Bullets to be patched with paper are smooth, without grooves. They are from three- to six 'thousandths of an inch smaller than the stand ard size. The diameter is increased to the size desired by having a thin paper patch rolled around them, covering about two-thirds of the bullets from the base up. This paper is of fine, strong texture, similar to bank-note paper. It is specially prepared for this purpose, and is made in different thicknesses, which are known to the manufacturers of ammunition as extra thin, thin, medium and thick. The extra-thin is about one and one-half thousandths of an inch thick and there is an increase 'of about one half thousandth in each succeeding size; thus shooters wishing to increase or decrease the diameter of their bullets can do so by select ing the proper thickness of paper. There is a difference of opinion' relative to the superiority of patched bullets over grooved, yet for hunt ing or military purposes the grooved ball is generally preferred, as such ammunition can be carried and rexposed to wet. Weather Without injury, while a part of the pitch being exposed is liable-to get wet and injured so as to impair its accuracy. Still, for fine target-shooting, the patched bullet properly handled is, without doubt, preferable.
Expansive Expansive bullets, more appropriately called deformative bullets, alter their shape upon impact with the tissues of the body. All unsheathed lead bullets are of this class, and sheathed bullets are often made deformative by various devices. Among these are the split-nosed, hollow-nosed and soft nosed bullets. They are often erroneously
called from the fact that the origi nal deformative bullets were made at Duni Dum, the fact that principally hard-nosed bul lets are made at that place being overlooked.
Explosive Explosive bullets con tain a charge of explosive which is detonated on impact, and, exploding, cause great wounds, instantly fatal. They are used only in big-game hunting. Stories of their use in warfare are misstatements, due to ignorance of what con stitutes such a bullet. The modern Spitz-Ge schoss bullet of the Germans produces less dangerous wounds than the Mauser of 1:•:•:. It has a remarkably flat trajectory, its height being only 11.75 inches at a range of 400.yards, as compared with 28 inches for the Lee-Metford of the English.
Bullets are now made with extraordinary speed, by machinery of beautiful construction. i The machine draws in a coil of leaden rod, un winds it, cuts it to the required length, stamps out the bullets with steel dies, drops them into boxes and conveys them away. Each machine, with four dies, makes 1,000 bullets per hour; and four such machines, in an easy day's work, turn out 300,000 bullets. So nearly are the machines automatic that one man can attend them all. Modern rifle bullets have a pressed leaden or steel core, and a thin covering of steel, copper or nickel. A combination of copper and nickel, known as cupro-nickel, is very gen erally employed, as it is without the poisonous qualities of copper used alone. See AMMUNI