228 



RECREA TION. 



brae. It is fun to shoot a gopher in the 

 body with it. It blows him as wide open as 

 a piece of giant powder would. It is just 

 the finest little rifle I ever shot, and it will 

 keep this camp in meat all winter. I'd like 

 to send you a nice saddle of venison, just 

 now, if you could use it. Tell the Stevens 

 people they know how to build rifles. You 

 will be out here next summer, yourself, 

 and take a shot at a deer, with our pet, and 

 then you will bank on it, too. 



M. W. Miner. 



meant by a 44-40-200 rifle, for instance? 

 Also what is meant by the " gauge " of a 



gun. 



C. J. R., New York City. 



NITRO LOADS. 



Editor Recreation: Mr. J. S. Estill 

 asks, in December Recreation, for infor- 

 mation about nitro powder loads, for shot 

 guns. I have had some experience in that 

 line and may be able to enlighten him. 

 After experiments covering a number of 

 years, I have adopted the following loads: 



For a 12 gauge, 8 pound, full choke gun 

 I use, for ordinary field shooting, 2>7 to 40 

 grains Dupont smokeless, or 27 to 29 

 grains Walsrode powder, and 1 to 1% 

 ounce of No. 7 or 8 chilled shot. I use the 

 larger loads when game is wild. For 

 Chinese pheasants, when full grown and 

 wild, I use 40 grains of Dupont and 1]/% oz. 

 No. 6 chilled shot. Walsrode powder has, 

 I think, a greater penetration at 35 yards 

 than Dupont, and is quicker than chain 

 lightning; but will not make as close and 

 good a pattern as the latter. For all 

 around shooting I prefer Dupont powder. 



If my friend Estill's gun shoots too 

 close, let him use a scatter wad, or less 

 shot — say one ounce of shot to 38 grains of 

 Dupont — and I think he will not get too 

 close a pattern at 30 or 35 yards. Or, if 

 still too close, let him try 29 grains of 

 Walsrode and an ounce of shot. If he will 

 load a few shells of each powder, as above 

 directed, and target his gun at 35 or 40 

 yards, he can see what the gun is doing, 

 and can regulate powder and shot to suit. 

 There should be no guess work in loading 

 nitro powders. Use one cardboard wad on 

 shot, and enough felt wads on powder to 

 fill shell to within Y% of an inch of end, and 

 crimp down solidly on wad. Most of my 

 experimenting has been done with the old 

 Parker gun. By the way, I cannot find the 

 Parker gun ad. in Recreation any more. 

 They cannot surely afford to be without a 

 card in so valuable an advertising medium 

 as Recreation. A. Hillier. 



AS TO CALIBRE AND GAUGE. 



Editor Recreation: I have been read- 

 ing your magazine for some time and find 

 the letters from hunters especially interest- 

 ing. Not knowing anything about fire- 

 arms, however, the numbers they use to de- 

 note the size of a gun are not quite in- 

 telligible to me. Would you state what is 



ANSWER. 



In speaking of rifles in the manner you 

 indicate, the first figure means the size of 

 the bore, the second the number of grains 

 of powder in the charge and the third the 

 weight, in grains, of the bullet. For in- 

 stance, 44-40-200 means that the bore of the 

 rifle is 44-100 of an inch in diameter; that 

 the cartridge holds 40 grains of powder 

 and 200 grains of lead. 30-30-160 means 

 that the bore of the rifle is 30-100 of an 

 inch; that the cartridge holds 30 grains of 

 powder and 160 grains of lead. 



The method of indicating the size of bore 

 of shot guns is conventional, and was 

 handed down from the days of smooth 

 bore muskets, shooting round bullets. The 

 nominal gauge of a shot gun is the number 

 of round balls, of a size to fit that gun, it 

 would take to weigh a pound. The bore 

 of a 10 gauge cylinder gun will just admit 

 a round ball weighing 10 to a pound. The 

 standard diameter of a 10 gauge, in deci- 

 mals of the inch, is .775. 



Gauge and bore, as applied to guns, were 

 originally synonymous, but nowadays guns 

 of a given gauge may vary considerably in 

 bore; and all that is at present indicated 

 by the nominal gauge is the diameter of 

 its cartridge chamber. The Phillips' "Vena 

 Contracta " gun is 12 gauge, but in reality 

 a 20 bore — tapering sharply from 12 to 20. 



ANOTHER CONVERT TO THE SMALL BORE 

 SMOKELESS. 



The last 3 numbers of your valuable 

 magazine were sent me by Dr. Garfield, of 

 Pendleton, Ore., who, last summer, visited 

 the range of the elk and moose, in the Bit- 

 ter Root mountains, under my guidance. 



lie carried a Marlin 30-30 smokeless 

 rifle. I had but little confidence in it, as I 

 thought the bullet too small for big game; 

 but after using the gun and observing the 

 execution of the steel jacketed, soft nose 

 bullet, the lightness of the gun, and the 

 slightness of its recoil, I changed my 

 opinion. 



I was much interested in the exception- 

 ally good article, by Mr. J. J. Adams, in 

 November Recreation, on " The Best 

 Rifle for Big Game." I must, however, 

 disagree with his conclusions. A large 

 bore must necessarily have a heavy bullet 

 to obtain bearing in the rifling. It is not 

 the quantity of powder burned, but the 

 weight of the bullet which causes recoil. 

 A 50 calibre must have not less than 500 

 grains of lead, and, consequently, a heavy 

 recoil. 



I am fast becoming a crank on the sub- 

 ject of the small bore, for all game. I am 



