460 



RECREATION 



yards. The moose was shot twice, once in the 

 shoulder and again through the heart, after 

 running a hundred yards or so. Upon the 

 whole, my experience with the .30 calibre has 

 been very satisfactory, but in comparison with 

 the .405 cartridge its shocking power is notice- 

 ably weak. It may be generally said that the 

 .30 calibre is an ideal one for deer, but for the 

 moose and bear the greater power of the .405, 

 is in my opinion to be preferred. 



There are, of course, many men who use the 

 30 Winchester for the largest of our game and 

 while I am a fair enough shot the .405 is none 

 too heavy when you happen to stand upon a 

 ledge of rock and old "Eph" with the devil in 

 his eye and those four-inch razor claws of his — 

 already sharpened for carving up Mr. Man — 

 disputes the passageway. Let the .30 calibre 

 man go ahead if he likes, but I always leave my 

 .30 at home when on the trail of the grizzly; for 

 I do not always feel confident of my ability to 

 pump the magazine dry. The first shot often 

 counts all or nothing, depending upon whether 

 you hit or miss a vital portion of the bear's 

 anatomy, and this is the only reason I have for 

 using my .405. The different ballistic data of 

 the two calibres in question may throw addi- 

 tional light upon the subject and help "W. N. 

 A." to intelligently compare and choose the gun 

 which is best adapted for his hunting field. 



The regular factory load for the .405 Win- 

 chester — the actual bullet diameter is .412 

 inches — is 45 grains smokeless powder and a 

 300 grain soft-nose bullet. Velocity at 50 feet is 

 2,150 foot-seconds. Energy 3,077 foot-pounds. 

 Penetration is 13! inch boards with soft-nose, 

 and 48 boards with jacketed bullet. Trajectory 

 at 100 yards, 1.05; 200 yards, 4.86, and at 300 

 yards, 12.82 inches. Free recoil is 28.24 foot 

 pounds. 



The .30 calibre '95 Winchester is loaded with 

 32 grains smokeless powder, carrying a 220 

 grain soft nose bullet. Velocity at 50 feet, 1,960 

 foot-seconds. Energy 1,880 foot-pounds. Pene- 

 tration 13! inch boards with soft -nose, and 58 

 boards with full jacketed bullet. Trajectory 100 

 yards, 1.23; 200 yards, 5.47, and at 300 yards, 

 13.55 inches. Free recoil is 11.59 foot-pounds. 

 The .30 calibre has less than half the actual 

 recoil, and my experience with both arms upon 

 all kinds of game leads me to believe that the 

 .405 with 300 grain soft-nose bullet has one-half 

 as much more extra power. 



There has been quite a little talk about the 

 great drawback of the .405, and that its great 

 recoil makes it extremely difficult to shoot accu- 

 rately, by reason of the shooter flinching. How- 

 ever true this may be with many shooters — and 

 I have no reason to doubt the above assertion — 

 it has never bothered me; in fact, the recoil has 



hardly been given a thought. There is no deny- 

 ing that the recoil is considerable. In fact, the 

 recoil of the .405 Winchester exceeds that of any 

 cartridge manufactured by the Winchester Com- 

 pany, and the only cartridge approaching it 

 being the .50-110 high velocity cartridge. This 

 cartridge (.50-110) as tested at the factory shows 

 a free recoil of 25.62 foot-pounds, but the actual 

 shoulder recoil seems to me very much less. B ut 

 even with its greater recoil there is no reason 

 why a great many men cannot shoot a .405 

 quite as accurately as a .30-220, as the recoil is 

 not nearly so great as that of a shotgun. A load 

 of 3^ drams of black powder and ii ounces 

 No. 6 shot (in a 12-gauge gun) has a free recoil 

 of 31.5 foot-pounds, or as much recoil as the 

 .405 and .25-35 calibre Winchester put together. 

 To the sportsman who has handled a shotgun — 

 and the 3J dram black powder charge is by no 

 means even an average load for the 12-gauge 

 among wild-fowlers — the recoil of the .405 

 Winchester, or any other rifle for that matter, 

 will hardly be so great that it will interfere with 

 the accuracy of his shooting at game. 



To my way of thinking, the 1895 model Win- 

 chester is not what one would call a well-bal- 

 anced rifle, and thinking I might possibly get a 

 better "hanging" gun in another first-class 

 make, I looked them over while in New York 

 and picked out a .405 that answers my ideas 

 much better. It is a Remington-Lee rifle, 

 sporting model, 26-inch half-octagon barrel, 

 weighing 7$ pounds. Having the bolt system — 

 adopted by the Navy in the 6 mm. or .236 

 calibre — the breech is as strong as it is possible 

 to make it. Its accuracy in my hands may per- 

 haps be accounted for by its rifling, which has 

 been calipered by a gunsmith and found to be 

 truer to the bullet diameter than either my 

 Marlin, Winchester or Savage rifles. In fact, 

 it is the best and most convenient rifle I ever 

 owned, and shooting the .405 high-power Win- 

 chester cartridge, it has proven in practice the 

 most powerful rifle I have ever handled, more 

 so, in fact, than the .50 calibre high velocity 

 Winchester, one of which I still own. 



Deep River, Conn. Rancher. 



Savage and Winchester 



Editor Recreation: 



I notice in March number that Mr. Henry 

 Thomas, Ava, N. Y., has adopted what I con- 

 sider the very best small and big game guns 

 now on the market, viz. : Winchester repeating 

 shotgun and Savage rifle. I find the Winchester 

 repeater a most perfect gun for turkey, duck 

 and quail, and a Savage rifle cannot be excelled 

 for larger game. We have plenty of deer, 

 turkey, duck and quail, also some tiger (jaguar), 



