Gun

“ Once secure in the gloom of the old shaft, the man, with a little sigh of relief, rose to his full height, drew from his coat a slender tube of steel, and from his pocket a delicate frame shaped like the stock of a gun, deftly fitted the two together, pulled back the spring, carefully inserted the bullet, and stood armed with a weapon, at close range absolutely to be relied upon, precise, noiseless, deadly. ”

“ The eyes stare at the expressionless breech of the gun until, tiring of that, they stare at the red wheel above the ammunition hoist. Often they stare at the bugler as he passes the open door of the casemate, and prayers go up that ultimately he may sound the “Secure.” ”

“ See, they are pulling in the cart now, and the shiny man is all ready with his gun. Will he shoot any of them, apprehension, for the sharp crack of a rifle startled her more than the loudest thunder-clap she ever heard. ”

“ Then all at once a machine gun barks from a bit of a bank,
And our Major roars in a fury: "We've got to take it on flank."
He was running like fire to lead us, when down like a stone he comes,
As full of "typewriter" bullets as a pudding is full of plums. ”

“ The rifle sends one pellet of death, the shot-gun sends a dozen leaden messengers, each shrieking for a life.
Three men on the towers fired almost simultaneously from the shot-guns, whose scattering fire raked and tore through the bushes. ”

“ I quickly dived into the shadow for cover just in time to hear the bullets from a German machine gun whizz past my ear!
"You can trust them to see everything," murmured one of the old women, not otherwise disturbed. ”

“ I've got you now, you rascals;" and I saw the muzzle of a gun appear. "Stay where you are if you value your lives! A dozen spring guns are concealed just there, and a single step may discharge them all." ”

“ But already there comes the crack of rifles and the rattle of a machine-gun from another position up the street. Firing becomes general. The crowd scatters in all directions, and the empty streets round are picketed with machine-guns. ”

“ With each of the four guns firing at the rate of eight hundred shots a minute, the bullets formed a canopy over the heads of the men at the foot of the hill. A Gatling gun in action is a sight to remember; so thick and fast do the bullets fly that one can actually see the stream of lead leaving the gun and, as if handling a hose, train it on any desired point. ”

“ When he was a boy in short trousers he had learned from Uncle Jasper the two main articles of a gun fighter's creed—that a revolver must be fired by pointing, not sighting, and that there must be nothing about it liable to hang in the holster to delay the draw. The great idea was to get the gun on your man with lightning speed, and then fire from the hip with merely a sense of direction to guide the bullet. Just as one raises his hand and points the finger. ”

“ A good gunman would not try to look through such small openings, nearly closed by the barrel of a rifle. But why a rifle, for a good gunman? "He'd need all of a hole to look through, an' a good gunman likes a hip shot. That's it: Eyes to th' upper, six-gun at th' lower, for a range too short to allow a miss." ”

“ When your hand moves, it'll be as fast as the jump of a spark! And when that hand moves, the gun is going to come out clean in it. It's got to come out with it! You hear? It's got to! Your fingertips catch under the butt; they flick up. They don't draw the gun; they throw it out of the holster; they pitch the muzzle up, and the butt comes smack back against the palm of your hand. And in the same part of a second you pull the trigger. ”

“ Wake up, my working class brother.
These leading citizens strut before you and fill you full of fierce and splendid talk about becoming “brave boys behind the gun”; but at the same time they despise you socially. Don’t foolishly get behind the gun or in front of the gun—not at least till you have studied the gun.
A high-grade modern rifle can be fired twenty-five times per minute. This gun will pierce 60 pine boards each one inch thick. It will kill a man at a distance of four miles. A bullet with sufficient force to pierce a one-inch pine board will kill a man or a horse. ”

“ Little Rifle, experienced in the dangers of a hunter’s life, was not caught with an unloaded gun. The thin puff of smoke had hardly begun to curl up from the clump of bushes when his rifle was at his shoulder, and he sent the return bullet crashing among the leaves and twigs. ”

“ Not from any predatory instinct, but to save appearances, I took a gun. It adds to the manly aspect of a person with a tin pail if he also carries a gun. It was possible I might start up a partridge; though how I was to hit him, if he started up instead of standing still, puzzled me. Many people use a shot-gun for partridges. I prefer the rifle: it makes a clean job of death, and does not prematurely stuff the bird with globules of lead. ”

“ A man who knows nothing about shooting, even if given a loaded pistol, gun, or rifle, before crossing the field, would be more afraid of the firearm going off than of the bull, and, if attacked, would club the gun or rifle to hit the bull with, or would throw the pistol at it. ”

“ Porta, in his “Natural Magick,” folio, English edition, 1658, gives an account, in the 12th Book, how “A brass gun once fired, may discharge ten times.” He says, “It is a new invention, that a great brass-gun, or hand-gun, may discharge 10 or more bullets one after another without intermission. ”

“ SHAPING A GUN FROM AN INGOT WHEN the ingot comes from the furnace, it is put in this press, deep buried in a pit, and the hot metal is compressed into the shape of a section of a great Gun—then it is taken out and bored and planed and finally, after about a year of work, the gun is ready to do its work. ”

“ At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards, at intervals of thirty minutes between the rising and setting sun, a single gun, and at the close of the day a national salute of thirty-seven guns. ”

“ Tools were suspended from the walls, it is true; and no less than three rifles, in addition to a very neat double- barrelled "shot-gun," or fowling-piece, were standing in a corner. These were arms collected by our hero in his different trips, and retained quite as much from affection as from necessity, or caution. ”

“ It is no mean evidence of ancient skill, and knowledge of gunnery and mechanics combined, to state, that only a few years ago, a gunmaker of some celebrity, constructed a number of rifles and pistols to load at the breech, on the very same principle adopted in this gun 312 years ago. ”

“ There were guns with only a vent, to be fired with a live coal, guns without ramrods, barrels without stocks, stocks without barrels, guns without cocks, cocks without pans. One gun, I remember, consisted of a barrel that flared out at the muzzle like a bell nailed on a crooked cypress rail, without cock, having only a pan and vent, requiring one man to hold it and another to "touch it off." ”

“ A gun of about seven-foot barrel, and so heavy that strong men could not steadily hold it out with both hands,—there were several testimonies given in by persons of credit and honor, that he made nothing of taking up such a gun behind the lock with but one hand, and holding it out, like a pistol, at arms' end. ”

“ Every man on these occasions is armed, and my master, who ‎always turned his head away whenever a gun was fired, and ‎became pale at the sight of a drawn sword, now appeared with ‎a long carbine slung obliquely across his back, and a crooked ‎sword by his side, whilst a pair of huge pistols projected from ‎his girdle ”

“ In the farmhouses here and there may be found such a weapon, half a century old or more, with a barrel not quite equal in length to the punt-gun, but so long that, when carried under the arm of a tall man, the muzzle touches the ground where it is irregular in level. ”

“ Lastly pour in some of your dark clammy powder: and when you have levelled your gun to the place appointed, put fire to the mouth of it; for it will cast out the bullets, and then fire for so long time as a man may discharge a hand-gun at divers shoots. ”

“ The object which the gunner should now strive for is to train the eye, hand, and gun to work in unison, and to do this, bring the gun quickly to the shoulder, point it to the mark, and press the trigger without stopping the upward and even swing of the barrels. ”

“ I had the whole road to myself, for no one was yet stirring, and I walked on, with a slouching, dogged gait. The gray shooting-jacket was on my back, and from the end of my brother’s rifle hung a small bundle of my clothes. My fingers worked moodily at the stock and trigger, and I thought that this indeed was the way to begin life, with a gun in your hand! ”

“ Often a brace of rifles, as many as six, would be coupled up to be fired simultaneously, and by operating a single lever each gun would throw out the empty cartridge shell and bring a fresh one into position. ”

“ They carry every conceivable sort of gun, but the six-foot muzzle-loaders are the favourites. These ancient weapons have been handed down from father to son for generations, and locally go by the somewhat misleading soubriquet of the "little darlints." ”

“ His gun, then, must be suited to grouse-shooting, and must be light, because of the heat which often prevails at that time, and renders dragging a heavy gun many miles over the heather—before they pack—a serious drawback to the pleasure of the sport. ”

“ There is, at County Hospitals, a pretty regular and very large percentage of accidents by firearms. All over the kingdom, lovers or playmates are always saying, “I’ll shoot you,” believing the gun not to be loaded, but finding that it was loaded. ”

“ A rifle ain't as good fur that sort o' game as a shotgun; suppose you step over an' ax Hanson to loan you his'n?”
“I jest 'lowed I'd shine this un up a bit bein' as it's Sunday an' I hate to be idle,” he answered, evasively, as he seated himself at the wide fireplace with a pan of grease and a piece of cloth and rubbed his gun barrel until it fairly shone in the firelight. ”

“ They tell me not to let any man in with his gun, that's all. You ain't settin' no precedent, Dirty. I reckon every man in the hall is packin' a strange gun, but there's one satisfaction—they can't shoot more than six time per each, 'cause I've got all their extra ammunition. ”

“ Fire a piece against another, muzzle to muzzle, or the muzzle of one to the chase of the other. (6) Light a fire under the chase of a bronze gun, and strike on it with a sledge, to bend it. (7) Break off the trunnions of iron guns; or burst them by firing them at a high elevation, with heavy charges and full of shot.
To drive out a shot wedged in the bore: unscrew the vent-piece if there be one, and drive in wedges so as to start the shot forward; then ram it back again in order to seize the wedge with a hook; or pour in powder, and fire it after replacing the vent-piece. ”

“ In a general sense, comprehend weapons both of an offensive and defensive character, but in the usual restricted sense they only embrace the former, and in modern warfare include the gun and bayonet, the rifle, the pistol, the carbine, the sword, the lance, cannon, etc., all of which are noticed under their respective heads. ”

“ Yu can't hit a saloon at twenty paces with that there toy. Here," drawing his own long barrelled revolver, "is a gun! This here baby c'n shoot when th' man that's a-holding it is worth a gun. Th' barrel is about seven inches long, I reckons, an' she throws a whole plenty o' lead. She's a Colt, she is, an' that says a whole lot. Have yu got a rifle, too?" ”

“ Nothing shot out of a military rifle—outside of the rifle grenade—gives the tremendous shock and blow of the big .70 calibre, five hundred grain, round lead bullet that is used in the 12-gage shotgun. ”

“ Many splendid emanations of genius are left to us, consisting of complex mechanism for gunnery. The most perfect we have ever seen, is a pistol made in Spain about the end of the seventeenth century. By moving a lever towards the butt-end, while the muzzle is depressed, the lock is primed, half-cocked, and the hammer shut down; return the lever, the powder is in the breech, and the ball before it. ”

“ I'm used to guns," she explained, turning to the officer. "My father was an army man, and he taught me very early to load and fire a pistol. There was a prolonged sound to this shot; something like an echo of itself, following close upon the first ping. Didn't you notice that, Warren?"
"I remember something of the kind," her husband allowed.
"He shot twice and quickly," interposed the policeman, sententiously. "We shall find a spent bullet back of that mirror." ”

“ "Some of the pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms—two shot-guns, a heavy rifle, and a light revolver-carbine—the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter. ”

“ And as it also illustrates in a very direct way one of the most general laws of nature, while people often have very vague and erroneous ideas of its cause and operation, it deserves the reader’s attention. In gunnery it is called the recoil, and is familiar to anyone who has ever fired a pistol, fowling-piece, or rifle, in the kick backwards felt at the moment of the discharge. ”

“ I dreamed kind Jesus fouled the big-gun gears;
And caused a permanent stoppage in all bolts;
And buckled with a smile Mausers and Colts;
And rusted every bayonet with His tears. ”