132 



RECREATION. 



you do. I had to take a spike nail 

 and hammer to get the cartridge out. 

 I worked with the gun until I was tired 

 and finally gave it to an old darky for a 

 pint of chestnuts. The blamed thing would 

 make a parson cuss his existence. 



Hugh Woodward, Knoxville, Tenn. 



W. F. Sheard, of Tacoma, Wash., in his 

 gun catalogue has the following to say re- 

 garding Marlin guns : - 



I do not manufacture, recommend, or 

 guarantee Marlin rifles. If they chew up 

 the heads of the cartridges, or clog up in 

 the action and magazine, it is not my fault ; 

 so do not ship them back on my hands. I 

 have Marlin rifles for sale for those who 

 want them, but when sold and delivered, 

 my responsibility ceases. 



L. E. Nelson, Tacoma, Wash. 



The following quotation from Shakes- 

 peare is respectfully called to the attention 

 of Mr. Marlin and the Peters Cartridge 

 Company. 



"Happy are they that hear their own de- 

 tractions and can put them to mending." 

 J. J. Morcom, Hartford, Conn. 



'I have no use for the Marlin rifle. It is 

 the biggest humbug I ever saw. I lost a 

 chance to get a shot at a black bear by a 

 shell catching in the lifter. The .30-40 

 Winchester is, in my estimation, the only 

 gun. G. L. Manor, Postfalls, Idaho. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF A STRAIGHT STOCK. 



In July Recreation Henry Merlin asks, 

 "Why can not one get a gun with 3^2 inch 

 drop without paying extra?" and further 

 says : "Straight stocks seem the fashion at 

 present, and one can see long necked men 

 at the trap kinking their spines to bring the 

 eye to the level of the barrel. If those 

 men were quail hunting in thick cover they 

 would in almost every case shoot under 

 their birds, not having time to bring the 

 cheek down to the gun." 



I have by experience learned the op- 

 posite ; and think the shooters referred 

 to overshoot when they miss. It is the 

 crooked stock guns that shoot under. 

 About 10 years ago crooked stocks were 

 popular, and at that time I ordered my first 

 hammerless gun. The dealer told me that, 

 as I had a long neck, a 3^-inch drop 

 would be correct. The gun invariably shot 

 under the birds. 



Now I use a gun with 2^-inch drop, with 

 better results; the straighter stock throws 

 the aim high, and as birds and targets are 

 nearly always rising the shooter must hold 

 over or miss. Sometimes we aim point 

 blank at a straight-away bird and pull the 

 trigger, when we know we should have 

 held over. The straight stock will help 

 us to ayoi4 that error. 



Again, the small shot used for quail or 

 target shooting will drop about 5 inches 

 at 40 or 45 yards, and I believe that some 

 guns are bored to shoot a trifle high to 

 overcome the drop. When the gun is not 

 so bored, the remedy must be found in the 

 straight stock. 



C. W. Gripp, Pacific Beach, Cal. 



NOT DOGS BUT POT HUNTERS. 



I have noticed in your magazine a con- 

 sensus of opinions against the use of bird 

 dogs in hunting game birds. Someone said 

 that if sportsmen must keep and use dogs 

 they should pay $10 a year license fee. 

 That gentleman has, no doubt, overlooked 

 the fact that thousands of people own dogs 

 of one kind or another in the large cities 

 and are now paying an annual license fee 

 of $1 to $2. In Baltimore a fee of $2 is 

 required for the first year's license and 

 thereafter $1.50 annually. About three- 

 fourths of the sportsmen who gun for 

 game birds are owners of bird dogs. The 

 other one-fourth who also hunt game 

 birds do so without dogs. The pot hunt- 

 er tracks birds in the snow, or watches 

 where they feed, and early in the morn- 

 ing takes his pot gun and kills as many 

 birds with one barrel as a self respecting 

 sportsman, hunting with a dog, would bag 

 in a 2 or 3 days' hunt, where birds are not 

 plentiful. 



It is not the man who kills birds for 

 sport that is helping to deplete our avail- 

 able stock of game birds. Far from it. 

 The market hunters destroy every year a 

 far greater number of birds than the ordi- 

 nary sportsman will ever take. Let some 

 cf these fellows who talk so much do their 

 little mite toward preserving the birds 

 through a severe winter and they can feel 

 assured that they have accomplished some- 

 thing. However, most of them think that 

 "they also serve who only sit and wait." 

 H. J. E. Thomas, Baltimore, Md. 



WHY SAVAGE DOES NOT MAKE A 30-40. 

 Utica, N. Y., U. S. A., May 5, 1902. 



In reading your always interesting maga- 

 zine, I came across the article by F. Q. 

 Rutherford, of Chihuahua, Mexico. There 

 is a good reason why the Savage Arms 

 Company has not, up to date, manufactured 

 a rifle to take the 30-40 Government cart- 

 ridge. It is this : 



The Government has condemned the 30- 

 40 cartridge, and has designed a superior 

 one, which they are adapting the Krag to 

 use. The cartridge will be seamless shell, 

 30 caliber, with better velocity and more 

 accurate than the 30-40 now used by the 

 Government. A complete set of tools to 

 manufacture a new rifle costs $45,000 to 

 $60,000, and it was but wisdom to wait 

 until the new cartridge was designed an4 



