460 



RECREATION. 



Nay, Pauline : he did what any reasonable 

 gun crank or honorable sportsman would 

 have done. He made the appropriate and 

 necessary remarks adapted to the occasion, 

 and went on his way, if not rejoicing, nev- 

 ertheless a bit wiser. He killed 2 as pretty 

 bucks that same week as ever came out of 

 the Cold River country, with the same gun 

 that jammed and that should, according to 

 Mr. Cone, have been returned to the mak- 

 ers and a refund of purchase price de- 

 manded. 



On Page No. 211 of the same issue of 

 Recreation is an article by Lieutenant Ray- 

 mond, U. S. A., yclept "Follow Manufac- 

 turers' Instructions." It seems to me that 

 the closing remarks of the powder expert 

 to the complainant, in the lieutenant's story, 

 fit this case. If Mr. Cone had been able 

 to attribute any just blame whatever to his 

 rifle, I am confident that every amend pos- 

 sible would have been made by the manu- 

 facturers. They stand by their product and 

 their guarantee means just what it says. 

 E. B. Guile, M. D., Utica, N. Y. 



I ha hoped the Savage Company would 

 i-eply to Dr. J. F. Keenan's criticism of 

 their rifle ; but since they have not done so, 

 I can not let the Doctor's statements go 

 unchallenged. 



He starts out by saying the Savage 

 should handle the standard army cartridge 

 and no other to give it standing with rifle- 

 men, who know that a gun shooting many 

 tanridges can not be depended on to shoot 

 any one of them reliably. He adds that a 

 gun that does not require extended experi- 

 mentation and constant alteration of sights 

 to suit different loads is what the practical 

 rifleman wants. For that reason the Doc- 

 tor turns to the '95 model Winchester. 



A rifleman desiring an arm to handle the 

 standard army cartridge and that alone 

 would certainly be disappointed if he took 

 such advice, for the Winchester people 

 recommend 3 different cartridges for the 

 30 army and the .303 British, correspond- 

 ing exactly to Nos. 1, 2 and 6 of the Sav- 

 age. "For the 38-72 and 40-72," their cata- 

 logue says, "soft lead, full metal patched, 

 or metal patched soft point bullets, and 

 either black or smokeless powder give ex- 

 cellent results." How many varieties of 

 cartridges could be made as suggested? 

 Does the Doctor consider that this gun 

 "lacks character, like a Jack-of-all trades"? 

 What is his opinion of the 32 caliber Spe- 

 cial, which is offered to meet the demand 

 of many sportsmen for a smokeless powder 

 cartridge that can be reloaded with black 

 powder and give satisfactory results? 



As to the statement, "Even the Savage 

 Company acknowledges its inability to sight 

 the guns at the factory for accuracy before 

 putting them on the market," it seems the 



Doctor must be prejudiced against the arm 

 without having tested it. Every rifleman 

 knows that, to quote the Savage catalogue, 

 "however closely the sights may be adjust- 

 ed for one shooter, it will generally be 

 found necessary to alter them somewhat to 

 give perfect satisfaction to another user of 

 the rifle." 



The Savage is bored to shoot the regu- 

 lar No. 1 or No. 2 cartridges, just as the 

 Winchester is bored for its regular hard or 

 soft point cartridges ; no "compromise of 

 twist" has been made to the lighter loads. 

 If held right, a Savage will group the 

 shots in as small a circle as any similar 

 rifle I have ever handled. 



A study of the article leaves the impres- 

 sion that it was written with undue haste 

 and without careful examination into the 

 f; cts, for while the Savage Company ad- 

 vertises its different cartridges, the Win- 

 chester Company recommends its varieties 

 in the catalogue; thereby vouching for 

 them. If the Savage can not be consid- 

 ered a standard arm because it uses more 

 than one cartridge, there are no standard 

 rifles. All the modern high pressure smoke- 

 less rifles of which I have heard will han- 

 dle at least 3 different cartridges corre- 

 sponding to the Savage numbers men- 

 tioned above. 



This article is not meant to criticise the 

 Winchester arms, for those guns are gener- 

 ally accepted as the standard by which oth- 

 ers are judged in this country; neither is it 

 a recommendation of the Savage. My ob- 

 ject is simply to throw cold water on 

 much ado about nothing. 



It is thought, however, that the Savage 

 would be improved by placing the safety 

 on top of the receiver for the benefit of 

 those accustomed to the hammerless shot 

 gun. J. E. B., Mobile, Ala. 



NEW MAGAZINE GUNS. 



7 I 9 > 955- — Magazine Firearm. John D. Ped- 

 erson, Denver, Colo. Filed June 12, 

 1901. Serial No. 64,322. (No model.) 



Claim. — 1. In a magazine gun, the com- 

 bination of a. receiver, a breech block longi- 

 tudinally movable therein, the receiver be- 

 ing provided with a recoil shoulder which 

 engages the rear extremity of the breech 

 block when the mechanism is in the locked 

 position, a crank mounted to turn in the 



