GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



483 





black bear, caribou, moose, etc., the .30-30 

 fills the bill, while for grizzly, cinnamon, 

 etc., the .30-40, .45-00 or the .45-70. My 

 favorite for anything from a deer up is the 

 .30-30. This cartridge I know to be a hard 

 hitter and a killer. 



For rapid, fancy or wing shooting the 

 model '90 Winchester, with sliding forearm, 

 is excellent. I believe Lyman sights im- 

 prove a rifle and increase its value. The 

 Winchester and Marlin rifles are both good 

 but I prefer the Winchester. The Savage 

 has many good points and is one of our best 

 modern hunting 'rifles. It has a big future. 



J. F. Leonard. 



BIG VS. LITTLE. 



Tremont, N. Y. 



Editor Recreation : I have read the ex- 

 perience of Mr. L. von Iffland, who seems 

 to doubt my statement about finding metal 

 jacketed bullets in the moose I killed in 

 October, 1897. I must confess I would 

 have found it hard to believe, if I had 

 not taken them out myself. As I stated 

 some time ago. one of the bullets struck 

 the moose just above the knee on one 

 of his hind legs, and after penetrating 

 the skin, the lead had flattened out on a 

 muscle. The metal jacket was coiled up 

 alongside of it. The other had apparently 

 been fired when the moose was almost head 

 on and was imbedded in the skin of the 

 neck. It had struck point first, but had flat- 

 tened diagonally, showing the angle at 

 which it had struck. The bullet from my 

 .40-82, which had brought him down, struck 

 his back bone close to the hip, as he was 

 climbing out of the brook into which he had 

 jumped while running away from me. It 

 broke his back, but was badly smashed up. 

 The moose was very old and his bones were 

 so hard that I broke a steel hatchet in pieces 

 cutting him up. I wanted to save his hide, 

 and it was impossible to get him out of the 

 mud hole into which he had fallen, except in 

 sections. The failure of the .30 caliber to 

 penetrate is unaccountable and may have 

 been due to a defective primer. It is a waste 

 of time to argue about the killing power of 

 the .30-30 or .30-40, as everypne who has 

 used one knows that it will kill any animal 

 in this country. 



The question is — will you get the animal 

 you kill ? If the .30 caliber would mushroom 

 on the skin of a deer where it entered and 

 so make a large hole for the blood to flow, 

 it would be all right, but I used a .30-30 last 

 October, in Maine, and found that it did not 

 mushroom in any case where it entered, and 

 it made but little larger hole where it came 

 out. unless it had struck a bone. 



While coming down a small brook in a 

 canoe. I met a moose, face to face. The in- 

 stant he saw me he whirled as quickly as a 

 deer and made 2 tremendous leap<. 



I grabbed my .30-30 and tired at him as 



he made his second leap. The ball struck 

 him just behind the ear and came out under 

 his eye. He dropped instantly, but on ex- 

 amination I found that the hole where the 

 bullet had come out was hardly noticeable 

 and the bullet had not mushroomed a par- 

 ticle. 



Another time I was looking for a deer 

 and I saw a small one some distance off. 

 I fired at it and from the way it jumped 

 knew it had been hit. I paddled over to 

 the point but did not find blood until I 

 had gone 25 <or 30 feet. I trailed it about 

 200 yards and then killed it with another 

 shot. The first shot had struck it just back 

 of the last rib, had gone through diag- 

 onally and come out of the thigh without 

 striking a single bone. The hole made by 

 the bullet in coming out was hardly larger 

 than where it had entered. 



In a large deer if a bullet should strike a 

 bone, so as to be prevented from coming out, 

 there would be very little blood spilled from 

 the small hole where the bullet entered and 

 consequently, in a heavily timbered coun- 

 try, it would be almost impossible to track 

 it, and the chances would be largely in favor 

 of losing it. 



The only objection anyone could possibly 

 have to a large caliber is its weight ; that 

 certainly is a decided objection. The Win- 

 chester people, however, are now making a 

 .45-70 (which Mr. Horace W. Brooks says 

 is obsolete, though I beg to differ with him ) 

 which weighs under 8 pounds. I think with 

 a gun of that caliber a man would get more 

 game in heavy timber that he would with a 

 .30-30. For an open country where there 

 are long shots and where the game can be 

 seen after it is shot. I should advise a 

 .30-30. but, for a heavily wooded country 

 like Maine I should certainly recommend a 

 .45 or .50 caliber, so that in the event of the 

 bullet not going through, the blood would 

 have a chance to flow from where it had en- 

 tered. 



C. H. Stonebridge. 



BRASS SHELLS FOR THE FIELD. 



Oshkosh, Wis. 



Editor Recreation : I wish to say a word 

 or 2 in reply to the article, " Shot Shells 

 and How to Load Them." in your January 

 Recreation, by Mr. Chas. B. Wise. Mr. 

 Wise is apparently laboring under a delu- 

 sion common to many sportsmen, viz.. that 

 nitro powders can't be used in brass shells. 

 He does not say so expressly, but the in- 

 ference is plain that a " crimp " is necessary 

 to obtain best results. I thought so myself 

 once. I don't now. 



Last fall I started on the marsh using the 

 Winchester " leader " smokeless shells, fac- 

 tory load. I didn't like them. They didn't kill 

 to suit me. I bought some brass shells — No. 

 3 Winchester primers No 8 black edge felt 

 wads (I use 10 gauge gun). I loaded some 



