To protect Caps from the Rain.--Before stalking, or watching at night in rainy weather, wax or grease the edge of the cap as it rests on the nipple: it will thus become proof against water and damp air. Some persons carry a piece of grease with them, when shooting in wet weather, and with it they smear the top of the nipple after each loading, before putting on the fresh cap. It is said that the grease does not prevent the full action of the cap upon the powder. A sportsman has recommended to me a couple of well-marked caps, into the heads of which small wads of cork have been fitted; he uses them for loaded guns that are to be laid by for some hours or days. A broad leaf wrapped loosely round the lock of a gun, will protect it during a heavy shower.
Substitute for Caps.--When the revolution in Spain in 1854 began, "there was a great want of percussion caps; this the insurgents supplied by cutting off the heads of lucifer-matches and sticking them into the nipples. The plan was found to answer perfectly." (Times, July 31.)
Gun-pricker.--I am indebted for the following plan, both for clearing the touchhole, and also for the rather awkward operation of pricking down fresh gunpowder into it, to an old sportsman in the Orkney Island of Sanday. He takes a quill, and cuts off a broad ring from the large end of it; this is pushed over the small end of the quill, and lies securely there. Next, he cuts a wooden plug to fit the quill; into the plug, the pricker is fixed.
The whole affair goes safely in the pocket; the quill acting as a sheath to the sharp pricker. Now, when powder has to be pricked down the nipple, the "broad ring" is slipped off the quill and put on the nipple, which it fits; powder is poured into it, and the required operation is easily completed. This little contrivance, which is so simple and Light, lasts for months, and is perfectly effective. I have tried metal holders, but I much prefer the simple quill, on account of its elasticity and lightness. A little binding with waxed thread, may be put on, as shown in the sketch, to prevent the quill from splitting.
Wadding.--The bush affords few materials from which wadding can be made; some birds' nests are excellent for the purpose. I am told that a dry hide will not serve as materials for wads.
Flints.--According to Ure's Dictionary, the best stones to choose for making gun-flints are those that are not irregular in shape; they should have, when broken, a greasy lustre, and be particularly smooth and fine-grained; the colour is of no importance, but it should be uniform in the same lump; and the more transparent the stones the better. Gun-flints are made with a hammer, and a chisel of steel that is not hardened. The stone is chipped by the hammer alone into pieces of the required thickness, which are fashioned by being laid upon the fixed chisel, and hammered against it. It takes nearly a minute for a practised workman to make one gun-flint.
Gunpowder.--To carry Gunpowder.--Wrap it up in flannel or leather, not in paper, cotton, or linen; because these will catch fire, or smoulder like tinder, whilst the former will do neither the one nor the other. Gunpowder carried in a goat-skin bag, travels very safely. Mr. Gregory carried his in the middle of his flour; each flour-bag (see p. 69), during his North Australian expedition, had a tin of gunpowder in the middle of it.
To make Gunpowder.--It is difficult to make good gunpowder, but there is no skill required in making powder that will shoot and kill. Many of the negroes of Africa, make it for themselves--burning the charcoal, gathering saltpetre from salt-pans, and buying the sulphur from trading caravans: they grind the materials on a stone. In Chinese Tartary and Thibet, every peasant manufactures it for himself.
To make 8 lbs. of gunpowder, take 1 lb. of charcoal, 1 lb. of sulphur, and 6 lbs. of saltpetre. These proportions should be followed as accurately as possible. Each of the three materials must be pounded into powder separately, and then all mixed together most thoroughly. The mixture must have a little water added to it, Enough to make it bind into a stiff paste (about one-tenth part, by measure, of water is sufficient; that is to say, one cupful of water to ten cupfuls of the mixed powder). The paste must be well kneaded together, with one stone on another, just as travellers usually make meal or grind coffee. It should then be wrapped up to a piece of canvas, or a skin, and pressed, with as heavy a pressure as can be obtained, to condense it. Next, the cake is squeezed and worked against a sieve made of parchment, in which the holes have been burnt with a red-hot wire, and through which the cake is squeezed in grains. These grains are now put into a box, which is well shaken about, and in this way the grains run each other smooth. The fine dust that is then found mixed with the grains, must be winnowed away; lastly the grains are dried.
Recapitulation.--1. Pound the ingredients separately. @. Mix them. 3. Add a little water, and knead the mass. 4. Press it. 5. Rub the mass through a sieve. 6. Shake up the grains in a box. 7. Get rid of the dust. 8. Dry the grains.
The ingredients should be used as pure as they can be obtained. For making a few charges of coarse powder, the sieve may be dispensed with: in this case, roll the dough into long pieces of the thickness of a pin; lay several of these side by side, and mince the whole into small grains; dust with powder, to prevent their sticking together: and then proceed as already described.