138 
blush for you because of your lack of re- 
gard for our animal and bird life. 
Truly yours, 
Joseph E. Kelly. 
Richmond, Va. 
The Winchester Arms Company, 
Dear Sirs—The members of our gun 
club having read in RECREATION a statement 
to the effect that you intend to put on the 
market an automatic gun, have instructed 
me to write you and ask you not to do so. 
I am also instructed to advise you that they 
will do all in their power to discourage the 
sale and use of such a gun. Hoping you 
may decide not to ae any such 
n, I am, yours respectfully, 
=~ ety: “ Jj. H. Pugh. 

DEFENDS THE SMOKELESS. 
I noticed in REcREATION an article by E. 
H. Kern, wherein he condemns the smoke- 
less rifle for its wounding of game, and 
mentions 500 yards as being as far as one 
can kill deer except by chance. Not more 
than one man in 10 who goes to Colorado to 
hunt can guess the distance, and hit one 
deer in 3 shots at 500 yards. Were it pos- 
sible to enforce such a law, there should 
be a fine imposed on any man who shot at 
deer at any such distance, unless it might 
be an animal that had been wounded at a 
shorter range. It is not necessary to try 
long shots in the country North of Rifle. I 
have hunted there and found no trouble in 
getting short shots. 
Mr. Kern says 50 does are killed to one 
buck; that nearly every deer killed bears 
marks of previous wounds; and that more 
deer are crippled with smokeless powder 
than are killed. What particular mark 
does smokeless powder make, that he 
can distinguish it from a black powder 
wound? 
He also mentions the crippled and dead 
deer he saw North of Rifle. There never 
has been and never will be a gun that 
cripples no game, unless built on the Mar- 
lin line, for any gun that shoots may be 
misaimed. Still, if long guesswork shots 
were stopped it would prevent much crip- 
pling. 
In all my hunting in Colorado I did not 
see one dead deer that had been wounded 
and got away to die. I like smokeless pow- 
der, for I wish to see if I hit a deer and 
not have to wait for the clouds to roll 
away. 
The law of Colorado was much im- 
proved last winter in making the open deer 
season September 15 to September 30, and 
in limiting each hunter to one deer and 
that a buck. I can easily see how that 
buck clause might mean a dead deer left to 
rot. 
RECREATION. 
Anyone not used to hunting big game 
might kill a doe in cover, mistaking it for 
a buck. In that case, as the law stands 
now, the doe would probably be left to rot 
where it fell. 
I think too much is expected of the game 
wardens, The hills were full of hunters 
and if there were wardens enough to see 
that the law was lived up to in every case, 
the woods would be so full of men that 
game would go to the open country. 
Smokeless guns heretofore have been too 
light in weight and too small in bore. The 
last objection has been met to a great ex- 
tent in the new 35 and 38. Like T. S. 
Van Dyke, I prefer a deer killed stone 
dead by a 3 or 4 inch wound, to a deer that 
gets away and dies a slow death from a 
wound that might have been made with a 
fence wire. I have had no trouble with 
deer getting away, but last fall I lost a 
silvertip that perhaps would have remained 
down had I used the 35 instead of the .303. 
Stubb, Orwell, Ohio. 

RESULTS WITH A 50 CALIBER. 
I have been an enthusiastic reader of 
RECREATION over 5 years. Guns and am- 
munition have my first attention and I can 
neither eat nor do anything else until I 
have absorbed all that department contains. 
I am in accord with the policy of roasting 
game hogs and will help all I may. 
On the subject of the best all around 
rifle I must say a word. At the risk of be- 
ing called an old fossil I will say my favor- 
ites are 50 calibers. I have owned a 23 
Remington-Lee, a 30-40 Winchester, a 30-40 
Marlin, a 303 Savage, a 25-36 and several 
other high power guns. Their chief points 
of excellence seem to be the power to kill a 
squirrel without tearing or kill a bear in- 
stantly; also to shoot less than 300 yards or 
more than 3 miles simply by using different 
ammunition. 
All this I find can be done with the 50 
as well or better. I give results which can 
be proven: 
Gun, an old style Sharps carbine; shell 
loaded with a hollow base ball with a bear- 
ing of % inch and weighing 97 grains; pow- 
der, 7 grains Gold Dust shot gun. At 200 
yards this load put 10 shots in a 2% inch 
circle, and with it I have killed squirrels 
without mangling; 200 yard trajectory, 7.31 
inches at 100 yards. 
Gun, 50-110 Winchester single shot; 
shell loaded with 215 grains hollow base 
ball; 30 grains Gold Dust powder; 300 
yard trajectory, 23.75 inches at 150 yards. 
Same gun: shell loaded with 450 grain 
ball and 50 grains powder gave a penetra- 
tion of 31 inches in pine boards, and I have . 
shot with it through a telephone pole 17 
inches in diameter. This caliber, especially 

