Silk is better than linen as it is not so
liable to be cut down by the sharp grooves of the rifle. It is
also thinner than linen or calico, and the ball is therefore more
easily rammed down.
All balls should be made of pure lead, without any hardening
mixture. It was formerly the fashion to use zinc balls, and lead
with a mixture of tin, etc., in elephant-shooting. This was not
only unnecessary, but the balls, from a loss of weight by
admixture with lighter metals, lost force in a proportionate
degree. Lead may be a soft metal, but it is much harder than any
animal's skull, and if a tallow candle can be shot through a deal
board, surely a leaden bullet is hard enough for an elephant's
head.
I once tried a very conclusive experiment on the power of balls
of various metals propelled by an equal charge of powder.
I had a piece of wrought iron five-eights of an inch thick, and
six feet high by two in breadth. I fired at this at one hundred
and seventy yards with my two-grooved four-ounce rifle, with a
reduced charge of six drachms of powder and a ball of pure lead.
It bulged the iron like a piece of putty, and split the centre of
the bulged spot into a star, through the crevice of which I could
pass a pen-blade.
A ball composed of half zinc and half lead, fired from the same
distance, hardly produced a perceptible effect upon the iron
target. It just slightly indented it.
I then tried a ball of one-third zinc and two-thirds lead, but
there was no perceptible difference in the effect.
I subsequently tried a tin bill, and again a zinc ball, but
neither of them produced any other effect than slightly to indent
the iron.
I tried all these experiments again at fifty yards' range, with
the same advantage in favor of the pure lead; and at this reduced
distance a double-barreled No. 16 smoothbore, with a large charge
of four drachms of powder and a lead ball, also bulged and split
the iron into a star. This gun, with a hard tin ball and the
same charge of powder, did not produce any other effect than an
almost imperceptible indentation.
if a person wishes to harden a bill for any purpose, it should be
done by an admixture of quicksilver to the lead while the latter
is in a state of fusion, a few seconds before the ball is cast.
The mixture must be then quickly stirred with an iron rod, and
formed into the moulds without loss of time, as at this high
temperature the quicksilver will evaporate.
