GUNS AND AMMUNITION 



67 



FROM AN OLD RIFLEMAN 



Editor Recreation: 



While I am not a regular subscriber to 

 your most interesting magazine, still I man- 

 age to get hold of a copy pretty regularly at 

 the newsdealers, and have had much pleas- 

 ure and have taken a good deal of interest 

 in the various discussion of arms and am- 

 munition, although for a number of years 



cussion on sights, both for field and fcargel 

 practice. I will not attempl to dis< Lisa the 

 merits of the differenl makers, bul I en 

 close a rough pen sketch of a sighl thai IS 

 little known, although lo my idea, and I 

 think any marksman who oner- uses if will 

 agree with me, that it is the finesl sighl lie 

 ever looked through. Its features are thai 

 the bead is always shaded, no matter in 



^ 



s y~ 





Side Elevation 



past I have been unable to enter upon the 

 sports of the field; still, there was a time 

 back in the early '70s and late '80s when I 

 stood among the "mighty hunters" on the 

 Pacific Coast and handled all of the popular 

 guns of that time, ranging from the old 1876 

 Winchester .32-.20 to the heavier calibres of 

 .45-70 Government. My idea now is what 

 it was then, and my experience has upheld 

 me, that there is no sense nor use of 

 using large, heavy calibres for any 

 game that treads the American con- 

 tinents ; small, high-power ammuni- 

 tion is just as effective and does not 

 ruin the game for use. A small ball 

 well aimed and driven home to brair 

 or heart will kill the biggest grizzl> 

 that ever lived. Of course, a man 

 may be a novice and a poor shot, 

 and thinks he must take along a cannon of 

 such calibre that no matter where he hits his 

 game he may at least find a few pieces of fur 

 and hide scattered around, but his trophy is 

 gone. Then, again if he is not a marksman, and 

 a good one, and if he cannot face a grizzly 

 coolly and as calmly as he would a jack- 

 rabbit, he had much better, yes, very much 



Front 



what position you may stand, and that you 

 do not have to raise it when it is desired to 

 shoot at long range, simply by drawing fine or 

 coarse, or for very long ranges draw fine or 

 coarse through the tops of the horns (the 

 originator was a man who used to live at 

 Petaluma, Cal.), and when used in connec- 

 tion with the ivory tip front-sight makes a 

 remarkably clear sight. The ivory-tipped 

 front-sight, which is credited and 

 named the Lyman sight, does not be- 

 long to him. I made the first ivory- 

 tipped steel sight ever made : al- 

 though I do not claim the idea, which 

 belongs exclusively to Mr. George 

 Hood, Jr., of Santa Rosa, Cal., a 

 particular friend of mine. The way 

 it came to be invented was : We 

 had been using up to that time 

 (1879-80) an ivory front-sight, but were 

 having trouble by having them broken 

 off in going through heavy brush, and in 

 casting about for some device that should 

 have strength, yet possess all the good quali- 

 ties of the ivory sight, Mr. Hood hit upon 

 the happy idea of steel and ivory, and being 

 at the time too busy to make one himself, I, 



better, stay at home, because the chances at his request, made the trial. I enclose one 



^L 



Hear* 



are he will never get back home; personally, 

 I think the late high-power guns of the Win- 

 chester models 1894-1895, using the .25-. 35, 

 .30 and .30 U. S. cartridges, to be preferred 

 above all others ; even the little .25-. 35 is 

 a hard-hitting, deadly arm, and for the other 

 two, they are past argument; their crushing 

 and killing power is enormous. 

 I noticed also in the November issue a dis- 



of those first attempts, though it is some- 

 what rusty and was only intended to illus- 

 trate the idea which we afterwards improved 

 by securing the ivory more securely. Sev- 

 eral years afterwards a traveling man hap- 

 pened that way and was shown the sight, 

 and about eighteen months after lo and 

 behold the Lyman Ivory-Tipped Front-Sight 

 (now, I do not write this with any hard 



