m 



KUCKEATION. 



zines in the country would adopt the prin- 

 ciples which dominate Recreation one 

 would not meet so many fishermen along 

 the trout brooks with 3 and 4 inch trout 

 in their creels. F<r\v anglers here will 

 throw back anything they can get their 

 hands on. I have read Recreation for 4 

 or 5 years. On my trout rod is a 5 inch 

 mark, and anything under that length that 

 1 catch goes back to the water. I wish 

 every man and boy in this country would 

 read your magazine and learn to obey the 

 game and fish laws. 



Stanley Manners, Scranton, Pa. 



George and Morgan Westenhaver were 

 arrested last week for placing dynamite 

 in the Baraboo river to kill fish. They 

 pleaded guilty, and were bound over to ap- 

 pear in Circuit Court this fall. There has 

 been considerable of that kind of work go- 

 ing on here for the last 2 years, but our 

 game warden could never catch the guilty 

 ones before. 



Shooting was poor last fall, but we have 

 plenty this season. 



F. A. Moore, Baraboo, Wis. 



Do you know of a country place near 

 New York where army officers can go to 

 spend their summers, finding plain, coun- 

 try board, good bathing, good bicycle 

 paths, and good fishing, both pier and 

 boat? Likewise, where the dude does 

 not exist. 



Col. F. W. Roe, U. S. A., 



Madison Lake, Minn. 



Will some reader please answer Col. Roe 

 direct ? — Editor. 



Quails and chickens are plentiful now. 



Goshen, Ind.^Aug. 30. — Last night Deputy Fish Com- 

 missioners E. E. Earle and E. C Sala captured William 

 Hawkins, George Mason, Joe Patterson and Joseph 

 Grimes, of Millersburg who were spearing fish on Lake 

 Wawasee. When arraigned before the justice they 

 pleaded guilty and each paid a fine of $23 60. Earle and 

 Sala have made it exceedingly warm for fish pirates in 

 this part of the State. — Indianapolis Sentinel. 



It really begins to look as if fish hogs 

 and game hogs had no rights which game 

 wards are bound to respect. — Editor. 



GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



WANTS A BETTER 22 CALIBER. 



Washington, D. C. 

 Editor Recreation: 



I have been a rifleman over 40 years, 

 and although not a particularly good shot, 

 still I know what a good weapon is. The 

 Winchester I have known ever since its 

 birth; and I own a '94 model .38-55 and 

 .22 calibers galore. 



Why does not some one make a rigid 

 22 caliber repeating rifle that will repeat, 

 that will shoot as accurately as the Ste- 

 vens single shot rifle, and that will not be- 

 come a complete wreck as soon as the 

 thinnest skin of metal is worn off where 

 there is the most friction. There is no 

 satisfactory small caliber repeating 

 rifle in existence. Leaving out of 

 the question the old model '73 Win- 

 chester, veritable cannon, we have the 

 but 3 22 caliber repeaters offered — the 

 Winchester, the Colt, and the Marlin. 



The Winchester does not meet all the 

 requirements indicated. It is not rigid, 

 being a take-down; and, worse than all 

 else, it has a rattling, unstable fore end, 

 being a left hand slide action. I could 

 stand the take-down arrangement if it 

 would remain firm enough to make the 

 use of a tang peep sight practicable; but 

 this loose and rattling fore end slide is 

 more than I can bear. It is uncertain in 

 shooting, awkward in the hand and dis- 



tasteful to the eye. The violent change 

 from the feel of the big lever to that of the 

 little slippery slide is exceedingly disagree- 

 able. Yet if that same gun only had a 

 lever action, light and graceful, the whole 

 vexed question would be settled. We 

 would all throw away our rattlers and get 

 guns we could dote on and recommend 

 to our children; for be it known the 22 

 caliber rifle is the rifle of the future in this 

 country, as large game is fast vanishing. 



The same objections may be urged 

 against the Colt, with 3 grave addi- 

 tional indictments: Filling the magazine 

 is difficult, and tends to mar the bullets; 

 the barrel is not rifled to get the best re- 

 sults from either of the 2 cartridges it is 

 designed for, but is a compromise be- 

 tween the proper twist for the short cart- 

 ridge and that for the long. The long 

 should never have been provided for; it 

 should not exist in fact, as it is a most 

 unsatisfactory cartridge. The gun being 

 chambered for the long cartridge, the short 

 fails to fill the chamber, and the gas flies 

 back into the action at each discharge, 

 fouling it and lessening the force behind 

 the bullet. Here is where the Winchester 

 is strong. No gas escapes, and the rea- 

 son is that it is chambered for the cart- 

 ridge used. No misfit there. 



The Marlin is a lever action; it is hand- 

 some, pleases the eye, the hand, and the 



