GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



in 



Mr. E. F. Pope gives some good advice 

 on cleaning rifles, but his method can be 

 improved on. Almost every family has 

 a fountain syringe. After using your rifle, 

 and before running anything through the 

 barrel, fill such a syringe with a hot 

 solution of washing soda, insert the rub- 

 ber tube, without any nozzle, in the 

 breech of the piece, and let the hot soda 

 solution run through the barrel and out 

 of the muzzle. Then wipe as advised by 

 Mr. Pope, until the cotton or cloth comes 

 out perfectly clean. Then oil as described. 

 The soda softens the powder residue, car- 

 ries most of it away and neutralizes any 

 acid. A wiper would have forced the res- 

 idue into the rifle grooves and hardened 

 some of it so that it would probably have 

 remained even after the wipers appeared to 

 come through clean. The method I have 

 just described leaves the barrel hot. It 

 therefore dries thoroughly and the oil or 

 grease flows readily to every part of the 

 rifling. 



Dr. A. C. Wheeler calls attention to the 

 effect of altitude on the flight of bullets. 

 He may be interested in the following from 

 the Firing Regulations for Small Arms oi 

 the Army : 



465. The resistance of the air to the 

 flight of a projectile varies directly with its 

 density; the density is dependent on the 

 altitude above the sea and on the local 

 changes in the barometric pressure, the tem- 

 perature, and the degree of moisture. 



466. For every increase in height above 

 the level of the sea, provided the temper- 

 ature remains constant, the density of the 

 air diminishes ; an increase in the range 

 for any particular adjustment of the sights 

 will therefore result. At 500 yards this 

 increase is about 5 yards, at 800 yards about 

 10 yards, and at 1,000 yards about 14 yards 

 for each increase of 1,000 feet in elevation. 



R. R. Raymond, 

 Captain, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army. 

 Fort Leavenworth, Kans. 



WANTS TO "KEEP HIS REPEATER. 



I have been a reader of Recreation the 

 past 6 years. I enjoy the gun and ammu- 

 nition department most and always read it 

 first. 



I notice you are waging a war 

 against the use of automatic and pump 

 guns. I use a pump and am not a hog 

 because I use one. I was out 4 times last 

 season with my beagle and was satisfied 

 with a rabbit each time. I prefer the pump 

 for several reasons. A double hammerless 

 as effective and durable as a pump would 

 cost double the price. I like the single 

 barrel, and the pump places me on equal 

 footing with the man who uses a double 

 gun. 



The biggest hogs in our town use high 

 grade double hammerless ejectors. They 

 kill the limit every chance they get. They 

 are also the ones who most emphatically 

 denounce the pump gun. What will be 

 gained by stopping the use of the pump 

 while allowing the market hunters to 

 slaughter game with the double gun? 



Looking through Recreation from 1898 

 to date I find its game hog pictures show 

 more than 2 double guns to one pump. 

 Why should Lhe repeating shot gun be al- 

 lowed and not the repeating rifle? The men 

 who say a double gun is good enough for 

 them, want nothing but the most deadly 

 repeating rifle when they hunt big game. 



Prohibit the use of the automatic guns 

 if it can be done before there are thou- 

 sands of them made and sold ; but let the 

 owners of repeaters use their favorite weap- 

 on as long as hogs are allowed to use 

 double ejectors. 



F. W. Kachelries, Shamokin, Pa. 



PROTESTS AGAINST THE AUTOMATIC. 



The placing of an automatic shot gun on 

 the market is unwarranted, uncalled for, 

 and a violation of divine, if not human, 

 laws. Such a gun will increase the hunter's 

 power to kill fourfold at least. He is now 

 equipped with firearms which are as much 

 of an improvement over the flintlock mus- 

 kets of our forefathers as the modern ocean 

 liner is better than the rude caravels of the 

 14th century. Game is already becoming 

 scarce and the increased destruction these 

 guns will produce means that there will 

 soon be no game of any consequence left 

 to hunt. The automatic gun will rob hunt- 

 ing of its most delightful attribute, strategy, 

 and will reduce it to mere senseless and 

 wholesale butchery. The Northern part of 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota have long been 

 and still are noted for deer, and thither flock 

 hundreds of sportsmen, the city of St. Paul 

 alone furnishing 212 on the opening day 

 of the last hunting season. While we are 

 increasing the killing power of guns we do 

 not always stop to think that the game has 

 not 'increased its power of propagation to a 

 like extent. The game should be given at 

 least a fighting chance for its life. 



No doubt the sales of such a gun will 

 be such as to make it a paying investment 

 for the makers, but there are other things 

 in this world worth consideration beside the 

 mighty dollar, and in the name of fairness 

 and humanity I protest against the manu- 

 facture and sale of such a weapon. I know 

 that in this I voice the sentiments of every 

 fair minded sportsman in the United States 

 F. A. Marshall, Prescotr, Wis. 



Here is a copy of a bill that has been 

 sent to all chief wardens of the League of 

 American Sportsmen, for introduction in 



