

RECREATION 



cannons some use needlessly. I suppose most 

 men would prefer a rifle of larger calibre than 

 the .25-35, as that only carries a bullet of 117 

 grains. But practice a little now and then and 

 a recoil pad or a sore shoulder won't be neces- 

 sary next season. " Small Calibre." 



Uses the .38-55 High Velocity 

 I noticed Mr. M. L. Peck's letter in Recrea- 

 tion, and would say that I have used the 

 Model 1S94 .38-55 for two years, with the 

 U. M. C. high-power, smokeless load, and 

 that there is very much less recoil than with the 

 black powder loads. 



I have a .32-40, Model 1894, that I use the 

 U. M. C. load in, too, and it is all right. On 

 the box it is stated that the shells are fitted for 

 the Winchester, Marlin and Savage rifles, and 

 that they are especially good for game. This 

 I find to be the case. Finch Goodfruit. 

 Ada, Kent County, Mich. 



Views of a Veteran 



Fifty -three years ago I bought a flintlock 

 musket which I used for both ball and shot, and 

 my first game with it was a white bear that 

 when stretched out was some three or four inches 

 longer than I was. The next gun was a pill lock 

 rifle. Then some cap locks; then breech-load- 

 ers. Having some experience with all I want to 

 say to the younger sportsmen: Don't, for the 

 sake of appearance or the carrying a pound or 

 two less of gun, let your game escape to suffer 

 and die, when it will do no one any good 

 through using too light a gun and charge. 



When I was a boy I saw bear and deer from 

 our door. Now it is all gone, and for twenty 

 years I have had to go a long way for it. We 

 older ones get cranky — some one way; some 

 another. Mine started a few years ago when I 

 concluded to quit hunting if I could not lower 

 the number of escapes of game after being hit. 

 I was sick of finding them dead some time after- 

 ward, when unfit for use. 



I have seen an elk get away (to die, of course) 

 after being shot once with a .38 calibre rifle, 

 and six times with a .44 revolver — ail at short 

 range. Some of the revolver shots were at 6 feet, 

 so there was no mistake in the number of hits. 

 On the same day I shot two with one ball, which 

 passed entirely through both, and they fell when 

 hit, with a .45-70-500, which all my experience 

 and observations convince me is light enough for 

 moose, elk, deer, 'gators, and I would not ex- 

 clude woodchuck. A lighter ball will kill surely, 

 sometimes, but I have seen two deer shot in the 

 same place; the one hit with a .45 fell where hit, 

 but the other, hit with a .30, continued to 



run until, if the surrounding conditions had not 

 been favorable for finding, it would have been 

 lost — which shameful killing too largely comes 

 from the saving a pound or so of gun. 



A Springfield single -shot, with the wiper 

 left off, only weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces. It is 

 not handsome, and I am laughed at for carrying 

 a gaspipe, but every deer, elk or moose hit in 

 ten years fell when hit, and after seeing so much 

 discussion of the merits of large and- small 

 calibre guns, I feel like giving my experience, 

 also, as I consider it much more valuable than 

 theory not based on experience. 



As before mentioned, in order now to find 

 game it must be hunted far from home, there- 

 fore, for the last twenty seasons, excepting two, 

 I have hunted large game from Quebec to 

 Florida, and from Maine to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and most of you are compelled to do as I 

 do — go far away for it. Hence, my advice: 

 take a gun that kills the game that you go so 

 far for. Of course, there are many makes of 

 guns that are marvels of accuracy and efficiency, 

 but that should be used otherwise than on large 

 game. An up-to-date gun sometimes is mis- 

 leading. For instance, some new shotguns were 

 being tried last fall, when I took down a flintlock 

 musket, made in 1814, and which had not been 

 shot for over twenty years, filled the old bone 

 charger with F. F. G. rifle powder and emptied 

 it into the muzzle, rammed down on top of the 

 powder a wad of flaxtow, then i| ounces No. 4 

 shot, then a light wad of paper; shot, and at 

 five measured rods, put all but 4 pellets inside of a 

 3! -inch ring. 



Now, who has a fancy shotgun to match it? 

 I have other guns, but I think that the .45 

 is the most humane to use, which should be a 

 main consideration in hunting. Therefore I 

 advise that when you shoot, shoot to kill. 



Bear Lake, Pa. C. T. Bordwell. 



The Ail-Around Rifle 



It is doubtless true that the "all-around rifle" 

 has not yet appeared. But the gun which comes 

 the nearest to being what the person desires, 

 who would own but one, is the .32-40 with the 

 nickel steel barrel. 



This gun should be sighted for high-power 

 smokeless powder, so that it would be, first of 

 all, a high-power rifle. The high-power .32-40 

 is a very strong shooting arm, being powerful 

 enough not only for deer, but for nearly all 

 kinds of the larger American game. According 

 to the figures given by the U. M. C. Co., a cart- 

 ridge of this calibre loaded with high-power 

 smokeless gives a muzzle velocity of 2,065 feet 

 per second, with a muzzle energy or striking 

 power of 1,558 foot pounds, the weight of the 



