulk” is
meant those powders that fill the space occupied of old by 42 grain
nitro powders in the 3 drams measurer meant for black powder.
But this does by no means embrace all the possible improvements. The 26
grains, and concentrated, powders occupy only about half the space of
the bulk powder of whatever specific gravity, and consequently the
prospect opens before them of making use of their 80 times power of
expansion in the barrel, instead of the 40 expansion power of the bulk
powders. This is not as great a possible improvement as it sounds, but
it is a large one all the same. At present the coned cases used for this
class of nitro powder bring it down below its possibilities, because, as
these cones stretch under powder-gas pressure, it is similar in effect
to the powder occupying more space in the chamber, and negatives a great
part of its capacity for double expansions of other powders within the
barrel. At present the makers of condensed powders have not been strong
enough to get gun chambers generally shortened to suit them, and thus
they are condemned to compete handicapped; but if we were starting to
design guns afresh, and were not bound by precedent and the necessity of
sometimes borrowing cartridges and lending them, gun chambers and
cartridges would be shortened to make use of the possible 80, instead of
40, expansions, with an accompanying still further reduction of lost
powder-gas momentum, or loss by “blast,” and its automatic accompaniment
of more reduction of recoil.
Of course short cartridges in long chambers are not to be thought of
from the standpoint of improvement, and in many guns they ball the shot
in a most dangerous way. Thicker wadding is more objectionable than
coned cases, unless it could be made lighter than the greased felt wad
is now, and not only lighter but less compressible, because to compress
it is to hinder it from bridging the cone between the mouth of the
cartridge and the barrel proper, and it also enlarges the powder chamber
in practice.
Some few years ago the cartridge-makers and the gun-makers came to an
agreement, that there should be a maximum size for cartridges for each
gauge and a minimum size for gun chambers. This was very wise and
proper. These sizes are well known to all gun-makers, to whom they are
important, but they have no interest for shooters, because the latter
have not the instruments to measure either chambers or cartridges, and
the usual and very proper practice is to make the seller responsible,
and return cartridges that are too big to go in the chambers, or too
small, so that they shoot weak, or burst the cases, or both.
Herein lies a great advantage of taking your gun-maker into confidence
about cartridges. We cannot, as a rule, give bigger or smaller cases to
fit chambers that may have been made, or grown, bigger before or since
the agreement was come to; but if chambers are rather large for
cartridges, and consequently shooting is somewhat weak, he can suggest a
grain or two of additional powder to the usual charge. It is the belief
of the author that a gun-maker usually delights in turning his customers
out to do the best possible work, and will take any trouble to that end,
not only because it is business, but because it gives personal pleasure.
Shot sizes are mentioned under the headings of the game to which they
are most fitted; but although a slight advantage can be had by using
hard shot, it is so slight as to be scarcely worth attention from the
marksman’s point of view, and those who love not the dentist should at
least refrain from breaking their own teeth unnecessarily.
Until something better is invented for the purpose of trying guns and
cartridges, strawboard racks and Pettitt pads are the only means open to
the shooter, and besides, when properly used, are the best means. Both
vary in thickness and hardness, the latter according to the weather. But
every shooter can arrange for a trial against a gun he knows, and
against hand-filled black powder cartridges. Then, if he uses his “trial
horse” against the same pads and boards as the other gun, or new
cartridges, he will arrive at correct comparative results. This is not
only the most effective but the cheapest way. If strawboards are used,
the first and last boards can be renewed for each shot. The chances of
having a shot pass through an already made shot hole are too remote and
unimportant to matter. Then the way to assess penetration is to count
the shot that struck the first board or sheet of paper, and the number
that pierced the last, arranging the last in such a position that about
one-half those pellets that hit the first paper also go through the
last. This takes the mean penetration of the load, and was Colonel
Hawker’s method. The results will then read something like this: .41,
.50, .60, .55 of total shot through, say, 20 sheets of brown paper
Pettitt pad.
The true way of testing the energy of the shot is by means of the
ballistic pendulum, but although the author has designed a more simple
apparatus than the usual device of this sort, it is not yet sufficiently
tried to warrant its description.
To the very few who load their own cartridge-cases the author can offer
no advice beyond this: the best cases and wadding, and the best powder,
meaning the highest priced, are necessary, and not merely luxuries. The
amateur loader has no means of testing powders to see if they fluctuate,
and he must rely, therefore, on the maker; and that very careful person
will take the most trouble over that for which he charges most. The
shooter, in fact, is not buying raw material, but personal care and
trouble. There is a possibility of a professional loader varying his
method to suit fluctuations in strength and rapidity of powder. He can
do it by means of the turnover, or by adding to or reducing the charge;
but this is outside the range of the amateur’s skill. He would not know
what was wanted. Even the best nitro powders do vary, batch for batch,
and also by reason of the heat of the weather as well as by that of
their storehouse.
The best place to keep cartridges in during the winter is the gun-room
with a fire, and in the summer in the gun-room also, if it is dry enough
not to require a fire; but the principal safeguard is to keep cartridges
and their bags and magazines out of the sun as much as possible. The sun
will easily raise the so-called “pressure” by about a ton per square
inch in some cartridges. How much this may really be it is difficult to
even suggest, but Lieutenant Hardcastle has estimated that “pressures”
are not reliable within 30 per cent., and the author would have said by
more. Fifty per cent. added is a very different proportion to 50 per
cent. of reduction. In one case it is as 2 to 3, and in the other case
it is as 2 to 1.
[Illustration:
WITH PLENTY OF FREEDOM FOR GOOD LATERAL SWING
]