“9. Another serious objection to the breech-loader is the weight of ammunition that must be carried in the shape of ready-made cartridges when going to the Highlands or any remote shooting quarter. And then arises the difficulty of keeping them perfectly dry in damp weather; and every one knows how very soon the damp will penetrate through a paper case, and cake, and weaken the force of the gunpowder.”
If the cartridge cases are carried unloaded, the bulk of ammunition is increased; if loaded—and they are as safe as powder in mass—neither the weight nor bulk is at all increased. The powder might be injured in very damp weather in the course of years; but such an occurrence has not yet come before the public.
“10. The cartridges must be carried in a strong case with divisional compartments. In the event of their being carried loose, they become damaged; and the danger of so carrying them is excessive, by reason of the results which may ensue in the event of a fall or accident in getting over a hedge, or otherwise, whereby a blow or friction is given to the metal pin which explodes the cap.”
Friction will not discharge them, and no ordinary blow; and, in case of explosion, the danger is merely what may result from the discharge of a charge of powder in the open air—by no means so great, but about as probable as from the explosion of the caps in the cap-pocket. The writer has never heard of such an occurrence, and English sportsmen universally carry cartridges loose in their pockets.
“11. The extra weight incurred in being obliged to carry a sufficient number of cartridges for a day’s sport, in a very cumbersome leather case, with iron compartments, considerably exceeds the ordinary weight of powder-flask and shot-pouch, with ammunition for a similar amount of sport.”
This may be, if any one is fool enough to use iron compartments; but in a proper receptacle—a leather belt—the weight is much less.
“12. Another of the principal defects in the breech-loader is the flat surface of the breech, which scientific and practical experimenters have proved to be erroneous, by reason of the much greater power and extra force which may be obtained from the conical interior form of solid breech—the rule being that ‘force cannot be expended and retained also;’ and as it must, of necessity, be expended to a certain degree by explosion and recoil on a flat-surfaced breech, extra powder is required to produce like effects to those which result from the solid conical breech. The recoil is also considerably greater on a flat surface than on a tapering one.”
So much of the foregoing as is comprehensible, the tables of the Field trial “and practical experimenters” have found to be erroneous. It will also be borne in mind that the inside end of the cartridge-case is conical.
“13. Joints, joinings, slides, and bolts, are all inferior to a well-made screw, as regards soundness of the breech. A perfectly solid breech, free from all suspicious joinings, curves, and openings, must be by far the safer and more effective one in any instrument, in which so searching a substance as gunpowder has to be compressed and exploded.”
If this last objection is correct the others are superfluous, as it disposes of the discussion; and the statement will be true whenever it can be shown that the cohesion of a tube is increased by forcing a screw into it. To silence, however, such senseless cavils, gun-makers construct the breech end of the barrels slightly heavier than in the muzzle-loader.