The question as to what the actual amount of recoil really is has never been settled satisfactorily; the most erroneous opinions have been given, and assertions equally erroneous have been made, by those who have attended to the subject. To clearly elucidate this question, it is absolutely necessary that the circumstances be reduced to one standard: but the difficulty is to obtain that; for it would vary according to muscular development, the weight and height of the sportsman. Indeed any principle laid down would be liable to be disputed, from the very different way in which every sportsman lifts his gun to his shoulder: if one presses it against his shoulder with a pressure equal to 5 lbs., he will receive a certain amount of recoil; he that presses it with a force equal to 10 lbs. will receive less; and with a pressure of 30 lbs. it will be found to yield the least of all. I will illustrate it in this way. Take a spring cushion (something like the spring machine found at all fairs for testing the force of a man pressing against it), if you allow a gun to recoil against this when the starting pressure is only 5 lbs., it will drive it up to 70 lbs., or nearly so, from the velocity with which you have put the 7 lbs. of matter which is contained in the gun into a long sweeping blow. The next time you try, put the starting point at 10 lbs., and you will find a much less result in the extreme weight denoted; but carry on this experiment, placing the cushion with a resisting force of 30 lbs., and you will find the extreme recoil indicated at from 40 lbs. to 45 lbs., and even up to a higher starting resistance. But to this extent it is not advisable to go, for the strain becomes too great on the handle of the gun-stock, and there is too near an apparent approach to a solid resistance, which it is well-known would break the best stock that was ever made. Having shown how we may approximately obtain the exact amount of force, and how it may, even with two persons, give different results, I will now state what I have found to be the result of many hundreds of trials made with the view of deciding this question. Before doing so, however, I will further premise that hundreds of attempts have been made at various times by different Governments, and by many talented men, to obtain a correct recoil machine which shall efficiently measure the recoil, and in such a perfect line with the intended direction of the projectile as to obtain accurate results: but this is found to be perfectly unattainable, though I believe the nearest approach to it has been made by Mr. Whitworth during his experiments with the hexagonal rifle.