XXIV 



RECREATION. 



DOWN THE AUTOMATIC AND PUMP 



GUNS. 



I am with you on the automatic gun 

 question. An automatic shot gun placed in 

 the hands of the average thoughtless, igno- 

 rant shooter would be so destructive that 

 its use ought to be prohibited by law. 1 

 should like to see the use of the shot gun 

 stopped altogether, or at least none but 

 single shot guns used, as the destruction 

 of our feathered game is due to the scatter 

 gun. The birds are given no show to get 

 away. It requires greater skill, and is a 

 greater test of sportsmanship to cut off a 

 grouse's head with a rifle at 25 yards or 

 even less, than to kill the bird on the wing 

 with a scatter gun. I am also opposed to 

 the shot gun for the reason that its use has 

 lowered the standard of rifle shooting in 

 this country. Almost every town and ham- 

 let has its shot gun club and grounds, 

 where the members congregate and blaze 

 away at blue rocks day after day, while 

 only in the larger cities are rifle clubs and 

 ranges to be found. This is not as it should 

 be. The majoritv of us are liable to be 

 called on at any time to defend our coun- 

 try, and of what use would the shot gun 

 be then? I am not a believer in wars and 

 in killing people, yet every patriotic Amer- 

 ican surelv takes pride in the work of Jack- 

 son's sharpshooters at New Orleans on a 

 certain memorable occasion ; and as far as 

 I have been able to learn it was not the 

 shot gun, but the rifle, which cut the wide 

 swath there. I understand that the Govern- 

 ment and the National Association are now 

 trying to revive the interest in rifle shoot- 

 ing, and in no better way can this be done 

 than by discouraging the use of the shot 

 gun as much as possible. This will also 

 have a tendency to preserve the few game 

 birds which are left. 



I see that there is now on the market an 

 automatic rifle of heavy caliber, for hunt- 

 ing big game. This arm should be placed 

 in the same class with the shot gun. Would 

 it not be a good thing if repeating guns_ of 

 all kinds should be prohibited, and nothing 

 but single shots be allowed, except for the 

 hunting of dangerous game? What reason 

 can be advanced for the use of the deadly 

 pump gun nowadays, with game getting 

 scarcer all the time? Are such guns more 

 necessary now than they were in the days 

 of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone? Cer- 

 tainly not. Those pioneers had to depend 

 on their rifles as a defense against danger- 

 ous animals in an unsettled country. When 

 we think of our forefathers^ opening up the 

 wilderness for settlement with muzzle load- 

 ing rifles, the use of the idea of a pump 

 gun becomes simply ridiculous. I am not 

 averse to progress in the art of making fire 

 arms, nor in anything else, but there 

 should be reason in everything, and I can 

 see no reason why the pump gun should be 

 permitted for the destruction of the rem- 

 nant of game we have left. 

 Occasionally the u m% emery in your rifle 



barrel" fool crops out, and it is about time 

 this cheerful idiot be given his quietus. 

 The advice to use emery to take rust spots 

 out of rifle barrels is generally given by 

 some ignoramus who has no proper concep- 

 tion of what rust really is. Rust is a red 

 oxide of iron, which attacks and eats into 

 metal, in order to remove this from the 

 inside of a rifle barrel, the novice puts some 

 emery on a wiper, and after inserting this 

 in the barrel, he alternately pushes and 

 pulls it back and forth across the affected 

 spot, deluding himself with the idea that he 

 is putting the rifle in as good a condition as 

 it was before the rust spot appeared. What 

 is he doing to the bore of his rifle in the 

 meantime? He is digging a hole in it which 

 is both larger and deeper than the original 

 rust spot, and that is a case where the cure 

 is worse than the disease. It would be far 

 better that the rust spot be left untouched 

 than to try to remove it by such means. 

 Emery should never be used in a rifle bar- 

 rel. A rifle that is properly cleaned and taken 

 care of after being fired will never rust. 

 Should rust spots appear, clean the rifle 

 thoroughly in the ordinary manner, fire a 

 few rounds, clean again as before, and let it 

 go at that. The use of emery in a case of 

 that kind does absolutely no good, but may, 

 and usually does, result in great harm. 

 Generally speaking, the only way in which 

 rust can be removed from the bore of a rifle 

 is to rebore the barrel through the entire 

 length, and, of course, this can not be done 

 without making the caliber at least one size 

 larger. Some of your readers seem to have 

 hard work keeping the bore of their rifles 

 in good condition. I can not see why this 

 is, as it is no trouble at all for me. I am 

 the owner of 3 rifles, and all I do, when 

 through shooting, is to clean the gun thor- 

 oughly and apply a coat of heavy cylinder 

 oil. I alwavs find the barrel bright when I 

 clean it again before using. This heavy 

 oil should always be removed before the 

 rifle is fired, because the heat generated in 

 tiring bakes it into a tough, sticky gum, 

 which is hard to remove. 



A. Kennedy, Post Falls, Idaho. 



TRIALS OF A DRUGGIST. 



The druggist's night bell rang at 1 a. m. 

 and with ruffled temper the worthy dis- 

 penser came down in his pajamas and 

 opened the door. 



"I want a bottle of ginger ale, please," 

 said the complacent individual who stood 

 without. 



For a moment the druggist was inclined 

 to be personal ; then he reflected that since 

 he had come down he might as well do 

 business. 



"Twenty cents, please," he said. "Five 

 cents will be allowed on the bottle when 

 returned." 



Two hours later he was awakened by 

 another ring. Again he descended, to find 

 the same complacent customer ?t the door. 



"Here's your bottle." he said. "Gimme 

 my g csnts/^Philadelphia £*e4ger, 



