Dec. 37. 1883. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



437 



venison (as the man called the fawn) was dangling from the 

 pommel of my saddle. 



I reasoned like this: "I took n clog one day On account, 

 an old gun and a live 'coon oil another, and why should i 

 not have the meat? Anything in account is better than 

 nothing, and so it came about that at dinner we h'jd "ante- 

 lopc" on the table. 



The deer are shot indiscriminately in all wild portions of 

 Michigan, and the large majority of settlers shoot them 

 whenever opportunity offers. Few settlers would steal 

 cattle from one another, hut the laws for protection of game 

 are entirely ignored by nearly all. 



I huve "repeatedly found nests of the ruffed grouse and 

 thus learned of their heing robbed by isomers who took the 

 eggs to eat. Such acts are despicable, but as the laws ate 

 never enforced they are to he expected. 



Qitantim BUFFicrr. 



Howard Cm-. Dee. 18, 1883. 



THE CHOICE OF HUNTING RIFLES. 



t/Utoi- Kortd awl Stniun: 



One word more a»d I leave finished. Several friends have 

 called my attention to the fact thai in my previous corre- 

 spondence 1 have omitted to say anything concerning the 

 probahle weight of the proposed 10 00 repeater, and the 

 number of cartridges it will carry. 



I do not consider that the weight, would be more than 

 eleven pounds at the most, even supposing that it be ncces- 

 sarv to have stronger and heavier brecehwork. 



S'ueh a ritle with a tkirlv-two inch barrel Ought tn carry 

 at least seven cartridges in the magazine, which is a sutli- 

 cient number for ordina»j' hunting purposes. 



In expressing the hope that T have not occupied too much 

 of your valuable space in Ibis discussion, allow me to ex- 

 press the further hope that the claims I have advanced in 

 behalf of this rifle will meet the favorable recognition of 

 some, manufacturer of repeating arms, and, as a result, that 

 shortly those, who are of the same opinion as myself upon 

 this subject, will he made happy by the possession of a re-P 

 pcating rifle which will effectually do the work inl rusted to 

 it. D. M. B. 



Philadelphia, 



E,l!i,,r Jfamt ,'iul 8<raw»« 



Probably no one man ever spent more, time in private ex- 

 periments" with rifles than Gen. Jacobs, of the honorable 

 East India Company's service. His latest evolution in 1856 

 was a muzzle-loading 32-gauge, 24 inch double barrel, four- 

 grooved rifle, with deep grooves and bands of equal width, 

 and one half twist in length of barrel. The projectile was 

 three diameters lone, with two bands to take the'ritiing and 

 the forepart cast of zinc, the better to enable it to retain its 

 shape under pressure of the great charge used. The charge 

 was from 2J to 3i drams. Great range and accuracy were 

 obtained with this weapon, and the penetration of the balls 

 at 2.000 yards, was four inches iuto very hard birch. 



Light bullets and light charges cannot he expected to 

 attain such results, and the movement iu favor of a 40-90 

 repeater is certainly to be commended. Double barrels and 

 single breech-loaders are behind the age for war or sport: 

 but there is room for improvement iu the, repeating appa- 

 ratus. A friend of mine tells me that, when traveling in a 

 disturbed part of Mexico, he was dismayed to find, after a 

 hard day's ride, that Ids Winchester would not work, the 

 cartridges nnd spring having been jammed by the jolting, a 

 contingency to which probably all repeaters are liable. 

 Whether hunting or righting, a man wants a weapon he can 

 implicitly rely on at a pinch", and if the present repeating 

 apparatus! cannot insure this, attention might again be 

 turned to revolving rifles. These again have a disadvantage 

 that seems impossible to remedy. They cannot be used as 

 single breech-Waders, reserving the magazine, and the cylin- 

 ders muv be exhausted just, when most needed. 



Possibly when we get a perfect rifle wars will have ceased 

 and game" disappeard "before the all-slaughtering hog and the 

 pot-hunter. W. L. 1). 



New York, Dec. 2U, 1883. 



VENISON IN THE LUMBER CAMPS. 



S is generally known, the doer sections of Michigan arc 



and with startling consequences. 1 have heard of one party 

 of three market hunters who confined their efforts to this 

 black work, killing sometimes as high as ten deer in one 

 night. 



Quail shooting in the vicinity of Detroit has been only 

 "so-so" for a week or two. There are biras, but they are 

 lend tn find. One day you will perhaps flush a bevy in the 

 open; the next, day they will he in the woods. As good a 

 flag as I have heard of lately was made bv Mr. George Avery 

 and Mr. Slocum, the latter of flic Star Island hotel, at Port 

 Lampton, Ontario — 75 quail, 5 ruffed grouse, 2 black squirrels. 

 Tbev were gone two days. 



Grand ruffed grouse shooting is reported in Lapeer county, 

 near Deckerville. There have been over thirty wild turkeys 

 shot in the. Grosse Point woods within ten miles of this city 

 during the present season. One gentleman, who has been 

 after them several times, counted twenty -seven in one flock 

 he put up. Uo also said that foxes were very numerous, 

 in fact, they spoiled the turkey shooting, for no sooner would 

 a turkey light on the ground than a fox would he after him. 



I saw "Cherry Brandy" to-night. He told me he was 

 bound for Toronto on a flying trip. Said he: "There's a 

 pigeon shoot there to-morrow; several hundred dollars in 

 prizes: bedad. and oi'll have a shy at that thing." Delta. 



Pistroit, Mich., Pee. 31. 



A 



dotted with lumber camps at this season of the year. 

 Connected with nearly every camp will he found oiie or 

 more professional hunters under contract to supply the vora- 

 cious lumbermen with fresh meat — in other words, venison. 

 Some of these hunters are paid by the season or by the 

 month, others are paid about. SI. 50 per carcass for all the 

 deer they kill, Although what is ironically known as the 

 "open season" on deer ended Dec. 1, it is safe to assert thai 

 nine out of ten of the lumber camp hunters art killing and 

 getting their pay right aloug for all the venison they can 

 bring in. Some of these hunters score from one hundred to 

 one hundred and fifty deer killed during the fall and winter, 

 and uo one knows how many more during 1 lie rest oi the 

 year. Why, I have it on good authority that one. Potter, 

 who hunts 'in the vicinity of Alpena, killed over one hundred 

 deer in the red coat last summer. This Poller, by the wav. 

 always hunted on the Ansable River until last season, when. 

 finding deer were becoming scarce iu that section he emi- 

 grated to Alpena, and if he keeps on as he has begun, he is 

 certainly iu a fair way for emigrating again. 



While, of course, many thousands of deer are slain by 

 parties who hunt more 'from pleasure than for profit, the 

 totalis insignificant compared with the number taken into 

 camp br the regular hunters or killedin the red coat by such 

 fellows' as the "man Potter. Only one who has traveled 

 through the lumbering regions of our Slate, stopping here 

 and there at the larger camps, can appreciate the amount of 

 venison devoured daily. Imagine a camp consisting of say 

 100 men eating it three times every day, or nearly ever) day, 

 for months in succession! And there are hundreds of such 

 camps! 



Now, the owners of these lumbering establisments are, as 

 a rule, wealthy men and law-abiding citizens; and if at the 

 coming meeting of the Michigan Sporlsmen's Association 

 means were devised to induce these owners of camps to refuse 

 pay to hunters who killed or brought in deer out of season, 

 many thousands of the devoted animals would be preserved 

 during the next two months. The right influence, if brought 

 to bear upon our lumbernmu, would surely effect great "re- 

 sults in the line of game preservation 



Another matter I also iope will meet with the attention it 

 deserves at the hands of our State Association; it is the grow- 

 ing and reprehensible practice of "shining" deer. From all 

 accounts it would seem that many hundreds of headlights 

 have been used this season, especially by market hunters, 



GRIZZLY BEARS AND LARGE RIFLES. 



IN the ehoiee of a hunting rifle the width of the caliber 

 should be governed bv the kind of name one expects to 

 kill with it. For small animals, such as foxes or turkeys, 

 the light caliber of .32 will more than suffice. If the hunter 

 desires nothing larger than deer or elk, a .40 or .45 will an- 

 swer, although I prefer a larger caliber. But in hunting 

 dangerous game like our grizzly a much heavier caliber is 

 needed. It is not safe to come to an absolule conclusion as 

 to the power of a rifle, from witnessing its effects in only one 

 or two instances. Large animals vary much in their vitality, 

 and while one bull elk will go down from one or two well 

 placed shots, another will carry off half a dozen. Again, an 

 antelope, as is well kuown, will often stand more lead than 

 an elk, and go off when apparently riddled. With such 

 game the object is to so disable them that they cannot go 

 very far from where first shot, for if only wounded there is 

 no danger iu tracking them up. 



With grizzly, however, the hunter can take no chances. 

 When he approaches bis formidable game in the gloom of 

 heavy timber, he must lie armed with a weapon of power 

 sufficient, if necessary, to stop the beast in his charge, or 

 he may never hunt grizzly but that once. Imagine him 

 facing the monster as it. peers out at him from among the 

 young piues some thirty yards away, swaying from side to 

 'side with that uneasy motion the hear hunter so well knows. 

 All around is deathly silence. He raises his rifle and looks 

 along the sights, trying to pick out a fatal spot in which to 

 place a ball. Now is the time iu which he tteeds a gun that 

 will crash straight along the line of aim through hide and 

 tlesh, bone and "muscle, on into the very vitals, regardless of 

 the angle at which it, may strike a bone, and powerful 

 enough to strike its way through any such obstacle. [lis 

 very life may depend upon the nature of the wound given 

 to the hear. No express rifle will answer now, with its hol- 

 low ball flying in splinters on the first massive bone en- 

 countered.' No .40-90 will do with its elongated pointed 

 Bullet striking a hone, glancing and flying off at a very dif- 

 ferent angle from that intended, or if it does hold its course, 

 givinga wound of small size with little resultant shock. 

 The number of resident hunters, users of Sharps ,40s, or 

 Winchester .45s, who are annually killed by grizzly, answers 

 this point. For such formidable game no gun can well be 

 called too heavy, if within the hunter's power to handle it. 



For this work I prefer a double-barrel, breech-loading 

 rifle. No. X'i bore, of mine and a half pounds weight, using 

 the old-fashioned round ball, slightly hardened, and 120 

 grains of F. G. The heavy round ball possesses excellent 

 smashing powers, and by most authorities on large game 

 hunting is considered as vastly more telling on the animal 

 system than the same weight of lead in an elongated bullet. 

 of necessarily smaller caliber. With the conical, elongated 

 projectile the flesh is not so much cut out as it is displaced; 

 the wound has a tendency to close and does not bleed so 

 freely as from the larger ball. Caliber 12 is about equal to 

 .75, and as the areas of circles are to each other as the square 

 of their diameters, the size of a wound inflicted by a 12-hore 

 is three and a half times as large as that made by a .40 

 caliber, and the damage caused by it is proportionately 

 greater. The actual penetration of a .40-90 with a hardened 

 bullet is greater than that of the 12-bore; but penetration 

 sufficient to go clean through and through a bear is all that 

 is required, and this is easily obfaincd'with the 12-bore. 

 With 120 grains of powder I have frequently smashed 

 through both shoulders, the ball lodging under the skin 

 opposite and occasionally going clean through. Again 1 

 have driven a ball lengthways through the grizzly, entering 

 in at the left rump and lodging under the skin of the chin". 

 This is penetration enough. 



1 have used 153 grains of F. G. in my 12-bore, but there is 

 some recoil from this large charge, and I found that 120 

 grains did the work well enough and was not at all unpleas- 

 ant to shoot. From constant practice a man can stand up 

 under very heavy charges of powder without discomfort; 

 besides, iu the excitement of firing at game, the recoil is not 

 noticed as much as in tiring at a target. Furthermore, in 

 these large calibers, with a light polygroove rifling, a mod- 

 erate twist and a properly fitted round "ball, hardened about 

 one-twentieth, the recoil need not be heavy. English express 

 rifles frequently err in this respect, having heavy, deep 

 rifling and a severe twist, and their owners invariably in- 

 formed me that, they kicked tremendously. A very rapid 

 twist in such rifles is' a great mistake and causes heavy fric- 

 tion, loss of power, and unnecessary recoil. The bullets also 

 are often badly lifted, heing too large and insufficiently 

 hardened, and upset too much in going through the barrel", 

 thereby impairing the accuracy and materially'adding to the 

 kick, of which their shooters complain. Sometimes these 

 defects can be easily remedied. The trajectory of the 12- 

 bore is very flat up to one hundred yards. 



If the express is used with a solid'hullet instead of a hollow 

 one, then the charge of powder must be reduced, and the gun 

 is an express no longer, audits performance must be com- 

 pared with that ot any rifle of the same caliber. 



The English express is almost always incorrectly sighted, 

 the tendency being to give an apparent long point blank by 

 raised breech sights, and many a man throws his express 

 away in disgust finding that it. shoots over at one hundred 

 yards, and not knowing how to remedy the difficulty. 



The express is no more suited for dangerous game than the. 



.4090. although from different reasons. The hollow bullet 

 flies to pieces on striking a bone, without smashing it. This 

 I have, seen on mountain sheep, elk and grizzly. The hollow- 

 ball will do this on grizzly even when fired through the 

 stomach, and will arrive on the other side vastly diminished 

 in size, and small particles of lead will be found at quite a 

 distance from the wound lodged in the fatty tissues. 



Theoretically, a wound from a Winchester express, .50-95 

 ought to shock a grizzly tremendously; practically, be does 

 not. seem to mind it much at first, only roaring the louder 

 and getting very much excited. 1 have known a grizzly to run 

 20U yards and live five minutes with three such express bullets 

 lodged in his forequarters, before and behind the shoulders, 

 one actually passing through his heart, and a fourth lodged 

 in his stomach. The heavy round ball of the .12-bore, if 

 placed in the shoulders, generally knocks him down and ap- 

 parently stuns him for an iustani ; in a second he is up again, 

 but that one second gives time to reload the empty barrel, 

 and the dose can be repeated until he goes down and stajs 

 down. 



I do not mean to assert that grizzly cannot be killed by n 

 40-90, .45-75 or .50-95 express, 'for that would be incorrect. : 

 hut that; if a man wishes to make a success of hunting them, 

 he should use the. wide-bored rifles iu preference. 



No animal ou this continent can compare with the grizzly 

 in extraordinary vitality, and I have witnessed exhibitions 

 of this tcnacity'of life under terrible wounds that seem abso- 

 lutely incredible. Hunting him is the most intensely ex- 

 citing of all wild sports. What hunter who has heard the. 

 tremendous roar of a charging grizzly as he comes crashing 

 at him through the "popples "will ever forget it? And he 

 who hunts grizzly often and successfully will gaze with 

 more respect upou the dead body of his last bear than he 

 did upon his first. Urma horribilU—"Vae horrible hear" 

 — well is he named, and bravely bus he earned bis title 

 through blood-curdling exhibitions of tremendous strength, 

 "nduriug grit, and terrible ferocity. 



Edwamd H. Lrraii-'lixo. 



Brooklyn. Dec. 18, 18)3. 



THE ATTRACTIONS OF BEAUFORT. 



SETTING sail from New Haven Harbor iu the good sloop 

 _ Miriam, of two tons burthen, twenty -five feet length and 

 ten feet breadth of beam, for a cruise on the Atlantic coast 

 through the Sound, our crew consisting of a skillful sea 

 captain. Capt, George W. Ward, an old salt and a fearless 

 and accomplished navigator, and two faithful dogs. We 

 have been upon the briny deep in ail sorts of weather, fair 

 and foul, and finally put into this famous harbor for rest; and 

 recreation. Really, nature seems to have lavished all her 

 charms upon this delightful spot, For the first time since 

 we started for our destination, which was to have been St. 

 Augustine and Indian River, has our party felt like tarrying 

 and making Beaufort instead our head quarters. The climate 

 her*) is delicious, and the old town of Beaufort, which is 

 beautifully situated, has afforded our whole crew much 

 interest and pleasure. We are sure that if it were better 

 known and more extensively advertised, many of the North- 

 ern tourists who now seek Florida would come and spend 

 their timeliere. The scenery is more attractive, the induce- 

 ments and advantages arc far superior, both for the invalid 

 in quest of an equable and balmy temperature, and the 

 sportsman seeking sport and diversion with gun and rod. 



We stopped in on our route along the Santee further north 

 of us in this State and had some good gunning, but the birds 

 are more plentiful here, and the river and bay in front of the 

 town all full of fish. The bay is fine for yachting sports, 

 and the bold entrance to Port Royal through its incompara- 

 ble harbor is one of the finest, sheets of land locked waters 

 we have ever seen. The depth of water on these bars is 

 such that vessels drawing twenty-one to twenty-three feet 

 may enter at any time of tide. We have not been impressed 

 either with the appearance or the promises, present or pros- 

 pective. of the far-famed, or rather much talked of, town of 

 Port Royal, which, it seems to us, is a city of the dead 

 rather than of the living. In fact, for all purposes of the 

 commerce of this section, Beaufort no doubt can furnish ac- 

 commodations for many years, and, perhaps, centuries to 

 come. 



Beaufort is a sweet, cosy little place. Five hotels and 

 most excellent private boarding-houses invite the gueht who 

 rnay r desire the choice of either The Sea Island Hotel is 

 well managed by the proprietor, John Clancy, Esq. Boars, 

 yachts and facilities for enjoying aquatic sports are at the 

 very doors of the hotel, and guides for hunting and sailing 

 are easily procurable from the respectable corps of colored 

 people who are in the majority in this section, but whose 

 conduct and behavior toward all classes is unexceptionable 

 so far as our observation goes, and so far as we are informed 

 by persons resident as well as transient here. 



'in former years, when Beaufort was only a Southern 

 planters' retreat, this old town was a sleepy, drowsy town of 

 but a few hundred inhabitants, who spent their" summers 

 here, coming from their plantations, to which they repaired 

 in winter. Now it is a thrifty commercial place. It was 

 the center of the Sea Island or long staple cotton culture of 

 this part of the State, and much wealth was aggregated here 

 in lands and slaves. The war came and wiped out all 

 the possessions in lauds as well as slaves of the former in- 

 habitants, who were bereft of their plantation properly under 

 the operation of the United States district tax safes, and 

 many of the elegant old homesteads passed iuto other and 

 strange hands for a mere" soag, being bought by Northern 

 purchasers and speculators. At present those properties are 

 held by those purchasers under those titles, which are pro- 

 nounced good by the Supreme Court. In our opinion this is 

 a place where capital could find profitable investment at 

 present prices, for the natural advantages ol the section— its 

 rich, fine lands — must command higher prices as times im- 

 prove and as the section is redeveloped. 1'he great phos- 

 phate interests of the State are just commencing to be 

 asserted here, and already have some stupendous mills been 

 erected and outlays of 'foreign and Northern capital has 

 been expended for the development of the great fertilizers 

 that have Beaufort River rock for their basis." 



The coast is fringed with a congeries of what are called 

 the Huuting Islands, which are mere sheets of barren sand 

 islands covered with palmetto and other trees, and which 

 were owned and used in former years as hunting grounds for 

 the wealthy planters, whose plantations were adjacent on 

 Sr. Helena" and adjoining islands. The islands then were 

 stocked and abounded with deer, and there are still numbers 

 of deer and wild turkey and game remaining upon them. 

 Quail hunting is line in this vicinity, and guides may be hired 

 for f 1 a day to give a sportsman all the shooting that may- 

 be desired. The rates of board at, the- hotel, which isdeiighf 



