To Avoid This, A Rifle Should Be Made With Double Bolts And A
Silver Plate Should Always Be Let Into The Stock Under The
Breech; Without Which The Woodwork Will Imperceptibly Wear, And
The Barrel Will Become Loose In The Stock And Jar When Fired.
There is another reason for the necessity of heavy barrels,
especially for two-grooved rifles.
Unless the grooves he
tolerably deep, they will not hold the ball when a heavy charge
is behind it; it quits the grooves, strips its belt, and flies
out as though fired from a smoothbore.
A large-bore rifle is a useless incumbrance, unless it is so
constructed that it will bear a proportionate charge of powder,
and shoot as accurately with its proof charge as with a single
drachm. The object in a large bore is to possess an extra
powerful weapon, therefore the charge of powder must be increased
in proportion to the weight of the ball, or the extra power is
not obtained. Nevertheless, most of the heavy rifles that I have
met with will not carry an adequate charge of powder, and they
are accordingly no more powerful than guns of lighter bore which
carry their proportionate charge - the powder has more than its
fair amount of work.
Great care should be therefore taken in making rifles for heavy
game. There cannot be a better calibre than No 10; it is large
enough for any animal in the world, and a double-barreled rifle
of this bore, without a ramrod, is not the least cumbersome, even
at the weight of fifteen pounds.
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