THE OOLOGIST. 



105 



A Collector's Gun 



Under the heading, "A Field Natura- 

 list's Outfit," the writer describes among 

 necessary articles his gun and attach- 

 ments, and as it has been more than 

 16 years since I was a beginner at the 

 collecting of eggs, mammals aud birds 

 it may not be presumption on my part 

 if I describe a part of my collecting 

 outfit which to my mind seem superior 

 to any heretofore described in your 

 Valuable paper. For this locality 

 at least a rifle is of little use in secur- 

 ing game to say nothing of the damage 

 done to specimeus by the whirling 

 motion of the bullets. 



Hunters prefer shotguns to rifles 

 because game is seldom seen at long 

 range. Bears are usually trapped and 

 killed with a charge of shot in the head 

 at close quarters: if pursued bruin 

 will rush away through briars aud 

 swamps where dogs can scarcely follow 

 the thorns seemiug only to comb his coat 

 of jet. Large shot is sure enough for 

 deer so what use of a rifle barrel here? 

 I I see no use of anything more than a 

 good killing breech loading shot gun 

 and an insertion barrel. The latter 

 can be made bv any practical gun- 

 smith. One which I have used for 8 

 yejars with the utmost satisfaction is of 

 the following description. 



Length 8 inches, bored to receive 32 

 calibre Winchester cartridges, is not 

 chambered but tapers gradually from 

 breech to muzzle, the latter being the 

 same diameter as the wads which snug- 

 ly fit the shells. A band i inch long is 

 shrunk around the muzzle to make it 

 fit the gun barrel and another band H 

 inches long is shrunk on the breech eud 

 and a rim is made on it when it was 

 finished in the lathe so that it fits the 

 gun just the same as a paper shot shell. 

 Room is made for the head or rim of 

 the cartridge to siok in even with the 

 breech end of the barrel, and a square 

 notch is made on one side deep enough 



to allow the use of a small chisel-like 

 instrument to extract the shells. The 

 shells I use are the common 32 calibre 

 Winchester amuuition. I pulled out 

 the bullets with pinchers, and a few 

 shots expands the bottle-necked portion 

 of the shell so that it is all the same 

 size. I punch out the exploded caps 

 with a piece of pointed steel wire and a 

 light hammer, and to seat the new 

 primer I stand the muzzle end of the 

 shell upon any smooth metal surface 

 aud give the cap a few light blows with 

 the same hammer. These shells are 

 very durable and will stand thousands 

 of shots befoi'e they wear out. What I 

 use were bought in 1885 and all have 

 been fired many hundreds of times aud 

 except for blackness seem none the 

 worse - of wear. My wad cutter is a 

 hollow belt punch of the proper size. 

 For amuuition measure I use a 32 

 calibre short Smith and Wesson centre 

 fire shell, I drilled a hole through the 

 exploded cap and fixed iu a wire for a 

 handle and when heaped full of powder 

 and level full of shot is a proper load, 

 and there is 800 charges of powder and 

 125 of shot iu a pound of either. 



High priced coarse grained powders 

 are of no use in these shells, the fine grain- 

 ed cheap grades, or the quickest wood 

 powder are all right. One wad on 

 powder and one on shot is I all use. 

 With fine quick powder and No. 10 

 shot. I have killed such birds as 

 Tanagers, Grosbeaks, Jays, etc. at the 

 height of over 75 feet and have secured 

 many warblers at the same height with 

 dust shot. The pattern and penetration 

 of this little barrel is wonderful, for 

 destroying such vermin as the English 

 Sparrow-, Chipmonks, Squirrels, etc. it 

 has no equal, for it is nearly sui*e death 

 to them and does not make much noise 

 and uses the least amunitiou of any 

 effective gun using powder and shot. 



For the collector of birds nothing can 

 surpass it, in either utility or economy. 

 With one of these insertion barrels a 



