Some curious experiments with smokeless powder may be tried with a shot gun.  If the fulminating cap be large, the powder fine, the wads numerous and hard and the charge of shot heavy, all being well rammed down, and the paper case well spun over the last pasteboard wad, a charge of smokeless powder about equal in weight to one-half of what would be employed of black powder would give about the same results as black powder.  But if the charge of shot be omitted, the primer will only ignite the powder, and there will be set up sufficient pressure merely to throw the wads about half way up the barrel of the gun, when the powder will go out.  Now if this same charge of powder be collected and reloaded into a new cartridge case and well confined behind wads and a charge of shot, as above explained, it will all burn, giving the same results as black powder.

Attempts have been made to use this powder in pistols and revolvers, but here it has proved a failure, as the pressure is not great enough to cause the powder to be consumed, unless it be in the form of very fine grains or dust, in which case the pressure mounts too high.  However, this might be overcome to a degree by making the powder porous.  The chemical conditions of the powder might be the same, but the physical conditions must be different.  A powder suitable for shot guns and pistols would not be suitable for rifles.

One not familiar with the characteristics of smokeless powder would be almost certain to fail in his first attempt to fire it.  Many persons have been convinced by their first experiments that this powder would not burn at all in a gun, any more than so much sand.

Smokeless powder is consumed with a rapidity which accords with the conditions of its confinement.  Therefore, the bullets which have been experimented with by different governments have been the cause of much of the varying pressures attributed to the smokeless powders.

The Austrians use the Mannlicher steel jacketed bullet.  The steel casing or jacket is first tinned on the inside and then the lead is cast in, thus melting the tin and adhering firmly to the jacket.  This projectile sets up enormous friction in the barrel of the gun when used with smokeless powder; as the smokeless powder leaves the gun barrel perfectly clean and the two steel surfaces being in absolute contact cause tremendous friction; and as the coefficient of friction varies with every shot, the pressure in the gun constantly varies greatly.

The German silver covered bullet used by the French has the disadvantage that when firing rapidly the chamber of the barrel becomes nickel plated and great friction is caused, mounting up the pressures and causing the muzzle velocities to fall off.

The Austrians, in order to prevent their steel cased bullets from rusting and to lessen the friction in the barrel of the gun, cover them with a heavy lubricant, which gives the cartridges an unsightly appearance and causes them to gather dust and sand.  The French employ a lubricant at the base of the projectile, with a small copper disk between the same and the powder.