298 



RECREATION. 



left hand, I can shoot as fast as I want to 

 if the game is in sight, and have killed an- 

 telope at 800 yards with shells I loaded my-, 

 self. I would not be afraid to meet old 

 Ephraim himself. The new smokeless 

 rifles are all right, but look at the high 

 front sight. How different from Sharp's 

 Old Reliable buffalo gun ! How is one to 

 judge the distance? The average soldier 

 should never have a repeating rifle; he 

 *wastes too much ammunition. Why does 

 not Uncle Sam adopt the Winchester single 

 shot with the Sharp's solid breech action? 

 Compare it with the clumsy Mauser with 

 a rear sight sticking up like a sore thumb, 

 and the Lee straight pull with half a cord 

 of wood, a bolt fit for a burglar-proof safe 

 and the front sight like the business end 

 of a butter knife. If Uncle Sam is going 

 to adopt a shooting iron, why does he "iz,i 

 select one that will make his boys leek like 

 soldiers and not like pick-and-shovel men? 

 Modern rifles have about* as much form as 

 the old fashioned muskets which Uncle 

 Sam bought from Austria during the civil 

 war. 



For small game I have a Stevens Ideal 

 No. 44, .22 caliber, long rifle, one of the 

 most accurate target rifles made. I also 

 have a Henry Richards', London, England, 

 12 gauge, 9-pound hammer gun with 34- 

 inch barrels. I have fired 5 drams of black 

 powder in it and the barrels are as clean 

 and bright as when I bought it in 1885. 

 Any gun made by a reliable man is 

 good, but a gun is like a watch, it must be 

 kept clean to do good service. 



El Capitan, El Paso, Tex. 



LOADS AND TRIGGERS. 



H. J. F., Providence, R. I., says he has 

 a 16-gauge Ithaca that did not shoot strong 

 enough to suit him. He wrote the makers, 

 and they told him to use 2^ drams pow- 

 der and % ounce shot. He did so and "no- 

 ticed a remarkable difference." Just what 

 that difference was he does not say, but I 

 can imagine, for I, too, have a 16-gauge 

 Ithaca. The record tag aaid the left bar- 

 rel threw 310 shot in a target. It would 

 not do so for me, so I wrote the company. 

 They said to use 2% drams powder and 34 

 ounce shot. That proves the best load I 

 can put in. Even 2 l /% drams powder 

 will throw Y% of No. 4 shot through %& 

 inch of white pine at 35 yards and group 

 them close enough for ducks or chickens. 

 This ought to be an effective load for such 

 birds even at 60 yards, and a 10-year-old 

 boy can stand behind it. In loading shells 

 for drop or soft shot, I use a trap wad next 

 to powder, then a ^-inch felt under an or- 

 dinary block edge. I have come to prefer 

 a round crimp; all the best patterns I have 



made came out of round crimped cases. 

 A good wadding for light charges of pow- 

 der is a split salmon wad, 2 block edges 

 and an A cord wad. Where more powder 

 is used under soft shot, a softer layer of 

 wadding will prevent the quick explosion 

 of nitro from battering the shot. If H. J. 

 F. uses 2% and Y% and hard wads he may 

 injure his gun. 



Sometimes a charge may appear slow 

 when it is really quick. This is caused, in 

 some cases at least, by the trigger creeping 

 or springing back a trifle before releasing 

 the hammer. The shooter ceases to follow 

 a flying bird with the gun when he presses 

 the trigger. Then the trifling delay in the 

 fall of the hammer is enough to cause him 

 to shoot behind. 



Let H. J. F. and others look for the cause 

 of their troubles in the creeping of trig- 

 gers, and use a moderate load. 



K. A. W., Watertown, S. D. 



TO LOAD 30-30 SHELLS. 



I find in Recreation many ways of load- 

 ing shells for .30-30 and .303 rifles. I have 

 loaded many of these shells within the past 

 5 years. I hunted with a .30-30 2 years and 

 found it a good shooting gun, with this 

 No. 2 rifle powder and Ideal bullet, 3082, 

 150 grains. 



The action of the .30-30 bothered me 

 sometimes, so I sold it and bought a Sav- 

 age .303. I have loaded shells for this gun, 

 using 8 to 10 grains of Du Pont No. 1 

 rifle powder and the miniature bullet, .311- 

 100-grain weight ; also the Ideal bullet, No. 

 .311207. These loads are good up to 100 

 yards and for small game. The best load 

 for a .303 is equal parts of black powder, 

 Du Pont's ffg. and Du Pont's shot gun 

 powder, smokeless, mixed. Use 20 grains, 

 black powder measure, for a load and a 

 32-35-165 bullet, cast slightly larger than 

 .311, but sized down to .311 easily. Any 

 tool which will seat the full jacketed fac- 

 tory bullet will seat this bullet to perfec- 

 tion. The bullet should not be softer than 

 one in 12. A little over an ounce of tin to 

 a pound of lead is about right. I have 

 never had a shell break and I have shot 

 some of them 20 times. I use sawdust to 

 fill the space between powder and bullet, 

 but I do not think it necessary. I hope 

 Recreation readers will try this load. 



The other day I bought a so-called 

 sportsmen's magazine, and it contained 

 pictures of "sports," with great strings of 

 fish and others with bushels of ducks. The 

 editor did not have sand enough to roast 

 them, which they deserved. They know 

 better than to send their photos to Recre- 

 ation. 



Fred Andrus, Chicago, 111. 



