GUNS AND AMMUNITION 



177 



REBROWNING 



Editor, Recreation : 



I shall be very obliged if you can give me 

 a receipt for browning gun barrels. 



I have one, have tried it, and am sorry to 

 say failed badly ; mine is, 1 ounce tincture 

 of muriate of iron, 1 ounce nitric ether, 4 

 scruples sulphite of copper, ^4. pint of rain 

 water; clean the barrels thoroughly with 

 fine emery powder if rusted, then wash the 

 barrels with boiling Water, soap and brush; 

 be careful and not let your hands touch the 

 barrels whilst drying them, as any grease 

 prevents the mixture from taking; apply 

 mixture with a sponge fastened to a stick, 

 twelve hours after application inmmerse the 

 barrels in turpentine water for about an 

 hour, then give them a good rubbing with a 

 piece of hard cloth ; if one application is not 

 enough, put on a second. 



My barrels turned a light rust color. I 

 then put 3 in 1 oil, and now the}^ have a 

 terrible coat of rust. Cleaned and oiled them 

 to-day, a couple of days after they are just 

 as bad with rust. Hoping that you will be 

 able to help us, and wishing you every suc- 

 cess, 



C. Connell, Trinidad, B. W. T. 



Amateurs very rarely succeed in rebrown- 

 ing barrels. It would seem as though you 

 had not stopped the action of the acids in 

 the mixture. A more thorough boiling in 

 a larger quantity of water might have pre- 

 vented the rust. — Editor. 



IN FAVOR OF THE .38 



Editor Recreation : 



I have been reading with much interest 

 the different articles on the belt revolver 

 in your magazine for the past few months. 

 I am delighted to know that so many besides 

 myself are interested in getting out a new 

 and better revolver than we have ever had 

 on the market. I have a few words to say 

 in regard to the .38 special. I am the 

 happy owner of a .38 military model Smith 

 & Wesson revolver with a five-inch barrel, 

 and I have yet to see a revolver that will 

 excel it in accuracy or penetration. About. 

 the only use I have for it is target practice, 

 and to use on different camping trips. In 

 target practice I shoot at an eight bull at 

 100 yards mostly, and have made a score 

 of forty out of a possible fifty. Six out of 

 the ten were in the bullseye. This shows 

 something about the accuracy of this gun, 

 now as to penetration. I have several times 

 shot it through the four-inch side of a two 

 by four post, and I do not know where it 

 went to after passing through this. You 

 know some people may think that a revolver 

 is supposed to shoot as hard as a Spring- 

 field rifle, but they arc mistaken. A pistol 

 that will go through four; inches of hard 



Georgia pine wood I believe will meel the n 

 quirements of whal .-1 pistol is used for. '! he 

 largest game I ever killed will) it was a 

 cow, and it only took one shot to do if, too. 



Now there area few improvements thai 

 can be made on this revolver, and in my mind 

 they are this. Make it with old Army 



Model Colt's grip, single action, with less 

 sweep to the hammer than we have on the 

 old Army Model, and with by all mean a 

 front cylinder lock, but please don't pay 

 any attention to what these different pistol 

 cranks are saying in regard to fancy sights. 

 Why, if a man ever gets used to shooting 

 with the fancy target sights, I daresay that if 

 he ever got in a place where he had to shoot 

 without using sights at all he couldn't hit 

 a man one out of ten. It gives me the jim- 

 jams to hear them talk about these fancy 

 target sights. The proper way to shoot a 

 pistol is without any sights. 



Come forth now, brother pistol cranks, 

 and let us hear what you have to say about 

 this new pistol, that I am sure will be the 

 most popular ever put on the market, and I 

 certainly hope they will get out. By the 

 way, I was about to leave out one thing. 

 This pistol might be made to take smoke- 

 less powder, which will add greatly to the 

 shooting power of this arm. 



Hoping to see more about this new pistol 

 in the next issue of Recreation, and wish- 

 ing Recreation much success, 



Stuart Johnston, Macon, Ga. 



"WOULD HAVE NONE OF THEM 



Editor, Recreation : 



It is with great interest that I read the 

 articles published in your magazine relative 

 to the "Ideal Gun," a single-action Colt, of 

 course. 



In my opinion, the .44 or .45 calibre S. A. 

 Colt Frontier as it is to-day is far and away 

 above any other arm manufactured, and the 

 only change I would care to have is in the 

 method of ejection." By all means let us have 

 a side-ejector, but for heaven's sake don't 

 sacrifice the gun's good points to get it. 



There is no reason why a gun should be 

 ruined for the majority because of the few 

 high pressure and fancy sight fiends and oth- 

 ers who are too weak to carry such an arm. 

 To those I recommend the 15 ounce .22 cali- 

 bre gun, either single or double action. 



To the man who packs a gun at his hip 

 the fear of knocking the sights out of align- 

 ment would become a positive worry, and 

 worry is something none of us want 



I prefer a .44 calibre gun, as I use a Marlin 

 carbine of that calibre, and am so saved, 

 both expense and trouble. 



At any rate, me for the new gun as soon 

 as it makes its appearance. 



E. M. Crafton, Chicago, 111. 



