■Tan. 3, 1881.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



455 



large. 



^ulAhaVe^eenrnore successful had I been using heavier 

 i , ,r ; w such gable can be, and is killed with 



" ■■ :> I ■■ gtifiSi 



Many thousands of buffalo have gone uowti before the 73 



faodel [Winchester; and even the old "inuzzle stuffci's" 01 

 he Ittrgi i Sierra Nevada to/t" >/'e grizzly I 



killed, Was rendered horn, de- combat by U 



: frtfm a VA aiddel V. Irichegte*. The bullet struck 

 him iu .the breast (lie was silling pubis li in k< hi '' - ,; 

 through, broke his back. But etui, in tackling Ihcse of any 

 Ecfcfey Mduptafn bear other than the black and the brown 

 (lor with these exceptions lliev are all apt 1.0 prove Ugly cus- 

 tomers, and I am willing to confess to at least a very whole- 

 tbrrie respect for theni'i, 1 want everv possible advantage, 

 ijlk! Hierci'nre the best and inn,-! efleelive rille made. Even 

 then 1 am not p'ariieuiarij fond of shooting at them, unless 

 idsUkin be favorable and my hand stead,}' 



As can fie rea.lilv understood.; a good serviceable repeater 

 for a bear r'e in - ■ I e n ■■: assistance and vastly preferable— 

 especially;! it has to be conducted at uneomf"! 

 quarters — to a rifle,' no matter how good, which carries 6'nw 

 a single cartridge. If the first shot miss, the Second ' eadj 

 In iiiriustant of time. They have saved more than one lib 

 which would have been lost with a sing] 

 lint it Is not only for bi av shooting but for 

 that I would have Iheproposed 40-00 repeater 



vhehu di :• ■ booting-has probably seen t& 



hlarkabie in ,o , ih 'i ■■ i vitality in animals 



p the suthe or of different species. Some Will fall dead 

 from a. shot which another would, carry for hours. I have 



( seeh ahlef-o : : ' ■ " li!| v ' l '" ! ■■'"■ ' '"-"-'■ 'some 



bear more than others, and 80 Sh. i: the CUSe 



with buffalo. Some will stand an .oin 



of shooting, I know of a bull that was shot thr-ne'i 



iluihs Willi ji hern y Sharps before be caine down: most of 

 t belli were behind ille shoulder at 'hat: lie received the last, 

 five or six with stoical indifference, having braced himself 

 as. if to receive them; finally he rolled over, dead 1 knew 



.1 - io, tt mile or two shot, with the same rifle 



L'.leuii lllroii :. ' 



. 1 llave always thought i hat the menial r ii,v..n - m- ' 



the animal was at the lime he receives the shot, has much to 

 do with its effect, i have frequently p'royeD I 

 satisfaction. If the animal is very much angered, or in some 

 cases very mueli scared, certainly in the former, lie will take 

 more BhOOtiug Hutu if surprised by the lead u liile In 

 amiable and quiet slate of mind, Bui I digress, I simply 

 refer to this because We wish to get hold of :< convenient, gun 

 that will kill theul in whatever frame of mind they liriiV be, 

 If there be anything in this theory. You might as well al- 

 most shout at an old bull buffalo going dead n«'.i.r Irom you 

 frith it popgun, as with i>. tiO-grain or To-ei'ain W 

 Mich a Case it is not very probable i.Uat you willge! your buf- 

 falo! utiles he cliang.es his position, but it is more titan nrob- 

 able that ybu will with a W-8Q or 45-133 Sharps. Now let 

 teij and determined whether or not can be made a 

 repeater as easy of manipulation, and as sate as tile "0-giain 

 Winchester, mid as effective as the 40-00 Sharps. I am only 

 Voicing the opinion ol sonicrjftl" need hunters 



I know, in saying that this would, in all probability be the 

 title most adapted to hunting purposes. As to weighti even 



"m.i -,s:u'J tri liave (lie biceeh work made 



stioiiger and heavier, I do nol thju'k thai this would exceed 

 at the outside til or 13 pounds. (My liO-grain rifle, with full 

 magazine, weighs Hi pounds). W ilii a 33 inch barrel it ought 

 to carry at least seven cartridges in the magazine, which 

 number is quite sullioieut for ordinary hunting purposes, 

 bund that the repealer Daijaol bi made - b 

 iieavy charge, well, "there's an end on n. ' Cer- 

 iainly, howevci, a repeater can he made of the tQ-7Q pattern 

 This compromise Wi.uld be far in advance of auy repeater 

 now in the market. 



The befit and m ■.-; su cestui skin, hunter I have known 

 ttttd most skillful stalker, used a 40-70 Sharps, and would use 

 nothiug else, lie lias killed with it twenty six elk in one 

 day. twenty-eight in another. While we must, deplore and 

 deprecate his pr.iel ices it, were foolish not to profit by his 

 profound knowledge 6f every thing which pertains to the art 

 !,!■■- 1 game. I personally have learuedfromilim 

 many "points" wSrcb have been invaluable to me in my 

 pursuit of game. 



I take this opportunity to express to "Greenhorn" my ap- 

 preciation of his kind offer to send to me a ,45-Cjd. express- 

 bullet, and to thank liitti for the same. 1 have forwarded to 

 him through you my address. It is rather strange about this, 

 for it was of these v»ry same rifles and lot of bullets that I 

 had heard,, 



A friend of "P.,'' who has hunted with him and who re- 

 gards him (as must every one who has known or heard of 

 him) as one of the most thorough sportsmen iu the West and 

 certainly the most successful bear hunter, is my informant. 

 He stated to me that "P." had used the .40 or .45-cal. hollow 

 pointed bullet upon hear with excellent results. As I under- 

 stood it was with these thai he i! rde the truly remarkable 

 gcere of seventeen bears in seventeen shots. This is a kind 

 •of argument which cannot be disregarded and will some 

 tibiae convince a man against his will. I trust I am not ob- 

 stinate, but it will take a good den! to convince me that a 

 single or double express is better for game shooting than an 

 effective repeater. 



In repeating lilies the express principle, SO far as [have 

 seen it (r ; .- ! I ■• Iu 



A Winches** 50-ealiber express using the hollow-pointed 

 - most nnsatisfactorj upon game; with I olid ball 

 The practical results were much more satisfactory, but still 

 Ithe caliber is too large to my mind. 



L really have written very much more than I had at. first 

 intended', and am afraid 1 have let my pen run away with 

 me. 1 plead in exteuuatioH m; great interest in all that per- 

 tains to legitimate sport, ami a desire to make my 

 understood, since 1 have gone I his far and have the blame 

 Testing upon me of having raised this discussion. 



One word about sights. These are quite as important as 

 a good rifle. With regard to these nearly every one has an 

 idea of his own, because I suppose of the very great differ- 

 ence in eyesight. My advice is to have your rifle sighted for 

 125 yards— with any good sight — to practice entirely with 

 this, and under no circumstances use any other, no 'matter 

 how tempting it may be to experiment with other sights. 

 The result will be that in the end you will be able to do 

 ■ ntirely satisfactory -hooting with these sights, no 

 matter whether others can or not, and certain it is that you 

 will be able to do much bitter shooting than if you had been 

 in the meanwhile experimenting with a dozen new styles of 

 sights. Cooper's sights (Bo,:. •man, M. T.) are very 

 and FicuniTs patent sights (Cheyenne, Wyo. Ter. s . 

 eellent. I have seen, however, a great deal of most excel- 



lent shooting done in the held with a plain, old-fashioned 

 head and Y-shaped notch. 



While presuming to give advice at all, let me add that 

 which I have been 'taught to consider (unfortunately not In 

 observe) a cardinal rule in shooting at all game with a rifle, 

 which indisputably sound, /. /?.: "Reserve your excite- 

 ment until vou have finished shooting. Take plenty of time 



(you 



quickly unless you m 



Vfttb due apprcoiat 



[cWfyfJUbn 



pdata fl com: 



1 have used with gre; 



tally lucky 



all you want), and never shoot 



of what I have just written, I some- 

 ic following diagrams, which will 

 S hi s of my own and which 

 • i'lb whicli f have. 



I 



Front siehti beadsbApoi Bluett} plant platinum driven in beSdl 



In, front, view! i,/osi,le view: ?-32in. in height 



JfaA 1L~ 



2. 



ued ; showing platinum line io center ; 



o'n si I,' vie'' . '.-.\ iKlli.' ii '--'i " ■■ 

 In- object of 0-is e:Lb:l 1- io ■ , i.e. ij 'o 

 ter of t lie globe. 



Rear globe sight on small oT stock. Lyman's patent with rim 

 slightly onlarged. and large aperture SilgLCh- decreased in size. 



The combination IS not, nearly so complicated us Would 

 appear; iu point of fact it is ey.treraely simple. It has a great 

 advantage — in that it can be caught the instant the gun is 

 ■he 'shoulder. Through it the whole body of the 

 game can be seen, yet a Spot only as large as half a dollar 

 aimed at by placing the bead Upon it. 



If it be necessary to fire at long range, this can be done by 

 elevating the globe (No. 3) and using a smaller aperture, 

 with winch it is provided., and the bead, disregarding alto- 

 gether No. 3. 



^ Having thus delivered myself, I will do what probably I 

 ihould have done some time ago, i. e., abrupt)'.- close, 



By the by, I hope I have said nothing frorn which it can 

 be inferred" that 1 have not scored my fair proportion of 

 misses. If I have produced this impression in the minds of 

 any one, right spec, lily do I wish to disabuse them of it, and 

 assure them that there has been in my experience a very 

 large number of inexcusable misses which could not be 

 charged to any effect in rifle or in sights, but which were 

 line Wholly, entirely and altogether to the fault of 



D. M. B. 



I ,,,. .eeoPHtA. 



p si Much that I have written will apply to the commu- 

 nication by "Big Injun." I doubt not that he gets very 

 good results from his mode of loading. I had not before be 

 Sieved the 4a-7.j shell capable of takimr such a heavy charge 

 of powder. 



1 hope that we may all be apprised through your columns 

 when the repeater referred to by "Straight Stock" is put 

 upon the market. I for one would much like to see it. 

 1 D. M. B. 



fflitor Forest mid Stream: 



In your issue of November 29 I note a plea for a 40- 

 00-000 repeater by your correspondent, "D. M. B.," and the 

 confident assertion that such a rifle would become a prime 

 favorite with sportsmen. He claims to have had some prac- 

 tical experience with such a cartridge, and to have got the 

 opinion of those 'who do not advance, a theory with regard 

 to the effect of rifles, bullets, etc., etc., till they have 

 stripped it of all probability or surmise, and induced it to a 

 fact by testing the same upon game." This would lead one 

 to suppose that such a cartridge had been thoroughly tested 

 in a single breech-loader and it only remained to adapt the 

 mechanism of the magazine gun to this cartridge to make 

 it ■•such an improvement as would be welcomed by ail true 

 lovers of the sporting rille who wish to kill cleanly, etc, 

 etc." Having spent considerable time and money in get- 

 tins.' up a single shot rifle to shoot a iO-IJO-oOO can r 

 tended for loDg range target, practice, which proved a 

 complete failure. I should like very much to know where 

 the 40-90-500 rifles were made from which "D. M. B." and 

 his '■non-theoretic game shots" got their experience? 



Perhaps it may be interesting to your readers to know 

 something of ray experience with this 40-90-500 cartridge. 

 The first barrel I had made had an 18-inch twist. On trial 

 I found the bullets struck sideways (key-holed) at 50 yards. 

 ;■!■..-! .as then fitted, having a twist of 13A inches. 

 This kept the bullets point on, but they did not spin quite 

 true, most of the holes made, even at 100 yards, showing 

 some elongation. At 100 yards rest, I fired fifteen consecu- 

 tive shots into an tjj-iuch ring, but at distances beyond 300 

 vards it was inferior to the ordinary L. R. rifle. At 1,000 

 yards il would be off the target on an average of one fifth of 

 the shots. The trajectory was higher than the average. .44 or 

 .45 L. ~R. rifle, and it was inferior in every shooting essential, 



though made with the greatest care by a celebrated rifle man- 

 ufacturing company. 



There were but two of these rilies made at that time, and 

 I have never seen or heard of another that had sufficient. 

 twist to keep a 500 grain .40-cal. bullet point on. My experi- 

 ence with this cartridge leads me to very confidently predict 

 that a -lO-'JO-oUO repeater, with tubular magazine, cannot be 

 made to work- at all satisfactory. That if it could be made. 

 it would not be what sportsmen would prefer to those al- 

 ready in the market, and that the concern turning out such 

 a rifle would harvest a lot of money— out of pocket, 



In my judgment riflemen have nothing to complain of 

 now iu 'regard to rifles suitable for large game. The Win- 

 chester 50-05 or 45-75, or auy of the other repeaters 



these cartridges are pretty effective weapons al - '- ' 



ing distances. Perhaps tin- 50-05 "Winchester shell could be 

 choked dou-ii to tftke ■■'. .40 build, and used in their prei enl 

 mechanism to advantage, but .a 880 bullet would be amply 

 heavy. In my judgment a bullet of 2} to 3i diameters iu 

 length is as long — no matter what the bote — as can be used tr> 

 advantage in a spotting arm. It has sufficient staying qual- 

 ities with a proper powder charge, and a greater length can 

 only be u-i □ S loss of velocity. 



Some years ago I was one of a party u ho spent sonic time 

 iu Dakota and Montana shooting huge game and small. 

 Vfter much cogitation and experiment I chose for my 

 pda a Peabody-Martini Military^ t Wall model), .45-ealiuer. 

 ritli tockand sights altered to suit. This arm weighed 

 S.i pounds I loaded shell with 110 grains powder all 



.•■..-. .■.!:■ bullet. At 200 yards without cleaning 

 I could sliooi continuously into au 8-inch bullscve. At 250 

 yards I killed two antelope— a buck and doc— al one shot, tuft 

 bullet striking the buck just back of the fore shoulder, cut 

 ling off two ribs, passing into the doe at about the same 

 place but. coming out at her breast. The bullet was badly 

 i led on the ribs of the first animal, and made a largo 

 hole where it came out, and passed through the second, but 

 I believe, it still had force to have killed a, third had there 

 been another in line. This cartridge was but a little longer 

 than the Winchester 45-15, but was quite bottled in shape. 

 Could such results be got out of a repeater. I can imagine 

 nothing more to be desired in a weapon for lar-c game. 



If I was to enter a plea for a new rifle it would be for a 

 ,25-bore, using about a 30-75 cartridge, suitable for 

 ducks, squirrels and other small game. Our. 32 cartridges 

 are all too large and too slow; except the Winchester 

 83 cartridges there is not a decent small-bore cartridge 

 u the market. All those cartridges the bullets of which 

 ire reduced at the butt to fit shell of same Outside dia- 

 meter as bullet, arc an abomination— relics of the early 

 days of breech-loaders, and ought to have been discarded 

 long jco. Not one of all the various sizes of this style of 

 CUrfridge will shoot decently accurate when a proper powder 

 charcc is used. Some of them with a proportion of 7 to 10 

 in lead to 1 of powder will do fair target work when there is 

 no wind, but. for game shooting they are altogether loo slow, 

 causing many misses by a mis judgment of distance bv a few 

 yards/ 



The larger cartridges of this style, the extra large .38, extra 

 leu 82s and .22s are all notoriously inaccurate, because of 

 the nicking down of the butt of bullet, the gas getting by 

 I, aick deflecting the bullet as it leaves the muzzle of rifle. 

 Of course. 1 he greater the muzzle pressure the greater will 



be this deflei ,: 



Another reason for a smaller bore than .32 is that bullets 

 when driven at a ingh velocity have a splashing effect on 

 thin skinned creatures like birds, and fortius reason should 

 have as small diameter as will give sufficiently acccrate- 

 range, say 300 yards. 



lam happy to state that there is some prospect of such ;t 

 rifle — single-loader — being placed on the market by one of 

 our reliable ritie manufacturers before many months, and I 

 think it will be appreciated by those who prefer the scien- 

 tific spiral bore with its tiny projectile to the belching scat- 

 ter gun with its handful of" powder and lead. 



PEicoDY-IVLnrnNi. 



fflitor Forest and Sd 



I quite agree with "D. M. B." in what he says in your 

 issue of the 29th of November, in favor of the 40-00 re- 

 peater. I am getting a. 40-00 repealer to take out to India 

 with me for antelope shooting, hut would have, preferred 

 the 40-90 if it had been in evisbnee; but the 40-60 is the 

 most powerful, considering its caliber, that I know of. The 

 English .40-cal. expresses tab 85 a< tlOgraiue powder and 

 180 and 220 grains bullet. The pcuel rniion of express rifle 

 bullets can be increased, if required, by ca-ting them with B 

 smaller hole, or solid, and some makers fit their express 

 molds with plungers, by which the size of the hole can be 

 regulated. Bkkoal Sepoy. 



Cundo.n, England, Dee. 11, IMS. 



ORANGE MOUNTAIN GROUSE. 



THE "heathen" must go, for the true inwardness of the 

 unfathomable mysteries surrounding his dark ways and 

 vain tricks has been discovered hidden beneath the feathers 

 of an educated Orange Mountain partridge. 



These birds have been resred under the sourd afdrcrsr. 

 bells factory whistles, and the unearthly screecliing oi loco- 

 motives, and it behooved the mother turd to early 

 them the doctrine of "self preservation," and to instill mlo 

 their infantile brains the necessity of watrhfulm 

 up-and-gitedness." Thev graduated early in life, ami as 

 dutiful children endowed with natural piopehsities, which 

 have become great Iv refined and quickened by long expert- 

 el contact with the yellow dog and the L . S. c. 

 ket. they have become a wonder, and food for reflection 

 only. As the art of shooting, and the legitimate taking of 

 game should be classed among fch< higbei sciences, here then 

 is a grand field for the velveteen-hammerlc 

 study nature in a bunch of feathers, and return to his city 



home at night, empty— not excepting his intense eagerness to 

 solve the why and wherefore of the "pure cussedness of 

 this, the king'of game birds. 



But occasionally man, who has never yet willingly sub- 

 mitted to any created thing, whose power of endurance 

 surpasses any animal of his inehes, whose insatiate appetite 

 1 a ! him to persevere, endure, do and dare, whose will is 

 to will and nothing less; man. with the aid of his old com- 

 panion, the two working together, succeeds after a two 

 hours' chase in cornering one of these winged wonders, and 

 then with an arm of steel, and eye, brain, nerve, muscle, 

 and everv fibre of his body kevedup to E sharp, whispers the 

 word "Hi on," which, as with magic, uncorks the bottled 

 lightening, and within the ihirty-seeondth part oiasccond 

 is enacted which beggars description. 



Grand old fellow. We almost sigh as we lif this inanimate 



