GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



137 



it has, he will never again carry a cannon 0.1 

 his hunting expeditions. The large calibres 

 are, no doubt, effective enough, but why 

 carry one when a gun weighing much less 

 and equally effective, can be had? 



Dan Wogaman, Piqua, O. 



Will some reader please tell us which is 

 the better gun for killing deer; the Marlin 

 repeater using Marlin .30-30 smokeless car- 

 tridge with full metal patched ball, or the 

 Winchester repeater using .30 calibre 

 smokeless Winchester cartridges, with full 

 metal patched bullet? Or is there a gun bet- 

 ter than either? Which is most deadly, the 

 full metal patched or soft point bullet? We 

 have been reading Recreation 2 years, and 

 would like to express our appreciation of 

 your efforts to make it the leading sports- 

 men's magazine in the country. Every one 

 says it has improved greatly in the last year 

 and if you could see our copy at the end of 

 the month you would think every man in the 

 city had read it. 



Y. M. C. A., Findlay, O. 



In May Recreation you printed a letter 

 from A. Hedger on " How to Make Explo- 

 sive Bullets." 

 The mixture he uses is, 



Potassium chlorate 2 parts. 



Flowers of sulphur 1 part. 



In your September number, C. E. Ash- 

 burner remarks that this mixture " is about 

 as explosive as baking powder would be." 



Well, this mixture is explosive — at least 

 when rubbed in a porcelain mortar. This I 

 know from experience. 



As yet, I have not had occasion to try it 

 in a hollow pointed bullet, but should like 

 to hear, through Recreation, from some 

 one who has. Potassium chlorate, and not 

 chloride, is the material that Mr. Hedger re- 

 fers to. A. E. M., Chicago. 



I should like to ask, through Recrea- 

 tion, if there is a special buckshot gun man- 

 ufactured. I have tried all kinds, from an 8 

 bore, 14 pounds, 36 inch duck gun down, 

 and never found anything smaller than the 

 above that would give a satisfactory target 

 and good penetration at 75 yards, with even 

 the smaller sizes of buckshot. The 8 bore, 

 with 7-)4 drams black powder, was all right 

 at that distance; but in this climate a gun of 

 that weight is too heavy to tote through 

 swamps and hummocks. Still, a gun is re- 

 quired that will make a good target at 70 

 yards and shoot hard enough, at 30 yards, to 

 break a bear's ribs. 



R. I. O. Travers, Fort Myers, Fla. 



To make explosive bullets take chlorate 

 of potassium and black antimony, equal 

 parts by weight; mix carefully with a 

 wooden spoon; add ground glass to make it 

 more sensitive. Fill the bullet with the 



compound and cover with wax of any kind. 

 It is not advisable to keep these ingredients 

 mixed but they can be combined as re- 

 quired. It is dangerous to keep this prepa- 

 ration in a bottle with glass stopper for ob- 

 vious reasons. 



C. E. Ashburner, Richmond, Va. 



May I add, to the continued discussion of 

 different loads and charges, that I have re- 

 cently tried against several other loads, and 

 found remarkably satisfactory, in a 16 gauge 

 gun, the following: Thirty-two grains 

 smokeless powder, one Field wad, one Y& 

 felt wad, one Field wad, 24 ounce shot, 

 one top-shot wad, (U.M.C.) Acme shell. 

 If others owning 16 gauge guns will ex- 

 periment with this load, I should be glad to 

 hear the result, but I need hardly add that 

 the details of wadding, etc., should be care- 

 fully followed. C. S. D., New York City. 



I hope the gun cranks will not heed Dr. 

 Mack's poetic roast, which appears in Jan- 

 uary Recreation. Out of the mouths 

 of babes shall come wisdom, and from the 

 pens of many cranks shall flow much good 

 stuff. Keep on shoving your quills, breth- 

 ren. We want all the discussion we can get 

 of guns and ammunition. The rifle is under- 

 going an evolution, and it is going to take a 

 lot of investigation on the part of practical 

 shooters to determine just which of the 

 many changes now being made shall be im- 

 provements. 



Mr. M. Frasier, of Rondout, N. Y., wants 

 to know the killing range of the American 

 Arms Co.'s semi-hammerless. single barrel, 

 shotgun. I own one of their 12 gauge 

 Damascus grade guns. There is no better 

 arm made. My gun will put 2J No. 8 shot 

 in a 6 inch circle, at 60 yards. I shot with it, 

 last winter, 2 grouse at 13 measured rods. 

 The load used was No. 2 shot and 2> Z A drams 

 f.f.g. powder. -I should think the American 

 Arms Co. would find it profitable to adver- 

 tise in Recreation. 



E. W. Dearborn, Uplands, N. H. 



In answer to Scctt Kneeland's inquiry, in 

 September Recreation. I would say I have 

 used 4 different Marlin repeaters and found 

 the ejecting qualities perfect in all of them. 

 They worked as well with empty shells as 

 with loaded cartridges. I now have a .32-40 

 Marlin, with Lyman sights; and use Peters 

 semi-smokeless cartridges for long range 

 shooting and the short range cartridges for 

 squirrels. I have used several other re- 

 peaters and find them all good, but prefer 

 the Marlin. 



C. S. Bassett, Kalamazoo, Mich. 



In answer to Mr. Frasier's inquiry in Sep- 

 tember Recreation would say: I bought 

 an American Arms Co. single barrel, semi- 



