GUNS AND AMMUNITION. 



Anybody can shoot all day but a gentleman always quits when he gets enough. 



THE SAVAGE CARBINE. 



I have been a reader of Recreation 

 more than 6 years and take great interest 

 in the Guns and Ammunition department. 

 I long thought trie Marlin the only gun, 

 then I took up the Winchester, then I 

 bought a Savage, which is the best gun 

 of all. My favorite is the carbine. I 

 have one fitted with Lyman No. 10 front 

 and No. 18 rear sights and they make a 

 fine combination. I find the short barrel 

 just as accurate as the 26 inch barrel. 

 Have owned 2 Savages with 26 inch and 2 

 with 20 inch barrels. The short gun is 

 much the handier. 



I have loaded both the regular and the 

 miniature charges for the .303 and 30-30 

 with perfect success. At present I am 

 loading a miniature load that is equal to 

 any 22 rifle load I ever used, and it works 

 well in both the .303 and the 30-30. I use 

 in a .303 6 grains of Laflin & Rand Sharp- 

 shooter smokeless powder and buck shot. 

 I use No. 8% primers. The only tool re- 

 quired is a recapper. Use the regular min- 

 iature shell, with the crease around it to 

 prevent the ball from going, in too far, and 

 force the ball into the muzzle of the shell 

 by pressing it hard against a block of wood 

 or the edge of the table. I use no lubri- 

 cant, never lead my gun, and have fired 

 as many as 35 of these loads without clean- 

 ing. This load is as accurate up to 

 50 yards as the 22 long rifle when fired 

 from a gun with a short barrel, but is no 

 good in the 26 inch gun. At 50 yards, fired 

 from a 20 inch barrel it gives a penetration 

 of i l / 2 inches in soft pine boards; when 

 fired from the 26 inch barrel many balls 

 failed to stick and the best penetration 

 was ]/ 2 inch. Can any of the readers of 

 Recreation explain this difference _ in 

 penetration? The rifle I am now using 

 is a .303 carbine. With it I got a lot 

 of Savage ammunition, loads Nos. 1 and 4. 

 At 50 yards load No. 4 shoots 8 inches 

 higher than load No. 1. It nas always been 

 the reverse of this with all other guns I 

 ever used, the miniature loads always 

 shooting lower than the regular loads. Can 

 any reader explain this? Perhaps the Sav- 

 age Company will kindly enlighten me. 



I have a Colt's New Service 6 shooter 

 with -7^2 inch barrel and it is the most 

 accurate revolver I have ever used. At any 

 distance up to 100 yards I can do the same 

 work I do with the rifle. 1 use smokeless 

 powder in this revolver and find greater 

 penetration and less recoil then when black 

 powder is used. 



I note with ?reat interest what different 

 writers in Recreation say about the great 

 tearing power of the soft nose bullets over 

 those with the full metal coverings. The 

 first 3 years I used the 30-30 rifle I used 

 nothing but full metal covered bullets. In 

 those years I killed many antelope and i 

 do not think any wounded animal got 

 away. The size 'of the wounds was the 

 same as would be made with soft nose 

 bullets on the same kind of game. The 

 great tearing power of these high power 

 rifles is due to some other cause than the 

 soft nose bullets. I have made many tests 

 of these bullets, and claim it is nothing 

 but their high velocity that gives them 

 this great tearing power. Take a rabbit 

 at 50 yards, shoot him with a full 

 metal covered bullet and you have 

 no more rabbit meat left than if you had 

 shot him with a soft nose. At the same 

 distance shoot one with the same gun and 

 bullet, but load with black powder and see 

 what the result is. I went still farther and 

 found that in every case where high veloc- 

 ity ammunition was used, there was 

 little rabbit left, while there is no differ- 

 ence in the soft nose or the full metal 

 bullet ; with black powder loads from the 

 same arms there was little tearing. In 

 tne face of the many tests I have made 

 with high velocity ammunition in different 

 guns, and on different kinds of game, I am 

 convinced that the velocity, not the expan- 

 sion of these bullets, is what gives them 

 such great tearing effect. 



George S. Cooper, Rochester, Wyo. 



A TOOL FOR RIFLEMEN. 



Every breech loading rifle is liable to 

 become leaded. A speck of rust or some 

 rough spot in the barrel will scrape off a 

 particle of lead from the bullet, and suc- 

 ceeding bullets will increase the adhering 

 particles until a lump is formed. These 

 lumps will often adhere to the barrel with 

 such tenacity as to defy all ordinary means, 

 such as swabs and wipers, to remove them. 

 They cling as if welded to the steel. In a 

 rifle of small caliber, a minute quantity of 

 foreign matter or roughness in the barrel 

 will cause the rifle to shoot inaccurately. 

 Such barrels require more care than larger 

 ones, to keep them in good condition. 



For such cases I have designed a tool 

 which every sportsman can make for him- 

 self and which acts perfectly. 



Procure a stout iron wire, somewhat 



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