GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



S» 



Mountain trout are plentiful in all the 

 streams, while salmon, sturgeon, salmon 

 trout and suckers are numerous in Rogue 

 river, on which I live, 12 miles from its 

 mouth and from the Pacific ocean. 



Oral W. Miller, Agnes, Ore. 



Please tell me how to catch black bass. 

 R. W. Stout, Pollesville, Md. 



ANSWER. 



Read "The Book of the Black Bass," by 

 Henshall. Any dealer will get it for you. 



There is good bass fishing in and about 

 this place, but I am sorry to say there are 

 2 men lo every bass over 9 inches. 



Sherman W. Reese, Westfield, N. J. 



A. F. Myers, of Boyne Falls, Mich., re- 

 cently caught, in the Boyne river, a rain- 

 bow trout which weighed 4^ pounds and 

 measured 22 l / 2 inches in length. 



If we can stop seining we shall have 

 some fine bass fishing in Bureau creek. 

 Bert Smith, Princeton, 111. 



GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



LIKES THE WINCHESTER PUMP. 



I have used a Winchester repeating shot 

 gun for the past 6 years, and take pleasure 

 in answering Mr. Rucker's questions con- 

 cerning repeating guns. Magazine guns 

 are strongly made and will stand the 

 roughest usage, seldom getting out of 

 oid^r. They are perfectly safe, with- 

 stai. ing the heaviest charges of black and 

 nitre powders. I have never heard of one 

 burst. ng. The repeating mechanism is 

 perfectly and strongly made, and there is 

 little or no danger of jamming. They are 

 as useful ior general purposes as a double 

 gun, throwing all sizes of shot with the 

 greatest force. They are excellent for 

 shooting buckshot, which should, how- 

 ever, be loaded with the greatest care and 

 not allowed to chamber in the shells. The 

 Winchester Co. makes also a cylinder gun 

 for shooting small game. I prefer' a full 

 choke for general use; more skill is re- 

 quired in shooting, and a smaller percent- 

 age of game crippled. A great advantage 

 the choke bore has over the cylinder is its 

 power of killing at long range and of 

 penetrating thick brush. In November 

 Recreation Mr. Loftus says the repeat- 

 ing gun needs great care in bad weather 

 or it will freeze up. I have used my Win- 

 chester in the coldest weather and had no 

 trouble with it. As to shells exploding in 

 the magazine, I never heard of such a 

 thing until reading Mr. Loftus's article. 

 It might, however, occur if the primer were 

 not properly seated. I have known double 

 guns to explode shells while being closed 

 after loading. With my Winchester I can 

 do as quick and successful shooting as 

 with a double gun. The sliding action 

 Winchester is perfectly balanced, and can 

 be brought to the shoulder as quickly and 

 gracefully as a double gun. Of course the 

 latter is somewhat handier in that 2 sizes 

 of shot can be carried in the barrels. I 

 have used different makes, but consider 

 the Winchester the best. I bought one of 

 these guns, '93 model, in the fall of '93, 



and have used it continuously ever since. 

 It has never got out of order, and is as 

 good to-day as ever. It can not be ex- 

 celled in pattern, penetration and long- 

 distance shooting. I consider the repeater 

 as much a true sportsman's arm as the 

 double gun. Either can be wrongly used 

 in the hands of an unprincipled person. 

 A double gun with automatic shell ex- 

 tractor can be reloaded rapidly enough to 

 do great execution. I generally carry but 

 2 shells in my Winchester, which, as any- 

 one knows, can not be fired nearly so rap- 

 idly as 2 shells in a double gun. I am 

 thoroughly pleased with the Winchester, 

 and shall probably never use any other 

 gun. H. P. Hays, Hollidaysburg, Pa. 



WHY .22 SHELLS ARE NOT CRIMPED. 



Okoboji, Iowa. 



Why do not the manufacturers of cart- 

 ridges make a .22 rim fire cartridge with 

 the bullet seated firmly enough to give good 

 results when fired from a revolver? The 

 Peters Cartridge Co. makes a .22 rim fire 

 shell loaded with nitro powder that, I 

 think, would be satisfactory if the bullet 

 was seated a little deeper and the shell 

 crimped more firmly around it. 



I have had a good deal of experience 

 with 16 gauge shot £,uns, as well as with 

 others of larger caliber. For pattern and 

 penetration the 16 is hard to beat. I have 

 a Parker 16 grain, 7 pound gun, with 30% 

 inch barrels, that has been tested against a 

 number of other guns, and got away with 

 them all, at 35 and at 50 yards. The load 

 used was Blue Rival shell, primed with a 

 few grains of fine black powder ; 2^2 

 drachms Du Pont's smokeless powder ; one 

 heavy cardboard and 3 black edge wads 

 over powder ; one ounce of shot and thin 

 shot wad ; well crimped with round crimp. 

 A. A. Henderson, Okoboji, la. 



ANSWER. 



The reason cartridge manufacturers do 

 not make .22 rim fire cartridges with the 



