Gunsmith

“ That meant a trip to the gunsmith's, for a new hatchet and to have the mainspring of the rifle replaced. Nobody could afford to have a rifle that couldn't be trusted, least of all a hunter and prospector. And he'd had words with Alex Barrett, the gunsmith, just the other day. ”

“ It is, therefore, best to give brands but little consideration in judging the quality of new muzzle-loaders, trusting mainly on personal knowledge as to what a good gun should be, backed up by thorough test in all cases where such a thing is necessary.
The man capable of becoming a good gunsmith will require no special rules for his government in this matter. He will know that a steel gun is preferable to an iron gun, and he will be able to readily [279] distinguish between steel and iron. ”

“ They tried all methods of creasing, all variations of the spiral of the groove; every town had its gunsmith, who experimented in almost every gun he made, and who was generally one of the best shots and hunters in the neighborhood; and often the hunter, despairing of getting a gun to suit him in any other way, went to work himself, and wrought out a clumsy, but unerring gun, in which, perhaps, was the germ of some of the latest improvements in scientific gunnery. ”

“ The loss of fifty rifles to people destitute of any shadow of a gunsmith to repair them when they are broken, and already notoriously short of ammunition, is a trifle; the number is easy to be made up of those that are out of commission; for there is not the least stipulation as to their value; any synthesis of old iron and smashed wood that can be called a gun is to be taken from its force. ”

“ Many gunsmiths cast soft lead at the end of a rod, using the muzzle of the gun as a size mould, and after removing from the barrel, apply oil and fine emery, and with this work the inside of the barrel. ”

“ These with proper instructions he can make himself if he finds he cannot buy them cheaper than he can make them. There are a few specialties in the way of tools or machines for gunsmiths that are offered to the trade by houses dealing in gunsmith’s materials, and some of them may be found very useful as labor-savers, but the gunsmith can get along without them if he does not wish to buy. Prominent among these is a mainspring-vise or clamp, which has several advantages over the common hand-vise sometimes employed for clamping the mainspring. ”

“ A stem or projection is made as shown in the cut, Fig. 36, which enters and fills the bore of the gun and so serves to insure a thread straight with the barrel. If the bore be larger than the extension, slip over it a piece of brass tube or a ferrule of some kind, until it fits a little snug in the bore. If but little be wanting to make the fit, a piece of writing paper or a bit of card may be wrapped around it. Old-fashioned gunsmiths have been known to wind tow around an extension to make a fit. ”

“ In loading a rifle the powder is first measured in a “charger,” and then poured down the barrel; next comes the patch, which is usually a piece of new and strong cotton cloth, most commonly the kind known as white drilling. This, having been tallowed upon one side, the tallowed side is spread over the muzzle of the gun, and the bullet is pressed upon it into the muzzle, the side from which the “neck,” formed in moulding, has been cut, must be directly downward. Generally with the handle of a knife the bullet is pressed into the bore as far as it can be sent by such means ”

“ Have him hold the gun immovable thus, and then request him to open his eyes, and it is evident if he requires a stock to be made different from the one he has in hand. If the face comes naturally to the breech and the eye has a “fine sight” along the barrel, it is just the pattern of gun stock for him to have. If it be too straight he will shoot over, if too much crooked he will shoot under. ”

“ The barrel of a first-quality gun of this character is wrought iron, made eight-square, and finely finished. The lock is steel, well put up, and provided with double or set triggers. The stock is either black-walnut or maple highly polished and oil-finished. The bore is given as perfect a degree of finish as iron is capable of taking, and the rifles are deeply-cut and entirely regular all the way through. The sights are made with great care, some of the finest guns having an elevating hind-sight to be changed for long or short range—say, for 500 or 50 yards. ”

“ There are many devices for gripping, bolting or wedging up the gun, as it is called; and also many for attaching the barrels to the stock. In all cases the barrels play upon a hinge pin, which admits of their dropping down at the muzzle and rising at the breech, the latter to reject the empty cartridge and receive the loaded one. At every discharge the gun is opened and closed by throwing up the barrels for the purpose just named, and then letting them down again into position for shooting. ”

“ The English gun-smiths avoided the dilemma by giving the requisite pitch and making the grooves very deep, and even by having wings or lugs cast on the ball to keep it in the grooves—expedients which increase the friction in the barrel and the resistance of the air enormously.
The American gun-makers solved the problem by adopting the “gaining twist,” in which the grooves start from the breech nearly parallel to the axis of the barrel, and gradually increase the spiral, until, at the muzzle, it has the pitch of one revolution in three to four; the pitch being greater as the bore is less. ”

“ Do not rashly reject a sound useful gun because it is made by a provincial Irish or Scotch maker, as there are many gunsmiths out of London who turn out guns equal in quality and shooting powers to any in the world. When examining a gun you are about to buy, try the locks by cocking and uncocking, see that the pitch suits your mode of shooting, draw the ramrod, lift the hammers to half-cock, drift out the bolt and reverse the barrels, when on looking underneath near the breech you will probably see the proof marks and the number of gauge at which the gun was proved ”

“ In the case of a pin gun the pin should invariably stand in exact line with the hammer, otherwise the blow would be apt to bend it, and the chances for exploding the cap would be less certain.
There should be no crevices between the wood and iron. If any such crevice exists between the stock and the false breech it is likely that the wood was green when put up, which would settle it that the gun was not the work of a responsible maker, for no such person would work imperfectly-seasoned wood.
The extractor of the central fire should never be permitted to escape the closest scrutiny. ”

“ The central pellets have thus an allowance given them to compensate for distance and the motion of the object. You look along the imaginary line, higher at the breech according to distance, and at this elevation the gun is fired, exactly as a rifle target-shooter sets his breech sights to a given distance.
“How does a man drive a nail? Certainly not by closing one eye and looking along the hammer; but with both eyes open, he mechanically balances the hammer and strikes instinctively, never, if accustomed to the use of the tool, missing his aim. It is the same in shooting.” ”

“ The gunsmiths fill cartridges all day long, for they are an article much in demand, repair rifles and revolvers, and fit fine old silver butts, gorgeous with turquoise or cornelian, on to modern weapons. ”

“ Pour the powder gently down the barrel, holding the latter upright so that none of the powder will lodge in the grooves or rifles. Get ready a “patch,” which has been previously prepared by oiling on one side a piece of fine but substantial linen with sperm oil such as is used for sewing machines, and cutting out with a “patch-cutter,” always to be had with a new gun. Place this patch over the muzzle, oiled side downward, and then set the bullet perfectly straight and true in the muzzle, and with the “starter” press it downward two or three inches, using the ramrod to force it home. ”

“ But, still adopting Barber, it is very difficult to lay down particular rules as to what a muzzle-loading rifle of modern style should be, as marksmen and gunmakers are both whimsical, and each has his set ideas and notions concerning the matter. Some advocate a long barrel, while others maintain that anything beyond thirty-three inches militates against good shooting. ”

“ Supposing that a young man has just possessed himself of a rifle, but who knows nothing of its use save such information as he has been able to gather from mere theorists. He makes choice of a suitable place for taking his first practical lesson, where there is no danger of inflicting harm upon disinterested persons. He puts up his target and steps off fifty yards, or it might be better to measure it more accurately than by stepping.
Suppose the gun to be a first-class modern muzzle-loader. The target is now arranged; proceed to load. Grasp the barrel of the gun near the muzzle ”

“ Just so with the bullet sent from the pistol; under the management of a skillful performer it goes in obedience to an unconscious calculation, and [315] not in obedience to the squinting of one eye along the barrel. Sight-taking won’t do in either case; the good marble player would be a hopeless failure if he held up his arm to his line of vision and took sight every time he went to “shoot”—the pistol-shooter who performs upon the same plan is invariably a marksman of sterling uncertainty, to say the least. ”

“ In the first instance the muzzle is brought too high by an effort of the face to find a position at the breech, and in the other case it so readily finds a place that no further effort is made, except by practice, to raise the muzzle to the proper level.
A tall, slim person requires a gun with a long, crooked stock, and rather heavier and made fuller behind the small, as this will fill up his want of a full face, and will better permit his eye a command of sight along the middle of the barrels, supposing the gun to be a double one. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It first must be understood that all modern guns on ships-of-war are breech-loading and rifled, and that the smooth bore exists only as a relic, or to be brought out in an emergency for coast defense, when modern guns are not available. From the thirteen-inch down to the four-inch, the guns are designated by their caliber, the diameter of their bore, and the shot they throw, while from that to the one-pounder they take their name from the weight of the shot. Everything below the one-pounder is in the machine-gun class. ”

“ The bore is made of any rifle calibre for any small-arm ammunition, and is fitted with a safety-lock. For our own pieces we use the Lee-Metford cartridges. Four hundred shots per minute can be fired.
The gun consists altogether of ninety-four pieces, but the working-pieces, i.e. those only which need be separated for cleaning, &c., when in the hands of the artilleryman, are less than twenty. It can be handled in action by one man, the operation resembling that of firing a pistol.
The machine weighs 40 lbs., and for use by cavalry or infantry can be mounted on the Dundonald Galloping Carriage. ”

“ The modern long-range guns and improved howitzers [Pg 85] have, however, virtually superseded mortars. Machine-guns of various forms are comparatively small and light, transportable by hand, and filling a place between cannon and small-arms, the latter term embracing the soldier’s personal armament of rifle and pistol or revolver, which are carried in the hand.
A group of guns of the like design are generally given the name of their first inventor, or the place of manufacture: such as the Armstrong gun, the Vickers-Maxim, the Martini-Henry rifle, or the Enfield. ”

“ This time the artillery preparation won’t be insufficient.
We have guns, little and big, of every kind, of every caliber, from the little howitzers set low on their plates with their large muzzles like those we used to see on the terrace of the Invalides up to the great naval guns, long, lean and sharp, like a cigar, monumental guns of unheard-of size mounted on gigantic platforms, with covered turrets, new and odd foreign cannon, long as a train and mounted on rails.
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And there are projectiles such as the wildest imagination could not dream of. ”

“ High against the chimney, on two dogwood forks, rested the long rifle with its fishtail sight and the brass plate on the stock for the bullets and the "patching." Below it hung the old powder-horn, its wooden plug dangling from a string,—tools of the long ago. Closing one's eyes one could see the tall grandsires fighting in the beech forest, a brown patch of hide sighted over the brass knife-blade bead, and death, and to load again with the flat neck of the bullet set in the palm of the hand and covered with powder. ”

“ Each barrel has its own breech-plug, striker, spring, and extractor, and each fires independently of the rest, so that all are not out of action together. The gun has a swivelled mount easily elevated and trained, and the steel frames take up the force of the discharge. In rapid firing one gunner [Pg 99] can work the firing-handle while another lays and alters the direction. The firing is operated by a lever working backwards and forwards by hand, and the gun can be discharged at the rate of 600 rounds per minute. ”