220 



RECREATION. 



skull 2 inches, had come out and re-entered 

 the shpulder, passed through it, then down 

 the leg under the skin and lodged in the 

 bottom of the foot. The gun used was a 

 44 Winchester with prepared ammunition 

 and black powder. 



I have lived in the Northwest 6o years, 

 have known many famous hunters of large 

 game, and know many of them claim that 

 a bear's skull will glance a ball. 



I have also heard it said that Ericsson, 

 the inventor of the ironclad monitors, took 

 his cue for the invention from the theory 

 that the shape of a bear's skull was such 

 as to glance a ball. 



B. F. H., Walker, Minn. 



A LONG RIFLE. 



Several articles which have appeared in 

 recent issues of Recreation have described 

 special examples of the archaic weapons 

 of our forefathers. Suffer me to add one 

 to the list. 



In the scrimmage at Gallatin, Tenn., in 

 1862, one of our boys captured, from a 

 house, a rifle which was a revelation to us. 

 It was over 6 feet long and weighed 37 

 pounds. The stock was curly maple, and 

 near the muzzle was a square place left, 

 to which was screwed a brass plate which 

 turned down at its upper edge at right 

 angles to the remainder. This must have 

 been to rest the weapon on when firing. 



The lock was a delicate and shapely flint 

 pattern, with double triggers. Tkc caliber 

 must have been at least 45. 



One of the boys being soon after dis- 

 charged, carried the weapon home with 

 him. Years after the war ended I found 

 the old weapon in the show window of a 

 gunsmith's establishment in our county 

 town. It had been altered some; cut down 

 to half-stock, the barrel shortened 18 

 inches, and a percussion lock had taken the 

 place of the old flint arrangement. 



Believing I had recognized an old friend 

 I entered the shop, and inquired of the 

 proprietor. Yes, it was the same old 

 gun. He had heard of it, and at last had 

 bought it, cut it down, as I say, and used 

 it at the target in the club. He remarked 

 that it got "over all of 'em yet." 



If the smith be vet alive I doubt not 

 he still holds it. He was a Mr. Ham- 

 mersly, Hamilton, Ohio. Any skeptical or 

 curious sportsman or collector may, I be- 

 lieve, find it there still. 



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



and during a week's camp hunt in the 

 mountains, I fired nearly 400 of them. 

 Not one shell failed to fire perfectly. Those 

 shells were loaded with the new semi- 

 smokeless powder. While in camp my 

 brother and I did considerable snap shoot- 

 ing. My brother exploded the primer in 

 a 12 gauge shot shell at 15 yards, and shot 

 away 6 empty shells same size : L twice the 

 distance. These shots were fired in rapid 

 succession, and the bullets struck fairly in 

 the heads of each shell. On another oc- 

 casion he burst 5 small apples, which I 

 pitched in the air, without a miss. After 

 shooting 100 shots without cleaning, the 

 gun seemed not to have been shot more 

 than 10 times. I have also given the 

 Ideal shot shells a thorough test, and found 

 them superior to any I have ever used. 

 With 2 24 drams King's smokeless and 1 

 Vz ounce No. 7 Vi chilled shot, I killed a 

 jack rabbit, running, at 53 yards, another 

 at 48 and a third at 55. While shooting 

 doves in Pucaipe valley not long since I 

 fired 2.7 shots and killed 25 birds. 



There are several shooters in this town 

 who use Peters cartridges, and they find 

 no fault with them. Any one who does 

 not wish to use smokeless, yet would like 

 to dispense with the dirt, recoil, unpleasant 

 odor, etc., of the old black powder, can 

 find nothing that will equal King's semi- 

 smokeless. 



W. C. Whittemore, Redlands, Cal. 



PETERS' CARTRIDGES SUCCESSFUL. 



I have taken special pains during the 



past year to thoroughly investigate the 



Peters Cartridge Co. ammunition, and 



have found it. thoroughly satisfactory in 



every respect, I first bought 509 22. Longs 



THINKS BLACK POWDER OUT OF DATE. 



I have been a reader of your magazine a 

 long time and don't intend to be without it 

 for a long time to come, but there are one 

 or 2 little matters which receive too much 

 attention for an up-to-date magazine. In 

 your February issue you give space to sev- 

 eral articles written by antiquated moss- 

 backs who even claim superiority for the 

 old black powder guns over the new 

 smokeless small calibers. A man who 

 claims that the killing and shooting quali- 

 ties of the 32-40 or the 38-55 are equal to 

 those of the 303 Savage or the 30-40 Win- 

 chester shows himself a back number. I 

 fear Recreation will fall a little behind 

 the times if you allow such controversies 

 to occupy valuable space. The large gun 

 manufacturers spent millions in testing the 

 small bore in every way, and we all know 

 the result. Uncle Sam has decided the 

 old 45-70 is no longer of any use. Our 

 navy, of which everv American is proud, 

 did not use smooth bores nor black pow- 

 der. The flintlock, smooth bore, muzzle 

 loader and black powder guns, including 

 the 38-55, have seen their day. and I for 

 one hope you will relegate the black pow- 

 der crank to the waste basket as unworthy 

 of consideration, 



