THE REFERENDUM 
regarding Partridge sights, I have never known 
of them being used on the Colt automatic pistol. 
The Partridge and Lyman revolver sights are 
best adapted to the S. & W. revolver, but could 
be fitted to the Colt by any gunsmith. 
J. C. ANDERSON. 
Oak Park, Sacramento, Cal. 

SPORTSMEN!!! 
SS rHINIG ti! 

Squirrels with a Shotgun 
Very vehemently must I disagree with Mr. 
Ernest Cave, who, in the September number of 
RECREATION, writes of ‘‘Sport in Squirrel- 
Shooting.” . 
This gentleman evidently has had much 
experience in squirrel-hunting, and it is only 
just to say that his article was, in the main, 
intensely interesting and certainly instructive. 
But to annihilate a little squirrel with a 16-bore 
double-barrel shotgun! ! ! 
Touching the proper arm and the three 
different types, I note that he calls himself the 
“‘up-to-date” hunter. After being taken by the 
narrative into the squirrel woods and learning 
our sure (and really very true) lesson, we find 
our second squirrel has climbed the small oak 
ten yards—only thirty feet away. ‘‘It is an 
easy shot,” he writes, “‘and you soon have your 
first squirrel in your pocket.’ Sportsmen! ! ! 
Think!!! Thirty feet away, with a 16-gauge 
shell, which is guaranteed to pattern over 240 
pellets of No. 74 shot in a 30-inch circle at 35 
yards. ; 
How much better would it not be to accord 
the squirrel the respect he rightly deserves and 
go into the woods and still-hunt in reality with 
a .22 caliber 10-shot automatic. 
Shooting with the rifle may seem very much 
more difficult than with a shotgun to the begin- 
ner, but it seems ill to recommend or encourage 
the use of the latter by the amateur. If, after 
attaining a degree of proficiency in the use of 
the heavy arm and a knowledge of and interest 
in the habits of their quarry, they would discard 
it for a rifle, there would be limited criticism, 
but, unfortunately, a shotgun-slaughterer of 
small game seldom reforms. But, started right, 
and unless unduly tempted, they would have 
chosen arms suitable in weight to their game. 
Mr. Cave’s picture represents him with a .22 
caliber single rifle (although his discourse never 
touches that period). When, we may wonder, 
did he fall? 
481 
Let the man with the 12- and 16-bore double- 
barrel and ‘“‘pump” keep behind his dogs or in 
his blind, with these most proper arms wherever 
properly used, as, for instance, on birds and 
fowl while in flight, but in hunting animals 
which may be shot at while in a stationary posi- 
tion use a rifle, and refrain from delivering that 
charge of shot that could not miss into their 
bodies. 
Isn’t Mr. Cave ‘‘in wrong?” 
WitiraM R. Lott. 
Rainbow Lake, Adirondacks. 

A Question Answered 
Can you tell me where I can get an old-style 
Smith & Wesson Revolver, .44 caliber? The 
gun I want was patented in 1860 and was used 
in the army. It has a wooden grip and an 
eight-inch barrel. RICHARD VALENTINE. 
Erie, Pa. 
[Try Francis Bannerman, sor Broadway, 
New York.—Ep.] 
Black ’Chucks in New Hampshire 
In the September number of RECREATION I 
see, under ‘‘The Referendum,” an article by 
Charles R. La Barre, of Harford, Pa., in regard 
to the black woodchuck. He asks if any of the 
readers ever saw one. A black woodchuck was 
killed in this town two weeks ago (August 28) 
by Dan Brennen, who is a caretaker of a large 
summer estate here. Also several have been 
shot in this town within the past ten years, but, 
as a rule, they are very scarce. 
This same man, Brennen, shot last fall two 
silver-gray foxes, which he sold in the New 
York market for $300. ‘The prospect for some 
good hunting this fall looks promising, as the 
partridges and rabbits are very plentiful. The 
quail have all disappeared. 
Gero. S. Proctor. 
Wilton, N. H. 
= 

Ten, Twelve or Sixteen 
Just which is best would be about as hard to 
determine as the proper revolver, which seems 
to be the leading topic in sporting magazines 
lately. 
I shall not state my opinion as to killing 
