The Shotgun Is Here to Stay 



by Franklin M. Reck . . . photographs by John Calkins 



THE RABBITS, squirrels, and ducks on the Grouse Farms were 

 confused. Guns they could understand. It was a different 

 matter when men came at them with such strange devices as 

 boomerangs, tapsticks, slingshots, and longbows. 



The Ford Times had decided to test these ancestral weapons 

 in the hands of modern man. A crew of hunters had been 

 selected, trained, and turned loose on an estate full of wild life. 

 Now, after two days of effort, the hunters were sure of just one 

 point: that the rabbits, the pheasants, the squirrels, and the 

 clucks entered into the spirit of the thing with a right good will. 

 The leaps of the rabbits had taken on a certain carefree gaiety, 

 ducks in flight were circling back for a closer look, and the chat- 

 ter of the squirrels carried the lilt of mockery. Perhaps their car- 

 nival spirit was due to the brevity of the casuality list: 



One bruised rabbit hip. 



One rabbit with clipped underhair. 



One pulled leg muscle (hunter). 



There was a time when men depended on noiseless weapons 

 to bring meat to the family table. It is recorded that the boomer- 

 ang has laid low wallabies, emus, and enemy warriors. The sling- 

 shot has brought down such diversified game as birds, bunnies, 

 and Goliath. With the longbow, the English foot soldier wiped 

 out the knighthood of France. The thrown club is as old as the 

 caveman. If modern man were limited to these weapons, how 

 would he fare? The question interested the Ford Times. 



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