Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-05-23


house defence is short -barrelled
cylinder bore repeating shotgun Com
monty called riot gum. With :,
charge of buckshot you are much more
likely TO hit an object in the dark rhan
with a single bullet and if gives /,
paralyZng. Touchdown blow whara,s
a pistol bullet seldom puts man out
of action before he can strike hack
Fill the magazine with shells loaded
with buckshot, nut leave the chamber
of the gun empty. Then it is safe TO
keep about the house, for if a child or
ignorant person gets hold Of it he can
not discharge the piece by Swapping il
but must first throw the lever which
requires some strength. The gun is al
ways ready for instant use by simply
pumping shell into the chamber from
the magazine, and then You have sew
eral shots in reserve. To bag a burg
lar without risk to yourself. open a
window commanding the yard, have
your wife raise an cutlery from the
\ other end of the house, and when the
criminal dashes out aim low.
Never use smokeless powder eycept
strictly according to the makers direc-
tons. There are three distinct classes
of smokeless powders, namely. shot
gun nitro. lowpressure rifle nitro and
high-pressure rifle nitro. The first is
intended for shotguns only. 1t is quick
burning, and on this account danger
Gus to use in rifles. Do not fancy that
because a rife barrel is 50 much thick
er than a shotgun barrel you can use
any kind of powder in il. A charge of
shot in the large bore Of the shotgun
offers much less resistance than a solid
and tightly fitting bullet, and it is not
50 much the amount Of powder in
gun as the amount of resistance to it's
expansion that endangers its bursting
Smokeless powder is practically gun
cotton tanned down. its explosive prin-
ciple being nitroglycerine or a similar
nitro product. The low-pressure va
riety is purposey reduced in strength
so as to give the same pressure, under
normal circumstances, as the same bulk
Of black gunpowder. 1t may be used
in any rifle.
But high-pressure nitro is vastly
stronger, and will burst an ordinary
soft steel barrel. | have seen heavy
target rife blown 10 fragments by it. !
although the barrel was more than half
an inch thick around the bore. High
pressure powder is intended exclusive
ly for special military and sporting
rifles having barrels of nickel-steel. |
with 4 tensile strength Of at least 90. 600
pounds to the inch. Such guns are
safe when properly used. but the am
munition is So different from the old |
black powder cartridges that you
should not experiment in relOading 1t
unless you have special training. So |
many guns Of this description are now |
sold that few words Of warning will |
not be amiss
Do not try TO make expanding bull !
lets out of the full-jacketed ones by |
filing off the points to expose the lead. |
British soldiers are said to have done |
this before the Dum-Dum bullets We're |
manufactured. but it is a hazardous |
experiment, for the following reasons: |
The regular soft-point bullets now |
made by the cartridge factories have a
jacket which covers the base of the |
bullet completely, leaving the lead eX
posed at the point, but the hard mantle |
of full-jacketed bullet is reversed,
covering the point. but not the head. |
Consequently. if You file off the point |
Of a full-jacketed bullet nothing is left |
of the mantle but a thimble covering
the bearing surface. Now. when such
a bullet is fired the charge of high
pressure powder drives it forward with
tremendous energy. but the steel
thimble is so hard and the bullet fits
the bore so tightly that great friction Is
tending to hold the projec-
tile back The result of these two
forces is that the lead core is likely to
be driven through the thimble. leaving
the latter sticking in the bore of the
gun, and if another shot is then fired
the rifle is likely to burst. This would
scarcely be the case with black gun
powder which eXertS a fairly uniform
pressure. and would probably only
drive out the thimble. ringing but not
the barrel. But smokeless
powder is, as | have said. largely COM
posed Of nitroglycerine. 1t will burn
quietly in the open air, and will ex-
plode moderately when subjected to
reasonable pressure, but when ii meets
sudden and firm resistance it detOnates
with terrific violence The effect of
bursting q gun barrel with smokeIess
powder is far more disastrous than
hat of bursting it with an overcharge
IF black powder, the mere report being
sufficient to crack a mans ear drums
md make him permanently deaf. even |
though, by marvellous good luck, he
escapes instant death.