296 



RECREATION. 



without a 'scope. With ordinary sights 

 you are doing exceedingly well when 

 placing your shots inside the regulation 

 bullseye, which at 100 yards is a 4 inch 

 circle. 



Why handicap a good rifle with poor 

 sights when you can get perfect ones? 

 My 30-30 cost $21.50, and its outfit of 

 sights $22.50. Besides the 'scope, I have 

 Lyman combination rear and Sheard's 

 gold bead front sight. 



A telescope will prove at once if your 

 ammunition or rifle is inaccurate. I ex- 

 perimented a great deal last winter with 

 various powders and loads, using all 

 weights of bullets, and without my 'scope 

 I should have learned but little. 



John W. Sidle's ad is in every issue of 

 Recreation; write him at once, get a 

 "scope, and you will never regret it. Con- 

 sidering their quality, they are dirt cheap, 

 ■and no rifleman should be without one. 

 Do not fail to order the adjustable side 

 mountings. They are indispensable where 

 different kinds of ammunition are used, as 

 they lower and raise for short or long 

 range shooting. Let us hear from others 

 who use telescopes. 



H. B. Rantzau, Cornwall, Idaho. 



less for miniature loads. I wish to ex- 

 periment with it in the near future. 



H. B. Rantzau, Cornwall, Ida.' 



ROUND OR GROOVED BULLETS? 



S.^ P. Watson asks about the relative 

 merits of round and grooved balls. E. 

 MacGuire and I have done a great deal 

 of experimenting along that line. We find 

 the grooved balls a trifle the best for 

 accuracy up to 100 yards, and beyond that 

 range far better. For small game shoot- 

 ing at short range the round ball is good. 

 We have, by the aid of telescopic sights, 

 time and again placed 10 shots inside 

 one inch circle at 40 yards. 



The buckshot we use in our 30-30' s are 

 known as No. 140. They are about .004 

 larger than the bore, and do not strip 

 with a 4 grain load of DuPont's rifle pow- 

 der No. 2. That powder is, in our experi- 

 ence, the most uniform for small loads. 

 It is fine grained and does not hang fire as 

 the No. 1 in small charges sometimes 

 does. I have also a 25-35, and for it No. 1 

 buckshot answers well with a 3 grain load 

 of above mentioned powder. 



We use a light tack hammer to stick 

 the shot fast on end of shell. We have 

 fired 100 shots many times, and never 

 found the least trace of leading. Thrf 

 main advantage in using them is that it 

 saves the trouble of moulding bullets. It 

 costs only 26 cents for 100 shots to use 

 this load. Buckshot being all lead and 

 soft^ tears small game far better than our 

 special target bullets, which are 1 to 10. 



I should like to hear from someone who 

 has used Laflin & Rand's sporting smoke.- 



BOYS AND FIREARMS. 



I read with much interest Louis Lehle's 

 letter about the use of firearms in the hands 

 of boys and your reply to him. Mr. Lehle 

 is right to a certain extent only in this 

 matter. Boys often abuse the privileges al- 

 lowed them by their parents and the lav/. 

 But all boys are not bad ; there are more 

 good boys than good men. The accidents 

 caused by firearms in the hands of boys 

 can not be compared with the awful number 

 caused by men. 



I think you are doing noble work in your 

 war on game hogs and pot hunters. And 

 greater yet is your work to protect our 

 beautiful woodland neighbors They are 

 fast disappearing, and I think the Lacey 

 bill was passed none too soon. 



The pictures in the Stevens advertise- 

 ment in Recreation have a bad influence 

 on boys. I have shown the magazine to a 

 large number of boys, and they all ex- 

 claim, on seeing the Stevens picture, that 

 those boys are killing birds. When I deny 

 it, and add that Mr. Shields would be sure 

 to condemn such an act, the boys have 

 acted as if they doubted my word. So 

 when a picture of that kind is published, a 

 squirrel, a chipmunk, or a gopher should 

 be shown in it. It would be different if all 

 boys would read the magazine ; but many 

 simply look at the pictures. To stop the 

 slaughter of our songsters every possible 

 good example must be set for the boys, and 

 those pictures should be modified to that 

 end. 



G. R. D., Los Angeles, Cal. 



A FAULT OF THE SAVAGE RIFLE. 



In a recent Recreation somebody 

 asked what are the faults of the Savage 

 rifle. That weapon, with soft pointed bul- 

 lets, is certainly a great killer. Its ve- 

 locity and trajectory are all that could be 

 desired, and when the bullet strikes the 

 right kind of resistance it is exceedingly 

 effective. But there is the rub. I saw a 

 friend shoot a large buck. It was standing 

 at 135 yards, looking in the opposite direc- 

 tion. The bullet struck 4 or 5 inches back 

 of the base of the horns. It reached the 

 skull with force enough to knock the deer 

 down, but there the bullet flew into bits 

 without penetrating the bone. I know of 

 a deer being hit squarely in the shoulder. 

 The bullet broke the shoulder, but did not 

 penetrate far enough to kill the animal and 

 it escaped. 



In either instance a 38-55 or even a 38-4° 

 bullet would have proved fatal. If bullets 

 from small bore high power guns penetrate 

 to some distance and then strike moderate 



