Having fully explained the nature of gunpowder, it remains to say something about the other portion, namely, the shot. That a barrel creating explosive force, until the charge is in the act of leaving the muzzle, will shoot better than another which does not do this, there cannot exist a doubt; for this is the germ of the science. Also that the column of air in barrels, where the explosive fluid is sooner expended, acts upon the wadding, and influences the lateral direction of the shot, there can also be no doubt; therefore, more attention is requisite to this point than is generally given. I am quite certain that all well-constructed barrels, both as regards metal and exterior shape, shoot best, shoot so longest, and foul or lead less, than barrels having the aid of friction: soft barrels require it, no doubt, but why make soft barrels? The others cost but little more, and the superiority admits of no question. The quantity of shot is a matter of the first consequence, and I think that I have clearly established the fact, that the less the weight, in proportion to the force, the greater the speed or velocity given to that weight; hence it follows that to be beneficial a certain quantity is suited.
All guns, according to their bore and length, will shoot a certain weight and a certain size of shot best. A great deal of shot in a small bore lies too far up the barrel, and creates an unnecessary friction; and the shot, by the compression at the moment of explosion, becomes all shapes: a circumstance which materially affects its flight. If of too great a weight, the powder has not power to drive it with that speed and force required to be efficacious, because the weight is too great in proportion.
Those who reason from mathematical calculation will object to this doctrine. They will say, the greater the weight the greater the effect. No doubt it is so, if thrown with a proportionate force; but that cannot be obtained with a small gun. We must adapt the weight of projectile force to the power we are in possession of; and from many experiments, I am inclined to think, that a fourteen gauge, two feet eight inches barrel, should never be loaded with above one ounce and a quarter of shot (No. 6 will suit best), and the utmost powder she will burn. A fifteen gauge will not require more than one ounce; and no doubt No. 7 would be thrown by her quite as strong as No. 6 by the fourteen gauge gun, and do as much execution at forty yards with less recoil. Setting aside all other reasons, I should, on this account, prefer the fifteen gauge-gun, if both be of a length; as I find as much execution can be done at the same distance with one as with the other. To render a fourteen gauge barrel superior, Colonel Hawker is right in stating, that it should never be under thirty-four inches; which description of barrel I very much approve. He also says, “You cannot have closeness and strength in shooting combined, beyond a certain degree:” an observation, in the truth of which I fully concur; it being found that where there is a greater degree of either strength or closeness, the other requisite is always wanting. Neither would it be advisable, as the sportsman will find a medium decidedly the best: a medium that will give the shots fairly spread over a space of thirty inches diameter, at forty yards; and so regularly, that a space, which would allow a bird to escape, shall not occur above twice out of five shots, and each shot to penetrate through thirty sheets of paper. It will be found, that a gun doing this regularly, is far superior to one throwing twice as close and not one-half through the paper; as the latter will require four or five pellets to kill a bird, when two of the other would be quite as efficacious, on account of penetrating twice as far.
In favour of small shot, Mr. Daniel’s observations are so pertinent, that I cannot do better than quote him. He says, “The velocity of a charge of No. 7 being equal (we will say nearly) to one of No. 3 at that distance (35 yards), and since small shot fly thicker than large in proportion to its size; and as there are many parts about the body of a bird, wherein a pellet of No. 7 will affect its vitality equal to a pellet of No. 2, the chances by using the former are multiplied in the workman’s favour; for it is the number and not the magnitude of the particles that kills on the spot. They who prefer large shot, and accustom themselves to fire at great distances, leave nearly as many languishing in the field as immediately die. Whereas, those that use small shot, and shoot fair, fill their bag with little spoil or waste beyond what they take with them from the field.” To an old gamekeeper of his (he tells us) he has often put the question, “Why he was so partial to small shot,” and his reply was, “Sir, they go between the feathers like pins and needles; whilst the large shot you use, as often glance off as penetrate them.” No doubt, here Mr. Daniel is as correct as may be. Mr. Blaine says, query? But he ought to be aware, as I suppose he is, though allowing himself to lose sight of principles, that small shot can be, and are, propelled from the barrel with an equal velocity with the larger; it is only in the length of range that the greater triumphs; but if we take thirty or thirty-five yards’ distance as an average, the latter will not “lead” in the race. Therefore, the advocates of small shot have unquestionably the better of the argument at this distance; at greater, I will not dispute it, though I have picked up No. 5 shot 300 yards from the spot fired from; larger, No. 3, rarely reaches 400 yards.
Hard shot is not so liable to be mis-shaped, nor does it lose its velocity by contact, as easily as soft.
Under the head mixed shot, Blaine observes, “We do not believe any law in projectiles can be brought forward to prove its impropriety. The mass of shot is propelled by the expansive power of the powder; it is ejected in a mass; and when it separates, each shot carries with it its own share of ejective force, with very little interference with any other, it being evident that the projectile force acting on each shot is in the proportion of its area of dimensions,” &c.
Here is a great mistake. The law of projectiles is not wanted to prove its fallacy; the laws of motion will do that. If you take any number of equal or dissimilar sizes of shot, and place it as a charge is placed in a gun barrel, occupying 3⁄4 of an inch of tube, there is, of course, a wadding between powder and shot; this wadding is, or ought to be, a piston; velocity is communicated to this piston by the explosion; it does so to the shot immediately above it, that to the layers above, and so on until the whole mass is in motion. The velocity behind the piston is increasing to a certain point, where it ceases; then it is that the layer farthest from the piston, having received its maximum from the layers below, travels quicker than its assistants; who, having parted with their force, fall behind in proportion: so does each layer, even until the last one which received it from the piston, having communicated so much to his friends before him, is left without himself. It is an undisputed law in motion that one body may convey to another, by contact, nearly its own velocity, but in so doing, is sure to come to rest immediately. Strike one billiard ball against another, if the blow is centrical, the ball struck receives the motion, the other comes to rest; and so is it with shot: it is only the layers next the muzzle which strikes the target, the remainder fall without travelling the same distance. I have fired three balls from a rifle, and having marked them I found the uppermost projected farthest, and the others in proportion. This is easily proved.
Thus, it is quite clear that in all charges of mixed shot, the larger will extract the velocity from the smaller, and consequently become useless for the purpose intended: this fact is unquestionable.
In speaking of the longest duck or swivel guns, I may instance Colonel Hawker’s account of the performance of such fowling artillery. It appears evident that they do not effect anything like the execution which might be expected from their immense size and capability. The reason of this is obvious. From the great space of the interior, in order to receive that equal pressure on the inch which a common fowling-piece receives, they should be charged in proportion to the increased size; but then, I scarcely need add, they would become ungovernable. In addition to this objection, they could not be forged of malleable iron, so as to be safe; on account of the impossibility of forging a barrel of that weight by hand hammers, and the little probability of hammers ever being invented to work by steam to do it sufficiently quick. The greater the weight of the barrel its strength is gradually decreased, owing to the impossibility of sufficiently beating it throughout the whole body.
It must be well known to any one versed in mechanics, that an anchor-shank weighing some hundredweights is more easily broken than iron one-twentieth part of the weight, which has had the advantage of being forged by hammers where the blows were felt through the whole mass. This cannot be the case in forging large barrels, as the workmen cannot use hammers heavy enough; consequently the barrel is turned out of hand with the pores more open than a piece of cast iron. They have tried this with large guns for the artillery, and it has repeatedly failed, entirely from the want of sufficient power to compress the iron.