Part 7

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.

SINGLE-TRIGGER DOUBLE GUNS

The idea of a single trigger to double guns cannot be said to have occurred to anyone as an original conception, since it was natural that at the first attempt to build those toys (as Colonel Thornton considered double guns, when he was upon his celebrated Highland tour), the inventor must have exercised some ingenuity to supply these first double guns with two triggers. It was as natural to attempt to make double barrels with one trigger as for a duck to swim. First, because single barrels were the fashion, and second, because single-trigger double pistols were made and were successful. It was, however, at once discovered that the action of the double pistol would not do; it let off both the shoulder gun’s barrels apparently as one. For a century afterwards repeated attempts were made to overcome this double discharge, and many patents were taken out on the strength of the inventor having discovered “the real, true cause” of the involuntary discharge of the second barrel, by the pull off that was intended to actuate only the first. However, the problem remained commercially unsolved until Mr. Robertson, of Boss & Co., of St. James’s Street, overcame the difficulty, and took out a patent, about 1894, for an action that prevented the unintentional double discharge. The great success of this action led to some hundred patents being taken out between that year and 1902. But most of them were afterwards dropped, and found not to effect the prevention of the double discharge for which they were designed. As a matter of fact, the reason of the involuntary discharge of the second barrel was not understood, not even by Mr. Robertson, who had, by trial and error, arrived at a perfect system of overcoming the difficulty, without being aware of what really occurred.

In the autumn of 1902 the author contributed some letters to _The County Gentleman_, which explained the difficulty; but his discovery, for such it has proved to be, was hotly disputed in a correspondence led by some of the leaders of the gun trade. This was by no means wonderful, although it is disconcerting for a discoverer to be treated as “past hope” when he is so unfortunate as to make a find that can do him no good, but ever since must have saved much in work and patent fees to the gun trade.

The accepted view of involuntary pull prior to this discovery was that after the shot from the first barrel, recoil jumped the gun away from the finger, and then the shoulder rebounded the gun forward on to the stiff finger, which, being struck by the trigger, let off the second barrel. The author for some time previous to 1902 had become conscious that this explanation was open to question. However, it was not until he sat down and worked out the times of recoil and finger movement, that he felt safe in challenging so generally accepted a statement. But this calculation proved to him that, so far from rebound causing the unwished-for “let off,” the latter occurred in one-twentieth of the time occupied by the recoil backwards. However, the author’s powers of persuasion failed to convince everybody, and for this reason the editor of _The County Gentleman_, with the assistance of Mr. Robertson, of Boss & Co., and of the late Mr. Griffith, of the Schultze Powder Company, formed a committee of experts to test the point by chronographic examination. Results were published in _The County Gentleman_ on December 6, 1902, and were to the effect that the second discharge came in one-fiftieth of a second after the first discharge, but that the recoil backwards, before rebound could occur, took from four different shooters respectively .32, .29, .34, and .38 of a second, or, roughly, an average of one-third of a second. So that it was demonstrated that the rebound from the shoulder had nothing whatever to do with the involuntary pull. The true and now always accepted cause was as the author had stated it to be—namely, that the recoil jumped the trigger away from the finger in spite of the muscular contraction that still continued after the let off of the first barrel; that this muscular contraction continued to act and again caught up the trigger, as soon as the pace of recoil was diminished by the added weight of the shoulder, and so the finger inflicted a heavier blow or pull on the trigger than in the first pull off. In the first pull it was finger pressure, in the next it was pressure acting over distance, and was measurable in foot-pounds, as work or energy is measured. This proved to be the correct solution.

Consequently, a good single trigger is one that prevents this finger blow from discharging the second barrel. It is impossible to prevent the blow itself, but quite easy to prevent it letting off the second lock. There are at least three principles employed for doing this.

The first is called the three-pull system; it is based on the necessity of either the voluntary second pull, or involuntary blow (as the gun may be loaded or unloaded), for intercepting the trigger connection which the subsequent release of the trigger allows a spring to place in readiness to receive the third trigger pull, and act on the second tumbler; this pull in the unloaded gun is observed to be a third pull, and in the loaded one is only observable as a second pull, because the second has been given involuntarily, and not consciously.

The double-pull actions are different in principle. Most of them are based upon a lengthening of the time between the first let off and the connections with the second lock coming into position for contact with the trigger. In other words, they are time movements, based upon the knowledge that the second pull, or impact of trigger and finger, came very quickly, and that to delay the intermediate connecting link between trigger and second lock until after this unconscious impact rendered it inoperative.

A third system is somewhat different, but is also a timer action. It is based upon having a loose or nearly loose piece, which is partly independent of the gun, and either by its lesser motion or want of movement, during the jump back of the recoiling gun, gets in the way of a further trigger movement, until the recoil of the gun is over, and the weak spring can replace the independent piece in its normal position again.

It has been said that the greatest advantage of a single trigger is the facility with which it can be removed and double triggers substituted. But this is merely what those gun-makers have said, who, being obliged to have a single-trigger action of their own for those who ask for them, have been too proud to pay a royalty for a good one, and have not felt quite safe in recommending their own to good customers.

The real advantages of a single trigger are many. First, one does not have to shift the grip of the gun for the second barrel. As explained above, recoil occupies one-third of a second, and one does not want to add to the jump of the gun during recoil by partly letting go, nor to be unready at the end of it, by still having to move the right-hand grip in changing triggers. In practice, the single trigger is also much the quicker. It is not necessary to say anything about cut fingers and their avoidance by the use of single triggers. But a wonderful advantage is in the more correct length of stock. If one’s gun-maker gave one a stock an inch too long, or short, in double triggers, he would be thought not to know his business. There is only one best length for everybody, but every double trigger has two lengths of stock, one an inch longer than the other.

The author is told that there are still some very bad single-trigger actions being made, but that is quite unnecessary when the best can be employed by paying a royalty, as some of the best gun-makers are in the habit of doing, or were, until the recent action Robertson _v._ Purdey was settled.

Probably it would be more correct to say that the principal advantage of a bad single trigger is that it can readily be exchanged for a good one. The author would not on his own authority speak of bad single triggers, because he has tried most of them, and had difficulty with none.

AMMUNITION

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.