GUJVS AND AMMUNITION. 



297 



exceed that of any black powder car- 

 tridge. 



My advice to P. K. Dugan is to let black 

 powder and lead bullet alone. A small 

 charge of low pressure smokeless powder 

 and a hardened lead bullet would undoubt- 

 edly work all right in these guns; but I 

 know from experience that black powder 

 will not. I can assure him the .40-82 is not 

 in it with the .30-30. The latter will bleed 

 an animal 3 times as much. 



A. A. Haines, Armington, Mont. 



SMOKELESS VS. BLACK. 



I have been much interested in the dis- 

 cussion of the relative merits of the .30 

 calibre smokeless and the large calibre 

 black powder guns. I formerly owned a 

 .45-70, but now own a .30-40 Winchester, 

 and never saw the equal of it for accuracy or 

 powerful shooting. Besides, it has scarcely 

 any recoil. Noticing the experiences of dif- 

 ferent shooters as to a good short range 

 load for a .30-40, will give mine. 



As the .30-30 bullet is .003 less in diameter 

 than the .30-40, I use those bullets and patch 

 them with paper. I have tried 2 methods 

 of patching, using thin paper and giving 2 

 or 3 wraps, putting patches on wet and al- 

 lowing them to shrink on tight in drying, 

 or using thick paper cut in a strip just long 

 enough to go around bullet once. Roll this 

 strip into a cylinder and insert into the 

 shell, then press the bullet into it. I find 

 this latter method gives the best results. I 

 used about 25 grains of King's semi-smoke- 

 less powder, and would not ask for a more 

 accurate load. There is no leading, as is 

 the case with lead bullets, and they will not 

 wear the barrel so fast as the regular .30-40 

 bullets will. If your readers wish to get 

 pointers on preparing ammunition, let them 

 send for the Ideal Hand-Book. 



E. L. Stevenson, Pasadena, Cal. 



ANOTHER ADVOCATE OF THE .22 SHORT. 



In May Recreation, there appears an 

 article, entitled " The .22 Long and Short 

 Cartridges." I believe I can explain the 

 varied penetrations obtained by the author 

 with this ammunition. 



The long cartridge contains too much 

 powder in proportion to the length of bul- 

 let which takes the rifling. The powder pro- 

 pels the bullet with such force that it is 

 unable to follow the grooves. As a result 

 it " strips," and fails to acquire a rotary 

 motion. Its trajectory will, therefore, not 

 be so flat as is that of the short shell, whose 

 bullet is able to rotate in the grooves. 



At close range, the momentum of the 

 bullet, imparted to it by the comparatively 

 large amount of powder, is sufficient to sink 

 it deeper into the wood than the short. But 

 in this case, the rotation does not have so 

 much to do with penetration as it does at 

 long range. On the other hand, could the 

 bullet of the long cartridge have more 



bearing on the rifling, its penetration would 

 be increased. Then since so many .22 rifles 

 have such shallow grooves, I would sug- 

 gest the employment of the .22 short only. 

 S. H. Chase, D.D.S., Madison, Wis. 



HE KILLS BEAR WITH A CLUB. 



Some years ago I was acquainted with 

 M. P. Dunham, Woodworth, Mont. He 

 was a good guide and hunter, and no doubt 

 is yet; but he has surely gone crazy on 

 small bores. He first started in with the 

 .32-40 as the best gun in the world for big 

 game; especially for big bear. Now he has 

 gone to the .25-35 as the best for killing 

 big bulls and large grizzlies. The next 

 will be the .22 long, and then the .22 short. 



I have killed 3 or 4 bear with a club. 

 One of them was a silver tip. They were 

 not very big, and I was glad of it. Still, 

 I do not advise any man to hunt bear or 

 any dangerous game with a club. It is 

 not a good weapon for that purpose. 

 Neither do I think a small gun and light 

 ammunition are fit. I don't believe, how- 

 ever, a cannon or even a .50-100 is neces- 

 sary. When you get to .45-90, stop ; they 

 are large enough. There is a limit both 

 ways. Mr. Dunham calls the article I re- 

 fer to a knockdown argument. If anyone 

 will tackle a grizzly bear, that is on the 

 fight, with a popgun, it will be a knock- 

 down, with the chances that it won't be 

 the grizzly that is down. 



A. S. Marshall, Cora, Wyo. 



KILLED WOLVES AT A MILE. 



A friend of mine has a mountain sheep 

 head, and would like to know its value. 

 The horns are i6 I 4 inches around and 38 

 inches long, outside the curve. It is well 

 mounted and a handsome head. What is 

 the size of the largest head known, and 

 what is it valued at?* 



I have a .30-40 smokeless, single shot, 

 Winchester rifle. It beats any gun I ever 

 tried. I shot through a solid Cottonwood 

 tree, 44 inches in diameter. As the barrel 

 is heavy there is less recoil than with the 

 magazine guns. 



There is a well authenticated report that 

 a man killed 2 wolves, one mile distant, 

 with a .30-40. With his field-glasses, he 

 discovered a pack of wolves feeding on a 

 carcass. He began to thrown lead at them. 

 They were too far away to hear the report 

 of his gun. He fired about 20 shots and 

 killed 2 wolves. He afterward measured 

 the distance. It was a full mile. 



A. Laney, Miles City, Mont. 



KILLED A DEER AT 330 YARDS. 

 I have noted with interest the argument 

 about the killing power of the .30 calibre 

 rifle. I used a .30-30 Marlin in the Dead 



* As to the value of sheep heads write any of the taxi- 

 dermists who advertise in Recreation. — Editor. 



