THE REFERENDUM 



191 



played such a trick, but we found that the 

 mechanism had become so worn that it was 

 likely to do the same thing again. That 

 might have been a costly discovery for both 

 of us. It cost us a deer as it was. 



In closing the breech of a shot gun a cart- 

 ridge may be exploded, either through de- 

 fect in the lock, the jamming of a firing pin, 



taBE&ZGSji-?:' 



SAFE. 



keeping the loads in your gun while scal- 

 ing a fence, shove the gun through first, 

 muzzle foremost, and when you are over, 

 pick it up by the stock. To get in front of 

 another man's gun is to be a reckless fool ; 

 to get in front of your own is- to be a 

 drivelling idiot. 



I had a friend, an expert with firearms 

 and an accomplished sportsman, who was 

 shot by his own dog with his own gun. He 

 had been after ducks in a boat. When he 

 came ashore he placed his loaded hammer- 

 less gun in the bow of the boat, left the dog 

 in the stern and jumped out to haul the boat 

 up from the water by the painter. The dog 

 was eager to get ashore, and when the bow 

 grated on the beach, he ran forward and 

 jumped out. But the dog's foot touched a 

 trigger, and my friend was killed. He for- 

 got or neglected, carelessly, to unload his 

 gun when he was done shooting. 



The only safe habit is to remove cart- 

 ridges from the barrel of rifles and shot- 

 guns as soon as you are done looking for 

 game. Unload before you get back to 

 camp, and with a magazine rifle be careful 

 with the business end while you are work- 

 ing the lever to remove the shell from the 

 chamber. 



There are other rules of safety so obvious 

 that it seems like teaching a kindergarten 



or the imperfect seating of a primer in the 

 shell. Therefore, watch where your barrels 

 point when you load a shot gun. 



Did you ever travel with a man who 

 jumped out of the wagon to shoot at every- 

 thing in sight, and who always tried to get 

 back into the wagon with his gun loaded 

 and sometimes cocked? I had three con- 

 secutive days of that with an enthusiastic 

 tyro, and that is why my hair began to turn 

 grey before its time, I reckon. I had to 

 hold him up forty times a day and compel* 

 him to break open that gun, and he never 

 did learn the lesson. 



Don't put a loaded gun into a wagon. 

 Don't put a loaded gun anywhere out of 

 your hands. If you must lay it down or 

 stand it against a tree or a fence, unload lIMp-- 

 the gun. But when you pick it up again, JSB^iM^' . 

 assume that is is loaded and handle it ac- 

 cordingly. It would be incredible if it were 

 not so sadly true that there are people so 

 bereft of sense as to seize a gun by the 

 muzzle and pull it toward themselves. 

 Coroner's juries ascertain that amazing fact 

 every year. Nothing but sudden death 

 breaks some men of the insane habit of 

 pulling guns by the barrels out of wagons, 

 out of boats and through fences. 



It is a simple matter to break open a gun 

 before climbing a fence or getting into or 

 out of a boat, and it is easy to take hold of 

 the right end at all times. If you insist on 



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DANGEROUS. 



to repeat them, but the death list of each 

 open season proves that hundreds of grown 

 men need kindergarten lessons in shooting. 

 This is the first : never shoot at anything 

 which looks as if it might be a deer; be ab- 

 solutely sure that it is a deer and nothing 

 but a deer. Never shoot at all unless you 

 know exactly what you are shooting at ; 

 something moving in the brush is not game 

 ■ — probably it is a man. 



