The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1893-10-26
10 AID THE SPORTSMAN.
Cu1lous Device to Make "Choks'' Bore
5f ta Gun Scatter At VIII.

\, Curious Device to Make "Choks" Dor<
$ A. Gun Scatter at Will.
X With the turning Of the leaf and
the shortening of the days the mar
I or youth who is fond of shooting
begins to take down his gun, care
fully. very carefully, clean and over
haul it, look into any cartridge stock
he may have on hand from last year,
and having mentally mapped out his
first excursion he begins to feel more
settled unless he has some novelties
in vio-3 which he intends to try and
is on t." .::::,,:::::ous seat as to how they
will turn out.
One of the drawbacks to general
shooting in most eastern sections is
the great variation met with in the
range of any given number Of shots
that is to say, one shot may be at a
bird that has got up at 40 yards, and
the next may be at a rabbit that has
sprung up right under the sports
mans feet. The consequence is Cf
not an expert shot) that he will get
the ono and miss the other, according
to the amount of choke" that has
been given to the barrels of his gun.
For tho benefit of the uninitiated it
may be remarked that the ''choke''
consists in the colnpressingor expan-
sion of the interior of the barrel near
the m'lzzle (both systems are claimed
to hare the same results, and &C
cording to the amount of this
choke the shot is pressed closer to-
gether as it leaves the gun, and fly
ing close together for a great dis
lance will kill a bird or rabbit, where
a cylinder gun zone without choke
would have the shot SO scattered at
that distance that the bird would slip
through it unframed except by
chance.
It has been the custom to over
come this difficulty in a measure by
having one barrel cylinder and one
choke, and that answered to GER
tain extent, but the great trouble
was that the "choke' could not be
changed at will. Thanks to a recent
invention exhibited at the World 8
fair, this can now be done, and any
one possessing a "choke" bore gun
can at will transform it so as to give
the target of a cylinder.
This is the method: The cartridge
is loaded in the ordinary way, the
powder placed at the base, with
thick wads above, and then before
the shot is poured in a curious device
made of two wads is put in. This
consists of taking two ordinary card
wads and cutting with a sharp knife
a triangular piece from each, the
apex of the triangle being the center
of each wad. This being done, the
two wads are placed crosswise Of
each other and pushed together so
that they appear as if one were push
ed through the other, and this being
placed in the cartridge forms four
distinct compartments into which
the shot is poured, and then the ordi-
nary wads are placed above the shot
to keep it in place.
If the gun is very close shooter,
it will be found best to slightly in
crease the charge of powder and de-
crease the charge of shot, but in no
case should the wads over the pow
der be changed or interfered with.
To any one who knows anything
about shooting, the merits of this in
vention are perfectly plain upon this
description, and actual experiments
of the writer show that the ordinary
load Of gun giving in a 80 inch Cir
Gle a matter of 367 shot did, with the
same load, after applying device,
give fine scatter pattern Of 2S3, COW
ering the whole circle. Boston Her.
aid.