One of the most important features is, of course, the making of barrels. The machines for drilling and boring are the best that money can buy, and the operatives the most skilful to be found anywhere. Care at this stage reduces the necessity for straightening later. Every point is given the minutest attention. In drilling 22-calibers, for example, the length of the hole must be from 100 to 125 times the diameter of the drill.

Improvements have made it possible to drill harder steel than formerly. This reduces the weight of the gun, and is important to the man who carries it.

Taking off 2/1000 of an Inch.

The boring is an especially delicate task. In choke-boring your shotgun, for example, the final reamer took off only 2/1000 of an inch. Think of such a gossamer thread of metal! But it insures accuracy. No pains can be too great for that.

This exquisite painstaking will be seen still more in the barrel-inspection department, to which we will go now. In passing, we must not forget the grinding shop, where is, perhaps, the finest battery of grinding machines in the United States; or

•The bullet breaks a metal tape at the moment of leaving the muzzle. This time and the time of striking target are electrically recorded on the Chronograph.

THE STORY IN A RIFLE ____________ 93 the polishers running at the dizzy speed of 1,500 to 1,700 revolutions per minute and making the inside of the barrel shine like glass. This high polish is important, for it resists rust and prevents leading.

That is the atmosphere of the whole place. Every action has its reason. There is not an unnecessary motion made by any one, and there is not one necessary thing omitted, whatever the cost or trouble.