Vern Evans
These reader questions and answers from OL’s former shooting editor appeared in the January 1976 issue of Outdoor Life. Many of these myths persist today, such as using the crook of your elbow to measure length of pull.
Shotgun Balance
I’ve noticed that gun experts, including yourself, often mention the “balance” of a shotgun. How do you tell if a shotgun is well-balanced? Is there a special balance point? —G.M., Stockton, CA
In current shotgun terminology, “balance” can mean different things to different shooters, be they experts or not. When I speak of balance, I am usually referring to the gun’s overall handling qualities.
In the more-classic sense, especially when speaking of the great English makes, many shotguns are deliberately balanced so that the shooter’s hands share the weight equally. This makes the gun seem lighter and supposedly permits faster handling. The desired balance point is thus midway between the hands, usually almost exactly at the hinge pin of a double. In order to achieve proper balance, some quality gun makers bore wood from the butt, or even, if necessary, add weight. Adding weight to improve balance can sometimes actually make the shot gun feel lighter, or at least make it handle faster.
In recent years many of these traditional concepts of balance have been overruled by actual experience. A prime case is the glass barreled Winchester Model 59. It was very butt-heavy because of the lightweight glass-wound barrel, but it proved to be a lightning-fast field gun. Likewise, some competition skeet guns are now being made deliberately muzzle-heavy so as to smooth out the swing and follow-through. Therefore, when I say a shotgun is well-balanced nowadays I mean only that it has smooth handling characteristics.
Bullet Drop
You have been selected to settle this $10 wager. Party No. 1 maintains that if a gun barrel is absolutely horizontal, the bullet will start dropping the instant it leaves the end of the barrel. Party No. 2 says that if the barrel is perfectly horizontal, the spin of the bullet will cause the bullet to rise above the plane of the barrel (line of bore) before it starts dropping. Who’s right? —G.E., Clifton, CO
If a rifle barrel is held with the bore line absolutely horizontal, the bullet will start to drop the instant it leaves the muzzle. This is in accordance with a simple law of gravity. The only exceptions are caused by mechanical conditions such as uneven crowning at the muzzle, which would create deflection of some sort.
There is, however, a ballistic phenomenon known as rotational drift. A bullet spinning to the right will drift to the right, and one turning to the left will go left. It has only a slight effect, though. A .30/06 bullet, depending on its weight, will drift off course only about six inches at 1,000 yards.
Falling Projectiles
I am 15 years old and spend every spare minute either shooting or reading about guns. I have never read anything about how fast a bullet is going when it falls. My cousin says that a bullet fired straight up comes down as fast as it went up. Doesn’t this mean that it is very dangerous to fire a .22 rifle or even a shotgun straight up at a squirrel? —L.N., Waterloo, IA
It’s true only if you fire in a perfect vacuum, where there is no atmospheric resistance. In a nor mal atmosphere the air resistance keeps the falling bullet (or shot pellets) from building up much gravitational velocity. A 40-grain .22 rimfire slug would hit the ground at roughly 200 feet per second, and a No. 5 pellet falls even slower. Thus the only posible danger would be being struck in the eye.
Pump “Malfunction”
My Remington Model 760 Game master pump-action rifle in .30 I 06 caliber seems to work perfectly, except when I fire it from a bench rest. When I shoot from a rest the action sometimes blows open, and on two or three occasions the cartridge case has come all the way out of the action. Isn’t that dangerous? Should I send the rifle back to the factory? —W.M. Springdale, AR
You didn’t say how you hold your Model 760 when you shoot from a bench, but I can guess. It is common for pump-action rifles to open when the forearm is held firmly by the forward hand while the shooter’s elbows are resting on the bench or other solid support.
When the rifle recoils, everything moves to the rear at once. But the resistance of the shooter’s shoulder snaps the rifle forward again almost at once, and the rest of the rifle moves faster than the hand holding the fore arm. This has the effect of pumping the action. Sometimes it happens even when the forearm is merely resting on a sandbag. This opening is actually only normal functioning, and there is no hazard. If the rifle actually “blew” open, you would know it for sure.
Penetration
Recently an archery expert gave an interesting demonstration at a meeting of our local rod-and-gun club. One of his tricks was to shoot a hunting arrow through a fairly large bag of sand. The arrow didn’t go all the way through, but the point came out the back side. He then told us that a .30/06-caliber 180-grain bullet from a rifle would not shoot through the bag of sand. He did not demonstrate but showed us a similar bag of sand that he said had been shot with a .30/06. There was an entrance hole but no exit hole. How is this possible, or was he pulling our legs? —C.G., Shawnee, KS
He wasn’t. The arrow vs. bullet demonstration is popular, and I’m often asked about it. If the sandbag is large enough, a high-velocity bullet will not go completely through it. This is because of the energy-transfer factor, in which much of the energy in the form of velocity is absorbed by the sand and efficiently distributed throughout its volume, especially if the bullet expands or disintegrates. This distribution of energy is sometimes visually apparent if the bag is tightly packed and the fabric splits and tears.
Sometimes the sandbag will even explode because of the pressures radiating in all directions. This is the same shock effect a soft-nose bullet has on animal tissue. Hunters call it knockdown power. (Editor’s note: Knockdown power is another myth.)
An even more interesting and meaningful experiment is to attach a rifle bullet to the tip of an arrow. The same bullet that will not penetrate a bag of sand when fired from a rifle will penetrate it with relative ease when driven by a bow. Of even greater significance, the bullet-tipped arrow can be pushed through a sandbag by hand. Penetration can be achieved by minimum energy, but as you would expect, the shock effect is also at a very low level.
Stock Fit
Last fall when I was selecting a new side-by-side 20-gauge double to be used for grouse and woodcock, the salesman told me how I could find the make and model that fit me best. He told me to hold each gun with buttplate in the crook of my elbow and my hand in the normal shooting grip with my finger on the trigger. This seems a handy way to check a shot gun for proper trigger-to-buttplate length, but I’d like your opinion. —S.F., Bangor, ME
This old myth provides a reasonably good way to measure the length of your forearm, but that’s about all. The proper length of pull for a shotgun stock is determined by a variety of factors such as the width or thickness of the shooter’s shoulder, neck length, and arm length. Individual shooting style and type of shooting (trap, skeet, waterfowl, and so forth) also play an important part in deter mining proper stock length. And there are other vital stock measurements such as drop at heel and comb, thick ness of comb, cast-off, and cast-on. Determining the length of pull of a shotgun by snugging it into your crooked elbow is like determining the right waist size of a pair of trousers by measuring the length of your legs.
Bullet Spin
As I understand it, the purpose of having lands and grooves in a rifled barrel is to spin the bullet so that the gyroscopic effect will make the bullet fly straight and with its point forward. What I cannot understand is what good it does to have rifling in muzzleloading barrels used with round balls. Since the bullets are perfectly round and have no point, what difference does it make whether they spin or not? —G.B., Friendship, IN
If a round ball does not spin at all, it may build up irregular air pressure ahead of it that could cause it to fly along a jerky, irregular path. A good parallel is the baseball pitcher’s non turning knuckleball. It has an unpredictable course.
Related: Fudd Lore: 5 of the Worst Myths in Rifle Shooting and Hunting
If a round ball rotates around its axis of forward motion, as caused by rifling, it is considerably more accurate than it is without the spin. If, on the other hand, the rotational spin is not around the axis of forward motion, the round ball may curve in flight, depending on how the rotation affects the air pressure. An example of this — again using our baseball pitcher — is the curve ball.
Altering Choke
According to my OUTDOOR LIFE Bird Shooter’s Guide, a shotgun barrel with modified choke will put 45 to 60 percent of the pellets into a 30-inch circle at 40 yards. My doublebarreled shotgun has “FULL” and “MODIFIED” stamped on the underside of the barrels, but both pattern about 75 percent. What causes this, and how can I make the modified barrel pattern properly? —N.S., Lewiston, ID
It is common for shotguns to produce patterns that vary from their indicated choking. Most mass-produced shotguns have a specific measurement of choke or constriction built into the muzzles. This degree of choking has been found to yield a certain average percentage pattern.
Relatively few mass-produced shotguns are actually patterned by shooting them before they leave the plant. But even if they were, other variables such as shot size, load velocity, and shot-cup design often cause pattern densities that differ from the indicated or nominal choke. This is why I always stress that shotgunners should pattern their guns with the type of ammunition they intend to use. If necessary, different loads or brands can be tested until you get the de sired pattern. To open up a pattern you could also try scatter loads manufactured with card wads in the shot, but they are usually available only with No. 8 shot.
As a last resort, you may have to turn the gun over to a gunsmith, preferably a shotgun specialist, for rechoking, Choke can be removed or added.
Biscuit Cutting
I recently had an unusual experience with reloads in my Model 700 BDL in .17 caliber. With a load of 22 grains of du Pont No. 3031 powder behind a 25-grain Hornady bullet, about half of the fired primers have a small round hole. Apparently the hole is where the firing pin hit. When I dropped the load down to 20 grains of No. 3031, the problem disappeared, but according to my reloading manual, reducing the charge cost me 500 feet per second in velocity. Have you ever had a similar experience? —W.W., Athens, GA
The condition you describe is known as primer perforation or, more commonly, “biscuit cutting”-because of the neatly cut holes. It can have three or four different causes, but I’ll lay 10-to-one odds that in your case it’s caused by the wrong choice of primers. The little .17-caliber and some other high-pressure cartridges tend to blow out the small-rifle primer cup where it has been weakened by the firing pin indent. The 6×47-mm. benchrest cartridge does it fairly often too.
This can be cured by using small rifle primers with extra-thick cups made just for this purpose. One such primer is the No. 7½ Remington, which can be immediately recognized by its copper color. The Omark-CCI Number BR-4 also has a thick cup, and a similar primer was recently introduced by Federal.
Read Next: Debunking the Infamous Rifle Knockdown Power Myth
Other causes of primer “biscuit cutting” are rough, misshaped, or chipped firing-pin tips, excessive fir ing-pin protrusion, a weak striker spring, or a combination of these defects.
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