The Complete English Wing Shot

by George Teasdale Teasdale-Buckell

Indeed, the ingenuity expended on breech-loading before the advent of detonating powder for ignition was really greater than the more modern efforts to do a much more simple thing. At the same time, had they succeeded, as they very nearly did, by doing without a removable cartridge-case, they would have accomplished that which is still required for the perfect working of magazine and automatic weapons.

The most elaborate of all the old repeaters was a revolving double-chambered German weapon. It had ten chambers, and each of these carried two charges, with a touch-hole for each. The majority of the old breech-loaders had movable blocks on the principle of the Martini, but instead of the hinged blocks being solid, as in that weapon, they were mostly hollowed out to take the charge and the bullet; sometimes held in a cartridge, but generally with the powder loose, and always loose when in the chamber, in order that there should be free communication with the touch-hole.

Sometimes the barrel was hinged in order to drop down at right angles with the stock, and this was really the forerunner of our drop-down guns of to-day, which are consequently some centuries old in principle, and had it not been for the absence of detonators there would have been nothing left for the nineteenth century to invent.

It has been said that the Prussians were first to take up the principle of the breech-loader for war, but that refers only to the detonated modern breech-loader. Some of the soldiers in the American War of Independence were armed with the breech-loader already mentioned, in which the trigger guard unscrewed the opening into the breech; but although this invention was possibly the soundest in joining of all the old ones, it was slow, and probably was not much used for that reason.

The Venetians had ships armed with cannon as early as 1380 A.D., and in Henry VIII.’s reign the wrecked Mary Rose carried breech-loaders, designed on a principle which may possibly have suggested the wire guns of the present. The tube of iron or brass (for both were used) was surmounted by rings of iron which had evidently been slipped over the tube and hammered on while red-hot. These then contracted upon cooling, and pinched the bore smaller, so that, intentionally or not, the bore was made to expand to its original size upon an explosion occurring before any stress was put on the metal of the internal surface by the powder-gas. That is to say, all the first part of the strain went to expand the rings on the outside of the gun before the inside had reassumed its natural dimensions; or, in other words, the tension between the external big circumference and the internal small one was equalised, just on the same principle as it is in the latest big guns. This is known, because some of the Mary Rose’s big guns were got up from the sea about half a century ago. She was over-weighted, and it is quite probable that her loss had a good deal to do with teaching the nation that before everything a warship must be handy, so that, when the Spaniards sent their great ships to fight Elizabeth, her smaller craft, and Britain’s uncertain weather, between them sank or squandered the whole Spanish fleet.

ANCIENT PISTOLS TO AUTOMATIC AND ELEPHANT RIFLES

Italy has the credit of the invention of the pistol, which came into being soon after the designing of the wheel-lock and the rifling of barrels. Caminelleo Vitelli of Pistoia made the first about 1540. It was in the manufacture of these small weapons that gun-makers from this date to the beginning of the nineteenth century excelled. The workmanship was generally of a high order, and the ornamentation, especially of some of the German specimens, was extremely artistic.

Moreover, during the flint and steel age, some double-barrelled pistols were built with two locks and only one trigger. Although these weapons worked quite perfectly, it must not be assumed that the makers of these pistols could have made a double shoulder gun to work satisfactorily with but one trigger. That difficulty was overcome at the end of the nineteenth century; but even then the clever designers had not discovered exactly what the former trouble was, and it was freely stated in a way that is now known to have been wrong. Indeed, the author was the first to discover the real reason for the involuntary second pull and double discharge. As this phenomenon did not occur in pistols, but did so in shoulder weapons, it apparently seemed easy to trace the cause. Very early in the nineteenth century, dozens, and since then hundreds, of designers and patentees have set out with the announcement that they had discovered the true cause of the trouble, and met it with a patent. As the latter were always badly constructed, it may be assumed that the patentees were wrong in their diagnosis. As a matter of fact, they were, as was proved when the author published the true cause of involuntary pull in The County Gentleman, and for a time had to meet alone the hostile criticism of most of the gun trade, the members of which now admit the truth of those criticised statements. Although the true reason must be dealt with under the heading of single-trigger guns and rifles, it may be briefly stated that the success of the single-trigger double-barrelled pistol was not because of its more feeble explosion, as was supposed, but because the recoil continues long enough to allow the will of the shooter to gain command of his muscular finger action, before the check to recoil occurs. Whereas, with the shoulder gun, the finger which has let off the first lock flies back as the trigger is carried from it by recoil, and this sustained muscular action cannot be stopped by the will as quickly as the gun recoil is lessened by the shoulder. Consequently, we involuntarily give a second pressure to the trigger, without knowing that we have ceased giving a first. This want of perception of what we ourselves do is caused partly by quickness of the recoil, and partly because the recoil relieves the pressure, and our wills have nothing to do with the matter. Or, to be more correct, we pull off the trigger once intentionally, but are unable to cease pulling when the trigger has given way. Consequently we unconsciously follow up the trigger as it jumps back in recoil, catch up with it, and involuntarily pull it again without knowing that we have let go, or had the trigger momentarily snatched from us.

It is clear that the understanding of this principle was as necessary to designers of automatic repeaters as it was to makers of double-barrelled shot guns, and yet the Mauser repeating automatic pistol and the Webley Fosbery automatic revolver were invented, with some others, before the reason of the involuntary pull had been discovered; and more than that, the author had tested the Mauser with its shoulder stock satisfactorily. But no satisfactory automatic rifle had been then invented, and the trouble with them was to prevent the sending forth of a stream of bullets when only one shot was wanted. The greater force being dealt with, had brought into action the difficulty of the involuntary pull. This has now been overcome; but still there are other difficulties which have been treated less satisfactorily, and those who are ambitious to use automatic weapons will be wise to confine that ambition to the many pistols and the revolver in the market. Repeating shot guns are lumbering tools, from which disqualification the automatic weapons are little likely to be free. Still, it is quite possible that a gunner could shoot more birds out of a single covey with one automatic gun than with two double guns. But what of it? The aim of the gunner is not merely to shoot at one covey, but to keep on shooting fast for perhaps half an hour. The thing that stops very fast shooting is not loading and changing guns, but heat of barrels, and consequently to make these single barrels equal to the doubles there must be four of them in place of two doubles, and six of them in place of three ejectors. The time has not yet come when anybody wants to employ three loaders to carry six guns.

There is some reason to prefer the automatic principle for pistols and revolvers, because the user’s life may often depend upon the quickness of his shots at an enemy, but there is less reason for their use in military rifles, and actual disadvantage for sporting rifles and shot guns. The author has shot the Mauser, the Colt, and the Fosbery with satisfaction to himself. The latest invention is a sliding automatic pistol of .32 gauge invented by Messrs. Webley. But no automatic pistol can be as reliable as the service revolver, or as the Fosbery, since a sticking cartridge or a misfire disables any of them.