XV1U 



RECREATION. 



THE REMINGTON AND A NEW 

 SIGHT. 



In November Recreation Geo. Mc- 

 Gowan champions the Stevens Favorite 

 pronouncing it the "simplest, safest, 

 most durable 22 rifle" he knows of. I 

 admit its accuracy, but that it is simpler, 

 safer, or more durable than the Remington 

 No. 4 I deny. Four years ago I bought 

 for a friend a Stevens Favorite 22 caliber. 

 My little boy already owned a Remington 

 No. 4. With these 2 rifles my friend 

 and I often spent an afternoon at the 

 target. He is a good shot and was mighty 

 handy with his Favorite. I have warped 

 along well toward 3 score, but for every 

 bull's eye he made, I made a mate. Both 

 weapons were perfectly accurate. 



In a short time the action of the Favorite 

 became shaky and the lever hung loose, 

 falling half an inch from the tang. It 

 was repaired, only to wear loose again, 

 and that was repeated time and again. 

 The Remington remained as solid as when 

 I took it out of the store. Can any 

 mechanism be simpler than the Remington 

 flying lock ? There is no set screw to keep 

 it in adjustment. It simply can not get out 

 of order. The only thing that could hap- 

 pen amiss would be the snapping of a 

 mainspring, which would be as likely to 

 happen in a Stevens as in any other. As 

 to the comparative safety of the 2 I 

 cannot see wherein the Stevens is superior. 

 Both will explode a shell, if there be one 

 in the chamber when the hammer falls, 

 provided the action is fully closed. After 

 that is said safety depends on the gun- 

 sense of the handler. From a somewhat 

 extensive experience with Ballard, Bullard 

 and Stevens single shot rifles I declare in 

 favor of the honest old flying lock of the 

 Remingtons as against any lever action. 

 Nothing stronger, simpler, more durable, 

 or less subject to epilepsy was ever in- 

 vented as an adjunct to the rifle. 



My friend disposed of his Favorite and 

 "bought a Remington. To the latter he 

 has added an amusing little invention of 

 his own. With a brass umbrella handle 

 he improvised a tubular sight which is 

 almost a telescope. Filing the ends square 

 and using the upper slot as a saddle he 

 drops it over the front sight, which pro- 

 trudes far enough into the tube to show 

 its point nearly in the center. The tube, 

 extending back to near the crotch sight 

 he secures firmly to the barrel the end 

 passing through a small wooden disc 

 flattened in one part of its circumference 

 so as to set firmly on the upper octagonal 

 face of the barrel. 



Aiming, he peers through that umbrella 

 tube. One can but laugh at the ludi- 

 crous object, but when he sees the shooter 

 drive a tack he begins to want to try it too. 

 A peep through it shows the bull's eye 

 standing out like a huckleberry in a bowl 

 of milk. Let some inventive experi- 

 mentalist try it. 



W. H. Nelson, Washington, D. C. 



THE LAKE BURNABY AFFAIR. 



The. story of the killing of a deer, on 

 Lake Burnaby, with hockey sticks, is true. 

 There were a number of skaters on the 

 ice when a deer, chased by dogs, came out 

 on the other side of the lake. It broke 

 through the ice and could not extricate it- 

 self. The skaters went, at great personal 

 risk, and pulled the animal out, with the 

 intention of getting it for the zoo. They 

 found that its hind leg was badly broken 

 and was twisted entirely around. In order 

 to put the unfortunate animal out of pain 

 as quickly as possible, the skaters killed it 

 with their hockey sticks, having no gun 

 at hand. 



No one knows whose dogs did the run- 

 ning. The fact that there were no hunters 

 out indicates that the dogs were running 

 on their own account. The local paper re- 

 marked at the time on the pity of the kill- 

 ing, but stated that nothing else could have 

 been done in the interests of the unfortun- 

 nate deer. 



As to dogs running deer, it is said to be 

 practiced all over the Province. The In- 

 dians do it ; also the foreign white popula- 

 tion who are living Indian fashion, fish- 

 ing in summer and hunting in winter. Deer 

 are inconceivably thick in this country, and 

 in some parts comparatively tame, so their 

 slaughter is an easy matter. The slaugh- 

 ter of water fowl here in the spring and 

 fall is shameful, and so far there seems to 

 be little attempt to check it. Once in a 

 while a case of infraction of the game laws 

 is dealt with and a severe penalty imposed ; 

 but not one in 100 is punished who should 

 be. I fear the L. A. S. would have a hard 

 time making a record for itself in this 

 Province just now, on account of the un- 

 settled state of affairs and the extreme 

 difficulty of dealing with men who have 

 no fixed abode, but who shift, their homes 

 as often as it suits them. 



G. A. Manchester, M. D., New West- 

 minster, B. C. 



I have been thinking of buying a '94 

 model Winchester 38-55. That caliber 

 makes a good showing in the Winchester 

 tables of comparative power, and the let- 

 ters of S. O. S. Graham and others con- 

 firm it. There are many who do not like 

 the smokeless small bore, and I am one 

 of them. Why would not a Lyman sight- 

 ed 38-55, loaded with 50 grains of powder 

 and 235 grain hollow point ball, do good 

 execution on large game? Should like to 

 read comments on this gun and cartridge. 



W. E. Stevens, of Windham, N. Y., can 

 undoubtedly hold his own against the 

 cranks who denounce the use of the shot 

 gun for bird shooting. Nor is there any 

 need for me to help defend the pump guns. 

 They certainly could do no more harm than 

 the costly double barrel that C. M. Powers 

 had at Karnes City, Tex., as told by Mr. 

 De Loach in November Recreation. 



M. A. Stout, Mackinaw, 111. 



