932 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
§;w(e §n$ nt{d §m(. 
GAME IN SEASON FOR DECEMBER. 
Moose, Alee. Americana. 
Caribou, Rangifer caribou. 
Kllc or wapiti, Carons canadensis. 
Ko<l or Va. deer. C. virginianua. 
Squlrrols, rod, black and gray. 
Hares, brown and pray. 
W ild turkey, Melcagns aallopam. 
Pinnated amuse or prairie 
chickens, Oui'idnnia cujildo. 
Huffed grouse or pliousuut, Bo¬ 
rn i.-u umbehus. 
Quail or partridge, Ortucvirffini- 
anw. 
Woodcock, PhiUihda minor. 
Swans, Brant, Wild Pucks, Geese, ,Y 
tWTliis table does not apply to all the States. It is meant to 
represent the game which Is generally in season at this time. 8tate 
regulations may prohibit tho killing of some species of game hero 
mentioned. 
CAPTAIN BOGARDUS’ BIG SHOOT. 
Captain Bogardus, on Saturday last, once more estab¬ 
lished liis claim to be considered the champion shot of the 
world in his great match against time, skill, and endur¬ 
ance. The match was for a purse of $1,000 put up by 
Carl Dittmar, tho powder manufacturer, who was will¬ 
ing to wager that amount that the great Captain could 
not, within the space of 450$ minutes, break 5,500 glass 
blass, to be sprung from Bogardus’ Traps at eighteen 
yards rise — the shooter to handle his own gun, load for 
himself, using both barrels. To accomplish the work 
would require a continuous average of 100 balls broken 
in each eight minutes and ten seconds. This would be 
more than nine in ten shooters would care to try, and 
which very few indeed, outside of Captain Bogardus, 
would like to assure. The champion, however, had no 
fears about his accomplishment of the feat. Other big 
• shooting attempts had made him able to stand an amount 
of pounding whioh would knock over half a dozen marks¬ 
men. The test was made at the new shooting school of 
the Captain's, No. 20 Eighth street. Dr. Bower Talbot 
was at the traps as puller, and performed liis important 
duties with the regularity of a piece of clock-work. A 
single Btock was used, and two sets of barrels. The 
10-gauge pair used four drachms of Dittmar powder, and 
one and a half ounce of No. 8 Bhot, while the 12-gauge pair 
used three and one-half drachms of Dittmar powder, and 
one ounce of shot. The barrels were changed fifty-five 
times, and the excellence of the powder and the shells was 
shown in the fact that only three miss-fires occurred in 
5,855 shots. 
The start was made 6harp at 3 o’clock, and was to have 
ended at 10.30$. According to a uniform rate of break¬ 
ing, the following schedule should have obtained:— 
Time. Tima. 
H. M. Number of Balls. I I. M. 
4.17 
3.03 . 
2.44 
3.33 
4,00 . 
. 1,000 
. 1(500 
. 3,OKI 
2.3011 
. 3,000 
S.28 .. 
0.09 .. 
8.50 .. 
7.38J,. 
Number of Balls. 
.3,800 
.4,000 
.4,500 
. 5.000 
.5,300 
The record of the match stood as follows :— 
5.13 
5.43 
6.20 
. 5.50 
5.53 
Hth. 
15th. 
Irttli.. 
17 tti.. 
18th.. 
10 th.. 
20th . 
2lst.. 
84th 
2r.U1 
26th.. 
27th.. 
28th.. 
20th 
30l.li.. 
84th . 
85th.. 
381 It.. 
37th.. 
38th.. 
39th.. 
4llth.. 
41st. 
0.05 
7.;w 
7.30 
6.20 
7.40 
7.38 
5.59 
. 8.10 
,. 9217 
. 10.00 
. 7.40 
. 8.00 
. 8.55 
. 10.00 
. 8.10 
. 14.55 
. 7.50 
9.00 
. 11.17 
. 11.07 
. 11.24 
. 10.23 
. 11.12 
1.01 
1.10 
1.18 
1.23 
1.31 
1.37 
1.44 
1.53 
2.00 
2.07 
2.14 
gii 
2.81 
2.38 
2.45 
2.53 
2.58 
3.07 
3.13 
3.27 
3.34 
3.41 
3.47 
2.65 
4.03 
4.10 
4.17 
4.34 
4.32 
4.10 
4.43 
4.58 
6.03 
6.15 
5.23 
-5.32 
5.43 
5.50 
: 6.05 
6.13 
o;;t 
o. u, 
6.58 
7.07 
7.19 
John Ennis, the pedestrian, who is also a Bhooter of 
merit, acted as referee, and the score and time were kept 
by a representative of the Forest and Stream, provided 
with an accurate time-piece supplied by N. M. Shepard, 
of No. 150 Fulton street, who stands A1 as a badge 
maker. _ 
Gunsmith Wanted.— A Washington, D. C, corres¬ 
pondent advises us that there is an excellent opening for 
a first-class gunsmith in that city. The right man who 
sets up shop there, and advertises his business in the 
Forest and Stream, will find abundant work, 
Loading Choke-bores with Buokshot.— Moina,Frank¬ 
lin Co., N. K, Dec. 15th.—I wish to thank R. W, H, for 
his article in the Forest and Stream, of December 4th 
(and the Forest and Stream for publishing tho same), 
giving a description of his mode of loading choke-bores 
with buckshot; it is worth more to me than the price of 
the Forest and Stream for a year. I like his plan of a 
concentrator for buckshot the best of any 1 have ever 
tried. It won’t throw shot so far as Kay's or the Thread- 
wound, I suppose, but it will throw them to the Bpot or 
place you aim at, and do it as far as you will want to 
shoot one tune in a dozen. Up here in the mountains, 
where most of the shooting is dono over water before dogs j 
I have made many good shots with Kay’s concentra¬ 
tors with buckBliot, and have seen others make good ones 
with the Thread-wound. But my experience is (as the 
long-range rifle shooters say at Creedmoor), there are 
many unaceountables made with them, and they are not 
to be depended on, especially over water, where it is hard 
to judge the distance, For tho benefit of sportsmen who 
have a breech-loader that suits them in all but its shoot¬ 
ing qualities, I would say, don’t dispose of it at a loss, 
but send it to some good gun-maker and get it rebored. 
Both barrels of my gun made too small a pattern to suit 
me; or rather, I wanted one to make a better one, so last 
spring I sent it to Wm. R. Schaefer, of Boston, to have 
the left barrel rebored. When the gun was returned, I 
could not see that ho had touched it; but in coming to 
try it at a target, I found he had increased the pattern of 
the left barrel to double what it was before, and the pen¬ 
etration in like proportion. It will now average 425 pel¬ 
lets out of 1 $ oz,, No. 8 shot, in & 80-inch circle at forty 
yards. It only cost me $5—expressage and all, I pre¬ 
sume there are others who would do it fully as well as 
Mr. Schaefer; but his long-standing advertisement in 
Forest and Stream saying, '“Guns bored to shoot close 
and Btrong; warranted every time,” is what decided me 
to employ him to do the job,* and I now have a gun that 
suits me in every respect, which, at one time, I had about 
concluded to sell at a large discount from cost. 
Adrion Ondack. 
Holding Ahead.— New York, Dec. V)th .—In the dif¬ 
ferent articles which have appeared in Forest and 
Stream in regard to holding ahead in cross shots, a most 
important point has been constantly overlooked. It is 
evident to all that if a bird is flying from the point A to 
the point B, a certain length of time must 
4 elapse before the bud reaches B. Also, that 
a certain length of time must elapse before a 
charge of shot from the point C can reach 
B; and in order that the bird and the shot 
shall reach B at the same instant, the gun 
must be held far enough ahead so that the 
v time required for the bird and the shot each 
to reach B at the same instant must be 
the same. 
The different writers give their individual experience. 
Smith holds fifteen feet ahead on the same bird that Jones 
holds two feet ahead of, and here is the point ; the differ¬ 
ence is due to the different lengths of time used in pulling 
the trigger after taking sight, the muzzle of the gun at 
the time the shot leaves being in exactly the same place 
with both men. Smith holds his gun still, far ahead, and 
pulls at a definite moment which he has calculated. 
Jones follows the course of the bird with his gun, pulling 
the trigger in the meantime, and his charge of shot leaves 
at no definite moment; it is not necessary that it should, 
as the gun is held a little ahead all of the while, but far 
enough so that if the gun goes off at any moment while 
he is following, the bird will be struck. Jones’ style is 
that of the large majority of the best shots. 
None of the written descriptions will be of any value 
to the beginner, as the calculation of cross shots is all a 
ma tter of intuition gained by experience, and the crack 
shot no more stops to calculate time and place in Bhooting 
than he does in slipping his hand into his coat pocket. 
Mark West. 
The Fire Arm Instinct— The instinct to handle a 
gun is as strong with some men as the instinct which 
leads them to eat when hungry. The child in the oradle 
stretches out its arms to grasp the munitions of the hunt. 
When Achilles hid away in girl’s clothes among the 
daughters of his relative, the craftyUlyssis appeared as a 
peddler with ribbons and silks and monogram garte rs 
and a set of arms besides. The girls, of course, took the 
finery, but the disguised prince revealed his sex by seiz¬ 
ing the weapons, and was straightway marched off to the 
Plain of Troy. 
There are men in whom the fire arm instinct is so strong 
that it refuses to be pent up by the conventional rules 
and artificial regulations of modern society. These men 
must have guns. John O'Connor was possessed of this 
instinct. Tho peculiar old piece which happened to be 
on exhibition in Neeklin’s old curiosity shop in the Bow¬ 
ery last Saturday, acted as a magnet upon John. The 
gun drew John to itself, and John drew the gun to him¬ 
self, and proceeded to walk away with it. He was en 
route down Chatham street, hound for the wild plains of 
the West and the Utes, when a burly policeman took both 
man and gun into durance vile. The prisoner pleaded 
guilty, but urged that he had been twenty years on the 
frontier as a member of Captain Nugent’s detachment. 
He had had his head shaved to prevent “ the Indians 
from getting away with his Bcalp,” but that did not save 
him from the sterner fate of being cast into the peniten¬ 
tiary for one month, 
John is the victim of circumstances. With his taste 
for guns and half a million of dollars, the O’Connor col¬ 
lection of antique fire arms would he the most complete 
and valuable in the world, 
The William Moore Gun, — Bucyrus, O., Dec. 8th .— 
In your number of December 4th, I find an interesting 
article by “ An Sable,” on guns. I read it with pleasure 
until I came to the paragraph condemning the guns of 
William Moore. That passage struck me with a chill, and 
I immediately wheeled myself around to mv desk to 
write you a short article in defence of the worthy artisan 
thus condemned by “ Au Sable.” 
I have a ten gua'ge William Moore gun, of fine quality 
and well finished in every respect. I have owned it for 
fifteen years, during which I have used it on nearly all 
kinds of (feathered game; geese, ducks, wild turkeys, 
quails, and prairie chickens, and always with the most 
satisfactory result*. Its killing powers are extraordinary. 
I belong to a club that have good quarters, and large 
shooting territory at the head of Sandusky Bay, where 
wo have abundance of open water ducks, such as canvas 
hacks, red heads, blue bills, gadwalls, etc. With my 
Moore gun and number two shot, I have brought down 
the stately canvas baek at as great a height as possible 
for any gun. 
It was originally a muzzle-loader, made to my order, 
before breech-loaders had come into general use. I 
had it altered some fivo years ago by Charles Green, of 
Rochester, N. Y., and it holds high rank as a breech¬ 
loader at the present time. It is likely that William 
Moore is dead or out of business by this time. If alive, 
he is a man far advanced in years. He was an old man 
when my gun was made, but when in business his work 
was first-class. There is doubtless spurious trash in the 
American market, marked “ William Moore.” I have 
seen some of that kind myself that Moore never has any¬ 
thing to do with. They wore not genuine English bar¬ 
rels. I took the pains to examine, and they lacked the 
official proof marks. A good man is the one whose name 
is selected by the forger to give credit to spurious com¬ 
mercial paper, by reason of the respectable name it 
bears. 
William Moore was an apprentice under that prince of 
gun-makers, the celebrated Joseph Manton. lie was 
afterwards his foreman, and succeeded him in business. 
As late as twelve years ago he was in business as senior 
member of the firm of William Moore & William Gray, 
78 Edgeware Road, Marylebone, London. 
In Porter’s edition of “Hawker on Shooting,” page20, 
will he found a complimentary notice of the gentleman I 
am defending. Colonel Hawker, in commenting on Lon¬ 
don gun-makers, Bays: “ Also, William Moore, who was 
an old hand at Joe’s, and knew to a hair how to fit a 
man’s shoulder with a gun. I have often stood over him 
when he was a journeyman, and no man better pleased 
me with a job. I always said : ‘ Depend on it, he will do 
well, and get to the top of the tree.’ * * * 
“‘Billy Moore’ is a right-hand man with the ‘knobs,’ 
or crack pigeon shooters, and their patronage is a host 
in itself towards a good lift in business.” 
In a foot note to a revised edition of his work, Colonel 
Hawker says, that Moore, in 1844, formed his partnership 
with Gray, and I have seen a letter from the firm written 
some twelve years ago. 
In the London Field you will notice in the reports of 
pigeon matches it is customary to give the gun used by 
each shooter. I have noticed among the high toned 
shooters, such as lords and army officers, a fair represen¬ 
tation of Moore’s guns; 1‘therefore infer that he is in good 
repute with those of high degree as well as with tho 
“knobs.” 
With the foregoing facts before him, it will he in order 
for “Au Sable” to “arise and explain ” after the manner 
of Truthful James. S. R, H. 
The Clabrough Guns.— Stamford, N. Y., Dec. 8th.— 
In your much' valued paper I often read of guns of 
different makes, and how they shoot, but never Baw any¬ 
thing about the Clabrough, save once. Now, I have had 
two Clabrough guns, both 12-bore. The first one had 
Damascus barrels, rebounding locks, and was equal in 
finish to a Scott which a friend of mine had that cost 
$225, and shot just as well in every particular, and 
weighed nine and three-quarter pounds. The second one 
is also Damascus of very fine quality, rebounding locks, 
top-snap action, patent fore-end, pistol grip, choke bore, 
seven and a. half pounds weight, and is ill every way a 
much better made and finished gun than the first. I have 
shot with guns of different makes, including a Scott of 
premier quality, and have never been beat on a thirty- 
inch circle at forty yards, and it shoots correspondingly 
well at longer distances. There are two more of the 
Clabrough guns owned here—very fine guns, and close, 
hard shooters, though not choke-bored, and will last a 
man a lifetime, if decently used. 
About the durability of brass shells for Bhot guns, I will 
say I have used the Draper shell nearly four years, and 
they seem to be as good as new, perfectly sound and 
durable, and no accident of any kind has happened to 
anything by using them. E. L. Seeley. - 
Tight Action. — Lowville, Dec. 0th .—In your paper of 
Dec. 4th your correspondent “ R. W. H.” speaks of hiB 
new Parker opening so hard, and wishes to know how to 
remedy it. I have had the same trouble with mine, and 
taking' the action apart, discovered and quickly removed 
the cause—namely, a little feather edge upon the cor¬ 
ners of the lifter that slides the bolt. Ouing the parts 
lightly, I put them together, and then the action worked 
perfectly, the weight of the gun being sufficient to open 
it. I have had no further trouble, and would not ex¬ 
change it for any other make I have used. 
H, W. Hayt. 
Fun, but No Ducks. —Noticing tho advertisement of 
Capt. Geo. W. Mitchell, of Havre de Grace, in Forest 
and Stream, the writer, on the 2d of December, with a 
friend left for Havre de Grace for a day’s shoot at the 
ducks. Visions of ducks in immense numbers floated 
through our brains, and in fancy we heard the whistle of 
their wingB as they dart round the decoys. The night 
before starting, in dreams, we came off conquerors. 
How it turned out, and what we did, is the burden of my 
tale. Leaving Philadelphia at 4 l\ m., we stopped over 
at Wilmington until 7, and then telegraphed to Capt. 
Mitchell that we were on the way. As we stepped from 
the train we were met by him and his men, to assist in 
carrying the traps—of which, with novices' ideas, we 
had an abundance—and which a load of anynuni- 
