FOREST AND STREAM. 



415 



Wisconsin— Watertown, Bee. 28.— I have it from several of 

 our citizens that Saturday, the 22d, they saw uot only robins, 

 but two flocks of wild geese going north, besides a number of 

 ducks. B. 8. W. 



Coloeado— Denver, Dec, 22.— A band of from four hundred 

 to five hundred elk were, at last accounts, ranging near the 

 head waters of the Troublesome River, some fifteen or twenty 

 miles from the West Sulphur Springs, in Middlle Park. 



Califobnia. — A correspondent at Yuba City, Sutton Co., 

 says that section affords advantages and apportunities for 

 shooting wild fowl second to none on the globe. 



A Novel Capture of Bkant. — " Two years ago old man 

 Cole found two flocks of brant fighting each other on his 

 island— a very muddy place. The fight was so severe that 

 the plucky fellows were completely besmeared with mud, 

 and unable to fly away on the approach of Cole and his two 

 daughters. They caught nearly a hundred, and took off the 

 first joint of the wing. He now has brant by wholesale." 

 This story came from a responsible person- Aerow. . 



[And these birds, bespattered with the mud of internecine 

 war, are the same whose notes are heard, high in the stilly air 

 of night, by the poet. What a fall, from the cerulean vault 

 to a duck-coop ; from poetry to mud !] 



Still They Come. — From every part of the United States 

 and Canada, from North and South America, from the West 

 Indies, come in the answers to our puzzle, more numerous 

 than all the blackbirds that ever flew, or squirrels that scut- 

 tled up hickory-nut trees, or woodcock that flittered in the 

 thickets. The worst of it is, that everybody hits it ; the 

 answers are all correct. The problem is solved in an infinite 

 variety of ways. Algebra is wrestled with, and fluxions, 

 logarithms, coefficients, multiples, surds, calculi, differen- 

 tials and aliquot parts, are overhauled, computed, supputed 

 and made subservient to the blackbirds, squirrels and wood- 

 cock. If addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, in- 

 volution, evolution, differentiation or integration ever made 

 anybody happy, we are those persons. The only person who 

 is not serene is the office boy, who groans under the weight 

 of the mail. Never more will we do such a thing, until we 

 hire a Lady Sphynx as part and parcel of our editorial 

 corps, then look out for a difficult problem, 



The answers have, however, a real practical use, whether 

 by accident or design, and it is very hard to fool with num- 

 bers— the results show true sportsmanlike details. Blackbirds 

 are shot in flocks. So 3 shells to kill 48 blackbirds are not out 

 of the way, you have to take individual pops at the squirrel, 

 and a fair shot ought to kill a squirrel at every fire, unless he 

 falls in the cmtch of a tree. But as to the woodcock, ahem ! 

 Ten shells for each PhiloJiela minor cannot be called very 

 good shooting. Now, as a shell costs on an average 5 cents, 

 next time we buy a woodcock and have to pay 75 cents for 

 him, recollecting that it took ten 5-cent shells to kill him, we 

 shall put down our money without a grumble. Yes, numerous 

 kind friends, the answer is— well, suppose we give it in 

 poetical form : 



BlgM and forty blackbirds sitting on a hill, 

 Bang went three shells, and did all the kill. 

 Seven and forty squirrels sporting on a stump, 

 Bang went 4T shell, and hit 'em in a lump. 

 Then a muff be went, with an old flintJoek, 

 And he wasted fifty sUells on five woodcock. 



Birds toe Teap Shooting.— In reply to numerous ques- 

 tions as to where birds can be had for trap shooting, we have 

 to say that there is nothing reliable as to the purchase of 

 pigeons for trap shooting in New York. The best that can be 

 done is to apply to the poulterers in Pulton and Washington 

 Markets. 



Gun Teials — As we have been asked to give the method 

 employed for testing guns we reproduce that used at the Chi- 

 cago gun trial in 1874 : 



All the guns were fired from a frame, the heel-piece of gun 

 set 40 yards from the target board, which was a square sur- 

 face of pine one inch thick, supported by two upright pieces 

 of pine two by four inches thick, set three feet in the ground 

 and firmly braced. On this target board was clamped a sheet 

 of strong manilla wrapping paper, having described on its 

 exposed surface a circle 30 inches in diameter. In the centre 

 of this circle, and pressed firmly against the target board, was 

 placed the penetration pad, which was composed of 40 thick- 

 nesses of heavy brown paper, full sheet 48 by 60 inches, 380 

 lbs. to the ream, cut and pressed by book-binders' press and 

 the edges of each pad glued firmly together, the size of each 

 pad being 9 by 10£ inches, and each pad weighing 13 ounces 

 and 5 drachms avoirdupoise. In ascertaining the result of 

 the firing a 30-inch circle was made. In the middle was a 

 square called the central pad, and the rest of the circle was 

 divided by a perpendicular and horizontal line, each part be- 

 ing called respectively : Central Pad, Right Upper, Right 

 Lower, Left Upper and Left Lower quarters of the circle not 

 covered by the central pad; or C. P., R. U., K. L., L. U. and 

 L. L. ■ the letters Pen. signify penetration. In determining 

 the penetration the last leaf of paper in the pad broken by a 

 Single shot is counted. The shot used was No. 7, 4,954 pel- 

 lets per lb. avoirdupois, 309 10-16 pellets per oz. actual count. 

 Charge of shot for all guns 1 oz., measured by Dixon dip- 

 per No. 1,106, and struck off. Powder, Dupont's "Eagle 

 Ducking," No. 2, charge 4£ drs. for 10 bore guns, 4 drs. for 

 12 bore guns, and 3£ drs. for 16 bore guns. In addition to the 

 three rounds fired with graded charge of powder for different 

 bores, one round from each gun was fired with a uniform 

 charge of 4 drs. of powder and 1 oz. of shot measured as 

 above. Eley's blue shells were uniformly used. 



—J. C. Grubb & Co., of Market street, are the Philadel- 

 phia agents for the Nichols & Lef erer breech loading guns, 



CAPTAIN A. H. BOGARDUS. 



Captain Booabdus. — Capt. Bogardus, who shoots to- 

 day at Gilmore's Garden, and whose proposed performance 

 of breaking 5,000 glass balls in 500 consecutive minutes, load- 

 ing his own gun, has never been attempted before, is well 

 known, both in this country and abroad, as a most remark- 

 able shot. In an exceedingly interesting work, written by 

 Capt. Bogardus, entitled "Field, Cover and Trap Shooting," 

 the Captain thus speaks of himself, and how he commenced 

 at fifteen to handle a gun : 



"I was then a tall, strong lad, and have since grown into a 

 large, powerful, sinewy, and muscular man. I have always 

 enjoyed fine health, had great strength and endurance, and 

 been capable of much exertion and exposure. When I began 

 to shoot, there was a good deal of game in Albany County, 

 and it chiefly consisted of ruffed grouse and woodcock, 

 which are difficult birds for new beginners. I received no 

 instructions from anybody, but I possessed a quick, true eye, 

 and steady nerve, and had, as I believe, the natural gifts 

 which enable a man to become in time, with proper opportu- 

 nity, a first-rate field shot. It was a long time after that be- 

 fore I ever shot at a pigeon from a trap, and I confess that I 

 had for many years a strong prejudice against that sort of 

 shooting. There were no quail, snipe, or ducks about Albany 

 County at that time, and it was not uniil I removed to the 

 West that I became familiar with them and with the pinnated 

 grouse. Seventeen years ago I moved to Illinois, and settled 

 on the Sangamon River, near Petersburg. It was more a 

 broken, swampy country, with much cover, than a prairie 

 land like that to the northwards in the State. Game of all 

 sorts was in vast abundance. There were vast numbers of 

 quail; the pinnated grouse were rather numerous, though 

 nothing like as much so as upon some of the great prairies ; 

 ducks and geese came in immense flocks every spring and 

 fall, and deer and turkeys abounded. It was, too, and is to 

 this day, one of the best places for snipe that I know of. It 

 was a paradise for a sportsman ; and as for the snipe and 

 quail, there was hardly a man who could kill them except 

 myself. Lots of men used to go out to see me shoot. There 

 was one, a great hunter of deer and turkeys, with whom I be- 

 came very intimate. At first he laughed at me when he saw 

 me loading with No. 8 shot. 'That wunt kill nothin', 

 stranger,' said he. ' What little I do at quail I do with No. 1 

 shot, and for prairie chicken I always use BBs. You can't 

 stop 'em with anything lighter.' But he changed his opinion 

 when he found by experience that I could kill ten to his one, 

 and then it was the old story of the fox and grapes. ' Darn 

 the little creatures, I say !' he exclaimed ; "I got no use for 

 'em anyhow !' At that time I used to stint myself in quail- 

 shooting time to twenty-five brace a day. When I had got 

 them, I gave over for the day." 



Capt. Bogardus became first noted as a pigeon shooter in 

 1868. In 1869, in a match against time, Capt. Bogardus to 

 kill five hundred pigeons in six hundred and forty-five 

 minutes, he won the match, having an hour and fifty-seven 

 minutes to spare. On the 21st of October, 1869, he accom- 

 plished the wonderful feat of killing one hundred birds 

 straight. Capt. Bogardus is the winner of innumerable 

 badges and medals. A feat in the field which one reads of, 

 but which Capt. Bogardus has been known to accomplish, has 

 been to kill a grouse with each barrel as the pack rose, and, 

 slipping in another cartridge, to kill a third bird out of the 

 same pack. 



Of late Capt. Bogardus has devoted a great deal of atten- 



tion to glass-ball shooting, and has given rules and regulations 

 governing this most pleasant amusement. In the new edition 

 of Capt. Bogardus' book, to be issued shortly, will be found 

 the rules for glass-ball shooting. Capt. Bogardus' style of 

 shooting is quiet and easy, even deliberate. He seems to get 

 his aim intuitively, and to find the exact moment when to 

 discharge his piece. Never flurried nor excited, though his 

 movements are neither mechanical nor automatic, still there is 

 an impassiveness about the Captain which is quite remark- 

 able. Birds or balls rise, a gun is fired, and the bird falls, or 

 the glass ball is broken into fragments. Should the Captain 

 succeed in accomplishing the feat he proposes at Gilmore's 

 Garden, it will become one of the most noted events in the 

 annals of shooting. It will prove three things -. Firstly, the 

 endurance of the man ; second, his wonderful skill ; and, t 

 lastly, the perfection of the modern system of arms. 



How Captain Bogardus Loads.— In his match against 

 time at Gilmore's Garden, Captain Bogardus will change every 

 fifty shots from his ten to his twelve-bore. In the twelve, 3£ 

 drs.of Dittmar's powder are used; in the ten, 4 drs. The charge 

 of shot is li oz. No. 8 for the ten, and 1£ oz. for the 12. In 

 the field rather more powder would be used. 



A CHALLENGE TO GLASS-BALL 

 SHOOTERS. 



San Fbancisco, Cal., Dec. 12, 187T. 

 I will wager from $250 to $500 that I can beat any man in the world 

 shooting the following eight matches, or any one of them : First, I can 

 break more glass balls thrown from a Bogardus trap, 2S yards rise, 

 than any manin the world; 2d, I can break 1,000 glass balls quicker 

 with a shot-gun than any man living; 3d, I can break more glass balls 

 shooting from a horse's baok, the horse to be on a run, 21 yards from 

 the balls, than any man in the world can break, 30 yards, and stand on 

 the ground; 4th, I can break more gla^s balls with a rifle, the balls to 

 be thrown into the air, than any man in the world can break with a 

 shot-gun and shoot 30 yards, using a Bogardus trap ; 5th, I can break 

 100 glass balls quicker with a Winchester rifle than any man in the 

 world can break them with a shot-gun ; 6th, I can break two glass 

 balls thrown in the air at the same time, making a double shot and 

 loading the gup once while the balls are In the air, using a Winchester 

 rifle- Tth, I can make more fancy shots with a rifle than any man in the 

 world ; 8th, I will wager $1,000 thac I can kill more buffalo in one run, 

 shooting from * horse's back, than any man in the world, and if buffalo 

 are not to be found, will shoot elk, and go on the prairie at any time. 

 Dr. W V. Carvbb, San Francisco, Oal. 

 [From what we have heard oir Dr. Carver, we are ltd to 

 suppose that he is a very wonderful shot.— Ed.] 



To Clean Metal Shells.— It is an awful nuisance to 

 make a shell clean inside, and though Bimple when you look 

 at it, is much harder to do than you think for. Now there is 

 a handy little tool of which Mr. J. T. Ronan, of 778 Shawmut 

 avenue, Boston, is the maker, which works on shells like L a 

 charm. The Ronan shell cleaner can be used aa a breach 

 wiper. Why sportsmen should have verdigris now in their 

 old shells we cannot see. In ten minutes fifty shells can be 

 made as good as new by using the Ronan shell cleaaer. 



