Shot

Shot, in artillery, denotes any solid projectile discharged from a cannon. All shot, however, is not absolutely solid, since the so-called Palliser shot has a cavity within it containing powder or other explosive substance, and this is exploded by force of impact, no fuse being employed. The introduction of longitudinal shot has almost rendered obsolete such combinations as bar-shot, chain-shot, canister, and grape. In the first of these two shots were joined by an iron bar, in the second by a chain; canister was a hollow ball or canister containing a number of bullets, which were scattered by the discharge; and grape consisted of a number of bullets connected like grapes on a stem. Shot for sporting-guns varies in size from buck-shot, the size of a pea, to the smallest dustshot. The uniformity of the shot is obtained by dropping the molten lead from a height into a tub of water, arsenic being sometimes added to give a greater degree of hardness. The shot is sorted by being rolled over sloping sleves which have various-sized round orifices which just fit the different types required and reject imperfect shots. Having been thus sorted, they are polished by being placed in rotary barrels in which is placed a certain quantity of black lead.