248 



RECREATION. 



longer than the barrel, and several wire- 

 gauges smaller than the bore. Make the 

 wire perfectly straight and true. File one 

 end so as to bring it to the form of a blunt 

 chisel and bend it slightly near the end, 

 with the cutting edge upward, by means of 

 a pair of plyers or a hammer. The amount 

 of bending will be indicated when the wire 

 is pushed in the bore, and should be just 

 enough to press the chisel edge in close con- 

 tact with the barrel. 



The proper shape is shown in the dia- 

 gram. Figure B shows the rod or wire 

 sharpened and bent into shape, while A 

 shows it inside the bore, with its cutting 

 ed.?e in proper position. 



The cutting edge may be filed with a 

 projecting lip of the same width as the 

 grooves, and so clear them out at the bot- 

 tom, while the round edge will clear the 

 lands. 



The rod should be pushed through from 

 one end only, not drawn back and forth, 

 but returned and put through from the 

 breech. This procedure will cause the 

 edge to follow the twist and do no harm 

 to the lands, by scraping across them, 

 which might be the case if crawn back and 

 forth. 



Such a tool, if made ot common iron 

 wire, is not hard enough to cut or mar the 

 barrel, but will clear it perfectly of lead 

 or other obstructions. 



For polishing the barrel, I use a hickory 

 wiping rod with its business end shaped 

 like the figure C, in connection with cross 

 shaped pieces of leather like figure D. 

 These may be cut out of an old kid or 

 buckskin glove and softened with oil. I 

 place the rod in the center of the leather 

 and push it in the bore, when the cross 

 arms of leather will fold down against the 

 rod to a close fit and cling there while the 

 swabbing is going on. A little fine emery 

 on the leather gives a good polish and the 

 bore may be made a smooth as new. 



Thos. C. Harris, Baltimore, Md. 



BUZZACOTT'S MISTAKE. 



Will you kindly give Buzzacott a talking 

 to on the way he commends the automatic 

 shot gun. No true sportsman would want 

 such a book. I tore mine up and threw it 

 away. 



Kindly tell me what you think of the 

 Colton double hammerless blued steel shot 

 gun. R. C. K., Philadelphia, Pa. 



Buzzacott is out of business. Any man 

 who, in this age, endorses the automatic 

 gun may reasonably expect to lose his 

 trade, if he has any, and go into bankruptcy 

 sooner or later. The best any advocate of 

 that weapon can hope for is that he may 

 enjoy the trade and the good will of the 

 game hogs and the market hunters. 



This reminds me of a story. Some years 

 ago certain politicians in New Jersey per- 

 suaded old John I. Blair, a wealthy railway 

 magnate, to accept the nomination for the 

 governorship. He was snowed under at 

 the polls and after the returns came in, 

 a number of his political backers called 

 to console him. When they had told him 

 how sorry they were, he said : 



"In my boyhood I knew an old farmer 

 who lived in the Western part of the State. 

 He drove his fat hogs to the New York 

 market and sold them on foot. This was 

 before the railways were so numerous and 

 so accommodating as they are now. On 

 one occasion the old man drove 20 head 

 of hogs to market and when he arrived the 

 dealers told him the market was glutted 

 and the price of pork was way down. The 

 old man put the hogs in the corral and 

 kept them there 2 or 3 days waiting for a 

 decent offer on them. None came that he 

 was willing to consider; so he finally turned 

 his hogs out and drove them home again, 

 the entire trip occupying a week or 10 

 days. When he returned home some of his 

 neighbors called to express their sympathy 



