Spring gun

“ 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. ”

“ Plane to these lines wherever possible, then use the spokeshave. The curve and corner at F should be pared with a chisel. The lower edge of the gun-stock and barrel is made half-round, but the upper edge, especially where the spring is screwed, is only slightly round. The curve at the butt of the gun-stock should be cut out with the turning-saw, and rounded with a half-round file. The groove can be made as in the bow pistol. (See page 86.)
All parts of the gun should be well sandpapered, especially where the elastic will rub on the barrel.
Make the trigger of tough wood. ”

“ The hunter who has no love for the saddle, and prefers stalking, should provide himself with some breech-loading rifle or carbine, carrying a heavy ball—the heavier the better. The most effective weapon is the needle-gun used in the army, having a bore the size of the old Springfield musket, and a [458] ball to correspond. A bullet from this weapon usually proves fatal. But there is little genuine sport in such practice. ”

“ If it became necessary to resort to the expedient of blowing up the gun, it would be done by placing a shell in the breech of the chamber, the breech closed, another shell inside the muzzle, the lanyard fastened to the firing lever and strung out of the front pit door for a distance of 25 or 30 feet to a large tree standing at our rear, fastened to the tree, and when retreating pull it from there, blowing the gun and the gun pit into as many pieces. ”

“ Summer Shooting As a general rule our guns should be put away for a long rest before the summer vacation. There is, however, one game situation which justifies their use, and it is this situation which sometimes appropriately allows a small-gauge gun to be placed beside the rod and reel in making up a vacation outfit. ”

“ Old guns which have been laid by will not uncommonly be found spiked, by having a common nail driven into the vent. If efficient tools are at hand this may be drilled out, if not, put a charge of powder in the gun, bore a gimlet hole in one of your wooden wads, through which pass a loosely-twisted string well impregnated with dissolved gunpowder, and afterwards dried. Cut the end of your prepared string just at the muzzle of the gun, light it, and get out of the way, when the explosion, which soon takes place, will not unfrequently expel the spike. ”

“ One of the old arrangements, often laughed at, I mean the bell muzzle in old guns, intimates that our ancestors possessed some smattering of science; as the relief in the muzzle of a gun has a tendency, by allowing a gradual expansion laterally, to keep the charge of shot better together: for it is quite apparent that any body severely compressed for a certain distance, expands in proportion when free of that restraint; and the consequence is a tendency to fly off at a tangent, as the friction of a [307] crooked barrel induces a ball to fly in a curve contrary to the bend of the barrel. ”

“ Nothing gives such confidence to the gun-bearers as the fact of their rifles being good slayers, and they quickly learn to take a pride in their weapons, and to strive in the race to hand the spare rifles. Dust storms, such as I have constantly witnessed in Africa, would be terrible enemies to breech-loaders, as the hard sand, by grating in the joints, would wear away the metal, and destroy the exactness of the fittings.
A small handy double rifle, such as my little Fletcher 24, not exceeding eight pounds and a half, is very necessary, as it should seldom be out of the hand. ”

“ As a precaution, it is well to insert a wet sponge just before putting in the ball. The muzzle is sufficiently elevated to allow the ball to roll down the bore, the cartridge is inserted, the mouth of the outer bag foremost, the fold down, and carefully pushed home without breaking it; a dry hay-wad is placed upon it, and rammed once; then a clay or wet hay wad, and rammed twice; and finally, if firing at angles of depression, a wad of clay a half-calibre in length, or a wet hay-wad is put on the ball.
40. May the ball cool in the gun without igniting the charge? ”

“ 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. ”

“ It as well as other single guns of the same bore, is built to use a round ball in the shot barrel, making them capable of stopping deer or bear at short ranges. However, choosing a gun is like choosing a wife, every one has their own tastes. ”

“ After he had lain still there about an hour he heard a low and seemingly very distant sound, but singularly grand and impressive, unlike anything he had ever heard, gradually swelling and increasing as if it would have a universal and memorable ending, a sullen rush and roar, which seemed to him all at once like the sound of a vast body of fowl coming in to settle there, and, seizing his gun, he started up in haste and excited; ”

“ These guns actually do sag a little, and when the shell is fired through the long barrel it straightens up the gun, making the muzzle "whip" upward, just as a drooping garden hose does when the water shoots through it. ”

“ If within three, four or five inches from the muzzle, the portion so destroyed can be sawed off, the barrels squared up and it will not always seriously affect the shooting of the gun.
In loading a gun be careful that there be no air space left between the charge and the ball or shot cartridge. In double guns, frequent firing the right [138] barrel, which is the one fired the most, the recoil will often cause the ball or shot charge in the left barrel to be thrown forward from the powder, and when it is fired may either strain or burst the barrel. ”

“ About the only drawback resulting from our being caught out in the summer rains was the fact that the water would rust our muskets. In our time we were required to keep all their metal parts (except the butt-plate) as bright and shining as new silver dollars. I have put in many an hour working on my gun with an old rag and powdered dirt, and a corncob, or pine stick, polishing the barrel, the bands, lock-plate, and trigger-guard, until they were fit to pass inspection. The inside of the barrel we would keep clean by the use of a greased wiper and plenty of hot water. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ The heaviest guns, including the big naval guns, were especially well concealed in woods, in orchards, and well camouflaged in fields. So well hidden were they that I passed within a few rods of multitudes of them, as I traveled the roads, without detecting their presence until I would either hear the discharge of their shells or see them as they were being unlimbered. To move a heavy gun in mud is no small task. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ I, personally, prefer the small-calibre rifle, as it can be used for birds also. The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle cartridge. ”

“ 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. ”

“ About the same time fused shell containing cemented gun cotton were fired in Germany, with an initial velocity of fourteen hundred feet per second, and they passed completely through four inches and three quarters of compound armor, backed with twenty-four inches of oak, and burst inside the bombproof, while in 1897 fused armor-piercing shells containing wet gun cotton were fired from the six-inch quick-firing gun, with a muzzle velocity of nearly nineteen hundred Tyndall's Bronze Bell-Mouthed Gun. ”

“ 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.
[218]
And there are projectiles such as the wildest imagination could not dream of. ”

“ The secret of these magnificent guns lies in the buffer and in the ability of the muzzle of the gun to cool off; after discharging 24 rounds they are just as ready to discharge another 24 as when they started, while in the case of our pieces we have to let them cool, and 15 or 18 per minute is the limit of our effort, because any more would cause them to jam from the heat. There is no gun on earth that can compare with the .75's. ”

“ The want of length of bore in guns is illustrated by short carronades, in which the flame is forced backwards, charring a ship’s sides at the instant the shot leaves the muzzle. The want of weight in a gun is illustrated by the fact, that if a recoiling gun be backed against a solid bank of timber, it will throw the shot further—but there will also be some risk of bursting. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At other times a gun is fastened to a tree, and at the muzzle of the barrel is fixed a bait, to which a string is tied, that passes round the tree and is attached to the trigger—so that if the bait be pulled at all forcibly the gun is sure to go off. ”

“ Of the fragments, Nos. 15 and 17 are pieces of the nickel jacket of rifle bullets; No. 16 is the lead “core” of a rifle bullet; No. 22 is a fragment of the nickel jacket of a rifle bullet which holds a small portion of the lead core; No. 18 is a brass tube which is carried in the base of a shell to hold the detonating plunger and fulminate cap; No. 19 is a piece of a foot plate or step of a gun carriage or caisson; No. 20 is a shell fragment, and No. 21 is a flattened piece of a shrapnel ball. ”

“ The two machine-guns on the ’drome were trained and aimed in daylight to shower bullets exactly over the tip of the tongue of wood. A patent gadget invented by Guns allowed the gun-muzzles a certain amount of play up and down, play which careful calculation showed would pour a couple of streams of bullets across the end of the wood up and down a height extending to about a thousand feet, that is, 500 above and 500 below the level at which it was estimated the Huns usually flew on these night raids. ”