GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



IN RE THE PETERS CASE. 



Here are copies of a few letters that 

 have been written to the Peters Co. They 

 are printed, not for the purpose of injur- 

 ing the Peters people, but simply to show 

 the world how my readers regard the ac- 

 tion ot Mr. McKibben. 



Watseka, 111, 

 Peters Cartridge Co., 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 

 Dear Sirs: — 



I have read your order to Recreation 

 to discontinue your ad. If you don't want 

 to advertise in the best sportsmen's maga- 

 zine in America you have done well. If 

 you have taken offense at what some of 

 Coquina's numerous correspondents have 

 said about your goods through the col- 

 umns of Recreation, and find in that the 

 apparent reason for your hasty action, 

 your ads will probably appear in the next 

 issue of Recreation. Do you think for 

 one minute that sportsmen take every- 

 thing for granted that appears in Recrea- 

 tion's guns and ammunition department? 

 One man says, ''With Peters Ideal shells 

 3^ drams King's smokeless, and one 

 ounce No. 8 soft shot, my Ithaca 12 gauge 

 gun put 409 pellets in a 30 inch ring at 40 

 measured yards." 



Do you believe that? Do you expect us 

 to believe it notwithstanding we know the 

 Ithaca gun to be a good gun, and that 

 your goods are good goods? Do you be- 

 lieve all the testimonials you receive from 

 the numerous users and admirers of your 

 goods? Of course you don't. Surely if 

 all the articles written and published in 

 the gun and ammunition department of 

 Recreation, of which the editor as- 

 sumes no responsibility, nor does he ever 

 become sponsor for the parties writing 

 them, were true records of facts, then in- 

 deed the marvelous has been obtained by 

 Savage, Winchester, Parker, Stevens, Du- 

 Pont, King's, Laflin & Rand and the host 

 of others who make guns and ammunition. 

 Think of killing ducks at 116 measured 

 yards with a 12 gauge gun and No. 7 

 shot! Think of aiming at a deer's neck 

 and dropping him in his tracks at 678 

 yards measured! And we might enum- 

 erate other just as improbable shots. 



If Coquina allows such marvelous state- 

 ments to get into the magazine praising 

 the goods of his different advertisers, why 

 should he not let the other side come in? 

 If I thought he would not allow a full, 

 free and honest discussion of the demerits 

 as well as the merits of the gods of his 



/-. — 45 



various advertisers, through the columns 

 of Recreation, I would cancel my sub- 

 scription to-morrow, and I believe 4-5 

 of his present subscribers would do 

 the same. We know we have a medium 

 through which everyone is assured of fair 

 treatment. The Peters Cartridge Co. has 

 no cause for complaint. Recreation has 

 said a great many kind and complimentary 

 things about your goods. So have the 

 many correspondents of Recreation. 



Now, one word about that shell case. 

 Some years ago I was using a Winchester 

 lever action shot gun, and occasionally 

 had shell stick. I tried several makes, 

 with the same result. I was on the point 

 of condemning the extractor hook, but 

 put it in and had no further trouble. 



Now, gentlemen, I am going to make 

 you a proposition: Just as long as you 

 refuse to advertise in Recreation I shall 

 refuse to buy or use your goods. How 

 many Recreation readers are with me, 

 do you think? 



I trust I may soon see that the Peters 

 Cartridge Co. has again joined Recrea- 

 tion's family circle. 



F. W. Myrick. 



Keene, N. H. 

 The Peters Cartridge Co., 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 

 Sirs: — 



Please allow me to inform you that the 

 attitude you have assumed in regard to 

 Recreation advertising will not, in my 

 opinion, increase the demand for your 

 goods with sportsmen in general, who are 

 in the main thoroughly loyal to Mr. 

 Shields both as a gentleman and friend 

 and as a pioneer in the interests of a high 

 ideal of sportsmanship. Without a doubt 

 your goods are of a high order, but they 

 are not in all respects perfect. No thought- 

 ful sportsman would so far stultify 

 himself as to declare that. When so 

 many choices of equally good cartridges 

 are to be had, how can you afford to 

 affront your patrons by taking up the 

 gauntlet in so puerile a matter against 

 one so generally respected and so warmly 

 supported as Mr. Shields? 



Further, please pardon the statement 

 that as a newspaper man of a good many 

 years' standing I am entirely out of sym- 

 pathy with the spirit of advertisers who 

 demand the entire earth with a high board 

 fence around it. Yours, etc., 



Edw. W. Wild, 

 Chief Warden N. H. Div., L. A. S. ' 



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