GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



38i 



shell, while the second one would come up 

 in carrier block. I took out the extractor, 

 bevelled off the side where it fitted the 

 block, and the gun worked all right. Such 

 defects should be found at factory if prop- 

 erly inspected, and not left for the buyer 

 to find when in the woods with nothing to 

 repair with. I have also had trouble with 

 Marlin rifles. A deer hunter of this town 

 had to walk 4 miles to camp to get a stuck 

 shell out of his rifle. Two deer walked 

 past him en route. I have had cartridges 

 stick in a 25-20 Marlin, while -out target 

 shooting, and have been nearly an hour 

 getting the gun in shape, as I had few tools 

 at hand. 



Not another Marlin shot gun has been 

 sold in this town since the one mentioned 

 above. I handle all the guns sold in this 

 place. Last fall I sold 14 rifles, but not a 

 Marlin in the lot. Easily half of them 

 could have been Marlins had I cared to 

 push them. No doubt the trade of the 

 Marlin people is falling off and they blame 

 Recreation. They probably realize the 

 power your magazine has among sportsmen 

 and go to court for redress ; but I believe 

 they will find they are barking up the 

 wrong tree. C. M. Vermilya. 



SOME SPECIAL LOADS FOR THE SAVAGE. 



F. A. Old's article in January Recrea- 

 tion, relative to reloading Savage ammu- 

 nition, is good. However, he says noth- 

 ing about reloading shells for big game 

 shooting, and I venture to add a few sug- 

 gestions. 



Should you want to make your own bul- 

 lets, get an Ideal adjustable mould for 

 patch bullets and an Ideal mould for minia- 

 ture bullets. Use 1 part tin to 10 parts 

 lead. See that your mould is hot before 

 commencing to pour. Put a small piece 

 of tallow in the melted lead, then skim the 

 surface and begin pouring. Adjust your 

 mould until you get a 175 grain bullet. 



Dampen each end of your patch, and 

 roll the bullet thereon and crimp the bot^ 

 torn. For this size bullet use 10 grains 

 Savage smokeless No. 1. Place your 

 shell in resizer so as to admit the bullet 

 snugly; then place in chamber and do 

 not crimp tightly. You will find this a 

 desirable load for target or rabbit shoot- 

 ing and good for 250 yards. 



Mould a 190 grain bullet same as above; 

 load with 22 grains of same powder and 

 patch. You will find this a fine cart- 

 ridge for a range of 800 yards. It will kill 

 deer nearly as well as the soft points, yet 

 does not tear so badly. 



For soft point 186 grain bullet use 22 

 grains Savage No. 1 smokeless, and crimp 

 well in chamber. Be careful not to jam 

 the shoulder of your shell; you can ad- 



just it properly by putting in a factory 

 loaded shell first. Use U. M. C. shells; I 

 find them best for reloading. 



The miniature 100 grain bullet should 

 be lubricated before using. Do not wash 

 black powder shells with smokeless shells. 

 I use smokeless powder only. Black 

 powder is too dirty, and results are not 

 so good as with smokeless. Use 6 grains 

 powder for above bullet, and 10 to 12 

 grains for the metal patched miniature. 

 That load makes the best cartridge for 100 

 yards target work of any I have tried. I 

 do not advise anyone to shoot black 

 powder soft bullets in a Savage, as the 

 twist is so great as to make the cleaning 

 of the barrel difficult. 



M. L. Duncan, Amethyst, Colo. 



SHOT GUN OR RIFLE? 



In February Recreation J. B. advo- 

 cates the prohibition of shot guns for 

 birding, and especially for grouse shoot- 

 ing. I have hunted grouse since I was 

 old enough to 'hold a gun and have 

 been a rifleman an equal length of time. 

 I have used a shot gun always for birds 

 and have never killed more than 5 in one 

 day, nor have I, in years, killed a bird ex- 

 cept on the wing; so I am hardly a game 

 hog. 



J. B. compares the use of the shot gun 

 to snaring, trapping, etc., intimating that 

 it is unsportsmanlike and only necessary 

 to the tyro. In most of the grouse cover 

 of the country the hunter will not see 5 

 per cent, of his birds until they take wing. 

 Then a club would be more effective in 

 the hands of the average sportsman than 

 a rifle. He would not get one bird in 

 100. 



In a few sparsely inhabited localities, as 

 Northern Maine, for instance, the birds 

 are more tame. In those localities I 

 should not consider it difficult to decapi- 

 tate grouse with a rifle at 10 to 25 yards. 

 To shoot them through the body would 

 be pot hunting, as a man with shaking 

 palsy could hit the body of a grouse on 

 the ground or in a tree at 25 yards. 



The best sportsmen will not kill a sit- 

 ting bird, either with a rifle or a shot gun. 

 It is no more difficult to kill a grouse on 

 the ground with a rifle at 15 to 25 yards 

 than to kill a chicken in a farm yard at 

 the same distance. I should hardly call 

 that sport. It requires skill of an in- 

 finitely higher order to kill grouse on the 

 wing with a shot gun than it does to shoot 

 them sitting with a rifle. 



J. B. writes on a subject with which he 

 is entirely unfamiliar. If he will take a 

 shot gun and a good dog, go after grouse, 

 flush his birds and try to kill them on 

 the wing, he will find it much harder than 

 potting birds on the ground with a rifle. 



