3i8 



RECREATION. 



writ, for the consolation of Mr. Bennett. 

 He will aertainly appreciate having so 

 learned a champion 01 his "modern" gun. 

 — Editor. 



TAKE ISSUE WITH MR. MAGEE. 



Will J. D. Magee, Templeton, Ore., please 

 answer the following questions in regard to 

 his light Ithaca shot gun that he speaks so 

 highly of in July Recreation? How long 

 are the barrels? Is it a hammer or a ham- 

 merless gun? Were the distances at which 

 the big buck and that large black bear were 

 shot and killed actually measured or did 

 you merely estimate them? What would 

 the penetration be in 7-8 inch pine boards 

 at 20 feet from the muzzle ; also at 50 yards 

 with the charge of No. 4 chilled shot used 

 on the buck and the bear? How many 

 pounds does the gun weigh? Were the shot 

 No. 4 bird shot or No. 4 buck shot? How 

 heavy was the charge of shot? 



Mr. Magee must have found the ideal 

 gun for all shooting, from the smallest game 

 to the grizzly bear, and I must get a 16 

 gauge shot gun and dispose of my 2 rifles 

 if i can get one just like his. 



I am in sympathy with your stand against 

 the automatic shot gun, but you need not 

 feel alarmed, as all gun manufacturers will 

 be forced out of business except those who 

 make such guns as Mr. Magee's, if the way 

 of boring this particular gun is not one of 

 the lost arts. 



I did owoi a Winchester pump gun, but 

 have discarded the shot gun entirely and 

 am now using a rifle for all my hunting. I 

 should like to see laws passed prohibiting 

 the use of all but single shot in both rifles 

 and shot guns; licensing all guns, and 

 placing a limit on all game bags. 



Chas. W. Dake, Grand Rapids, Mich. 



In your July number I notice a letter 

 from J. D. Magee, Templeton, Ore., in ref- 

 erence to a 16 bore gun with which he 

 claims to have killed deer at 62 yards with 

 No. 4 chilled shot, putting 17 pellets in the 

 animal's heart ; birds in trees 300 feet high ; 

 bear at 54 yards with No. 4 chilled shot; 

 and claims that he can kill canvasback 

 ducks at 75 yards. These statements are so 

 absurd that 9 out of 10 sportsmen would 

 consider it an insult to be asked to believe 

 tnem. 



I suggest that you start a register for 

 people who make such statements and call 

 it "The Game Liars' Pen." Give Mr. Magee 

 the honor of being No. 1. 



T. J. Tait, Carman, Man. 



The pump gun is bad enough, Heaven 

 knows. The only one I ever owned I sold 

 before the open season at a far less figure 

 than it cost, rather than make even one 

 more to go afield with such a destructive 

 gun. Some writer says of the Englishman 

 that his motto is, "Let us go out and kill 

 something," but we appear to have thou- 

 sands here whose creed is, "Let's kill every- 

 thing." 



I suppose we will learn better when it is 

 too late ; in the meantime, I am having 

 mounted, every once in a while, a specimen 

 of each kind of game bird I kill, so my 

 boy, a few years hence, can show his chil- 

 dren what a woodcock or quail looked like. 

 You deserve great credit for your con- 

 tinued fight for the preservation of our 

 game, but I fear the majority of our hogs 

 are like their 4-footed brethren — they can 

 be driven better than led. While your ex- 

 cellent magazine will set a man thinking 

 and soon convert him if he needs it, it does 

 not reach the boys, because they don't 

 read it. 



A. W. Burnham, Somers Point, N. J. 



Don't they? I know by my correspond- 

 ence with them that many thousands of 

 them read it, and I have many thousands 

 of letters on file from them saying in effect, 

 "I shall make it my business to steer clear 

 of your game hog pen." 



One of the most interesting features of 

 my work is the fact that I have started all 

 these thousands of boys on the right trail, 

 and that they will never be game destroy- 

 ers, as so many of them would have been 

 if they had not been educated through this 

 magazine. — Editor. 



THE BOYS ARE ALL RIGHT. 

 1 wish to place myself on record as one 

 of the vast army of sportsmen who are op- 

 posed to the contemplated Winchester auto- 

 matic shot gun. 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. 



I have a 16 gauge Elita Davenport gun, 

 full choke, and have been doing some tar- 

 get shooting with it, a report of which may 

 interest some of the readers of Recreation. 



My target was 18 inches square and I 

 fired from a rest, so as to shoot as near the 

 center of the target as possible. I first 

 drew a 14 inch circle as near the center of 

 the shot pattern as I could. Then I drew 

 8 inch and 4 inch rings inside of that. 

 Next I drew 6 4 inch rings just outside 

 the center 4 inch ring, using the 8 inch ring 

 for a center to draw from. 



The first shell I fired was factory loaded 

 with 2 drams smokeless powder and one 

 ounce No. 8 drop shot. This shell made 

 the fairest center shot of any. Number of 

 shot in 18 inch circle, 303; in 14 inch ring, 

 214; in center 4 inch ring, 9; in 6 outside 

 4 inch rings, 16 to 27 each. Distance, 75 

 feet. 



The next shell was loaded with 21-2 

 drams powder and one ounce No. 8 chilled 

 shot. Distance, 75 feet. Number of shot in 

 18 inch target, 294; in 14 inch ring, 296; 



