266 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Zoology of the Northwest.— Our leading article in 
the present issue of Forest and Stream on the Cervidte 
of our Northwestern Territories, is valuable, not only in 
its exceeding interest to the sportsman, but as a new con¬ 
tribution to science. The writer introduces us to a new 
Arcadia with its wonderful scenery and conformation, its 
remarkable variety and abundance of animal life, of elk 
which no dogTiowever fleet can catch, of deer that clear 
the umbrage of a fallen tree at a bound, of herds that num¬ 
ber hundreds, some of them that have never heard the 
crack of a rifle, like those in Eden, which were tame be¬ 
cause they knew Adam had no gun ! Here no less than 
five varieties of the Cervidse are found, and of these one 
seems unknown to naturalists, and existing nowdiere else. 
It is an Albino and in its person and presence sets at rest all 
puzzling questions that bear on hybridity. Its origin ii 
authentically traced to a breed of snow-white deer now sup¬ 
ported to exist only in inaccessible mountains of Oregon 
and California. Our author has opened up to our astonish¬ 
ed view a new Paradise which eclipses the Happy Hunting 
Grounds of the aboriginal Indian and should make him 
loth to exchange his real Arcadia even for his ideal 
Heaven. 
An Acknowledgement. —With becoming modesty, we 
trust, we print the following testimonial contained in an 
extract from a business letter just received from the cele¬ 
brated English gun firm, whose signature is appended:— 
Pioneer Works, St. Mary’s Square, [ 
Birmingham, England, May 13, 1874. f 
* * We must say that, after a perusal [for several weeks] 
of your paper The Forest and Stream, *we come to the con¬ 
clusion that no other paper with which we were acquainted 
published in the United States came so near our own Field. 
We will let our partner in New York know who the Eng¬ 
lish correspondent of the paper is, and that will be an ad¬ 
ditional inducement to avail himself of its columns. 
Yours truly, J. W. Tolley. 
hot (§m and jjltifie. 
JUNE IS A CLOSE MONTH FOR GAME. 
Details of pigeon shooting and scores of Hjle matches , and other interest¬ 
ing matter , should be mailed so us to reach this office on Tuesday morning 
in each week. ______ 
Creedmoor.— The first regular match for the Long 
Range Badge of the Amateur Rifle Club was held on Sat¬ 
urday last, May 30th, at the range. It was open only to 
members of the Amateur Rifle Club, the distances being 
800, 900, and 1,000 yards, five shots at each range. All the 
club to shoot at 800 and 900, and the eight highest at these 
two ranges to compete at 1,000 yards. Position any, with¬ 
out artificial rest, with two sighting shots. 
As the matches of the amateurs are events of exceeding 
interest, the marksmen being the elite of our riflemen, the 
assemblage of shooters and spectators at Creedmoor on Sat¬ 
urday last was by far the largest of the season. The day 
was remarkably beautiful; in fact, the first real summer 
weather of the season. There was not a single cloud in 
the sky, and the sun, about three o’clock, when the match 
was on, blazed with unusual warmth. Bright days are not, 
however, always conducive of fine shooting. Although there 
was no exact quiver in the atmosphere, there was a super¬ 
abundance of glare, which very probably gave some slight 
effects of mirage to the targets, which may account some¬ 
what for the shooting not being of the most remarkable 
character. The wind was fairly steady, blowing gently on 
the targets, a Y wind about, sometimes YI, increasing 
slightly at the close of the afternoon. It should be borne 
in mind that this match was the first serious attempt to 
master the difficulties of shooting at long ranges, the Ama¬ 
teur Rifle Club having shown by their last match at 500 
yards, where Messrs. Bodine and Conlin so distinguished 
themselves—each having made seven consecutive bulls- 
e y es _that they were fairly masters of the situation. 
When the 300, 400, and 500 yards were added to the distances 
the difficulties were naturally found to be very much in¬ 
creased. Just such fine considerations as the fraction of a 
minute in an elevation, or the exact proper allowance for 
the windage, the few grains too much or too little in the 
charge, or a ball loose in the cartridge, or too much paper 
or too much grease on the ball, or a dirty rifle, all were dis¬ 
covered to exert certain disturbances, which, if slight in 
their effects at 500 yards, were much more than doubled at 
the additional distances the men were firing at. We must 
then look at the next half dozen matches, at least, of the 
Amateur Rifle Club as schools of practice, and we feel sure 
that by the middle of July, perhaps sooner, the care and 
study already evinced by the members of the club, will be 
rewarded by increasing scores. Of course there is a good 
deal of serious, hard work to be gone through before our 
American riflemen can compete with the Irish team. We 
therefore are only too glad to mention our approval of this 
determination on the part of the officers and gentlemen of 
the Amateur Rifle Club to do their best in studying up the 
niceties of long range shooting. We noticed very particu¬ 
larly how thoroughly the club makes use of the new score 
book, published by Messrs. Moore’s Son, and how every 
shot was marked on their targets and due note taken of ele¬ 
vations at various ranges, and how facts and theories were 
studied. The hap hazard methods of shooting must natu¬ 
rally be eliminated in time, and the exact idiosyncracy of 
ach weapon, with the corrections for the peculiar disturb¬ 
ances arising from the light, the differences of atmospheric 
pressure, and the effects of wind, will all undoubtedly be 
determined) It is quite a task, in fact,' to bring down the 
rifle to Its work, the man being put out of the question. In 
fact this is half the battle. The arm once properly stud¬ 
ied—how to hold the weapon and how to shoot it, is but 
the other half of the battle. There were eighteen entries. 
The rifles used were twelve Sharps and six Remingtons. 
The scores were as follows:— 
Grand 
Name 800 yds Total 900 yds Total 1000 yds Ttl 
L. L. Hepburn*... .0 2 4 4 4 —14 3 4 3 4 3 17-31 4 3 2 4 2 15-46 
Jno. Bodine*. 4 3 3 0 3 —13 4 3 2 3 4 16-29 4 2 3 2 4 15-44 
L. M. Ballardt. . 24344 —17 3 3 4 3 0 13-30 3 0 3 3 0 9-39 
A. B. Canfield,Jr*. 2 3 2 4 3 —14 2 0 2 3 3 10-24 3 0 3 4 4 14-38 
G. W. Yalet. .... 4 3 3 0 3 —13 3 3 3 4 2 15-28 0 2 3 3 0 8-36 
A J. Roux*. 4 3 2 4 3 —16 0 3 3 3 3 12-28 0 0 4 3 0 7-35 
H. A. Gildersleeve*. 3 4 4 3 4 —18 0 0 0 2 2 4-22 0 0 0 4 4 8-30 
Leon Backer*. 3 3 3 3 3 —15 0 4 4 3 0 11-26 0 0 0 0 0 0-26 
T. S. Conlint. 0 4 3 0 3 —10 4 0 3 3 0 10-20 
H. Fultonf. 34340 —14 3 0 2 0 0 5-19 
George Crouchf. 32030 —800403 7-15 
A. R. Warnert. 3 0 3 2 2 —10 0 0 0 2 3 5-15 
T. Hoodleyt. 30043 —10 0 0 3 0 0 3-13 
W. B. Couerhtryt. 24300 — 900003 3-12 
A. J. Hennion, Jr+. ...20203 —704000 4-11 
A. Y. Davist. 00420 — 600 3 00 3-9 
E . Man+. 00000 —000300 3-3 
A. Andersonf. 00000 — 0 withdrew 0- o 
*Remington sporting. tSharpe sporting. 
Elevations used were about—for 800 yards, 1.54; 900 yards, 2.11; 1,000 
yards, 2.29. 
To Mr. L. L. Hepburn was awarded the prize, the score 
forty-six made by him, in a possible sixty, being a fair one. 
Captain Bodine, it may be noticed, in the 800 yard match • 
has a zero in his score. It is highly probable that Mr. Bo¬ 
dine, in this shot, was on the target, but by some mis¬ 
take of the marker the points were not scored to him. The 
executive committee being called together on the ground, 
accorded Captain Bodine the privilege of another shot; 
with great gallantry it was refused by the marksman. Had 
he exercised the rights allowed him he would have very 
probably either tied or beaten the score of forty-six. Per¬ 
haps it would be wiser in all these cases of shooting at long 
range to have more than one telescope constantly directed 
on the targets, for even the Amateur Rifle Club may scratch 
sometimes with a richochet on the buts. The match was 
in every way a pleasant one, and in the presentation of the 
semblance of the medal to Mr. Hepburn (for in fact the 
prize had not yet left the jeweler’s hands) Col. Gilder¬ 
sleeve, the Secretary of the National Rifle Association, 
made an appropriate speech. In comparing this match 
with the sharpshooter’s championship last year, where 
Messrs. Roux, Fulton, and Yale were competitors, we find 
that these gentlemen, at 800 and 1,000 yards, shot pretty 
much the same average as on this occasion. Excepting 
with the two leading marksmen, almost all hands seem to 
slip up on the 1,000 yards. 
On the grounds on Saturday last considerable good prac¬ 
tice was made by members of the Seventh Regiment. We 
saw the bullseye hit so many times hand running at the 500 
yards range with the Remington military, that we are afraid 
to mention the number. Although practice scores cannot 
be published by us, we must on this occasion make an ex¬ 
ception. A gentleman on the ground tried for the first 
time one of the new model army Springfield rifles, and the 
results of his shooting were very extraordinary. Taking 
the gun, sighted as it was from the armory, and shooting 
off hand, without a rest, at 500 yards he made the follow¬ 
ing score:—2 4 4 4 8—17. The gun is undoubtedly a most 
admirable arm. Something, however, mast be said for the 
marksman, who, to use the emphatic language of the pe¬ 
riod, is no “slouch.” The famous brass shell badge of the 
Seventh Regiment, now adorned with a very handsome 
massive gold clasp, was won last week by Corporal Price. 
The following are the best scores. Distance, 500 yards; 
arm, Remington military rifle:— 
“coaching.” As far as the giving of advice goes, we are 
very much in doubt if the most minute directions poured 
into a shooter’s ear ever did him the least bit of good. A 
certain kind of physical coaching may, however, give some 
aid, which is hardly fair, such, for instance, as cleaning the 
rifle or loading for the shooter. All coaching is, of course 
a nuisance, and we fancy, if carried out to an extreme this 
season at Creedmoor, the range committee will make some 
very good rules in regard to it. 
—Sometimes in looking over a well-kept score-book, just 
such a one as that published by Messrs. Moore’s Son for the 
use of the riflemen at Creedmoor, the uninitiated may see 
“Wind 2;” or you may hear one marksman coaching another 
as follows: “Watch out now. When you lead off this 
morning the wind was 9; it is now working round, and it is 
dead 12 this very minute.” It must be confessed that as the 
positive time of the day may be 2 or 3 o’clock by your own 
chronometer, the explanations of these terms of the time of 
day are at least eccentric. The rationale of it is, however 
quite easy. Points of the compass have and have not to do 
with it. If you can’t steer a ship by a watch, at least it is 
an easy help for riflemen to know which way the wind 
blows, so that he move his sights to the right or left, and 
may make a quick note of it in his book. For instance, as 
the butts or targets never move, the watch is taken out and 
the numeral 12 on the dial is put in line with the target. 
Now suppose the wind was to blow directly on the rifle¬ 
man’s back. Twelve o’clock being the imaginary north, the 
wind would be at 8 o’clock an imaginary south. If it came 
from the right exactly, an imaginary east or 3-£- o’clock, 
would be noted; if due west 9-J- o’clock would be written 
down. All the variations of the winds, as seen by their 
effects on the streamers, can be noted this way. In fact it 
is the rifleman’s method of boxing the compass,' and as 
most every one has a watch about him, and not a compass, 
and as besides N. by N. W., or S. by S. S. W., is not as 
generally well understood as the 'figures on a watch dial, 
this method of calling the wind by the hours of the day, as 
expressed on a watch dial, is quite a • simplification of 
matters. 
Paper and Metal Shells. —We have received a great 
many letters complaining of the difference in size of metal 
and paper shells. For all kinds of shooting which does 
not require loaded shells to be carried about the person of 
the field sportsman, such as wild fowl, beach snipe and 
rail shooting, metal shells are more desirable to use gen¬ 
erally than paper ones. They ' are more economical, and 
when loaded the powder is liable to receive less injury from 
dampness. In the present construction of metal shells the 
main primciple and feature in adapting them to the use of 
breech-loaders seems to have been overlooked, and that is, 
to have them the same size inside and outside, with paper 
shells of the corresponding number. As they are now man¬ 
ufactured the metal shells are about two sizes larger than 
the paper ones, and as nearly all breech-loaders are com 
structed to use paper shells, they are not adapted to use 
metal ones. They are so much larger in the bore where 
the shot are chambered that the pellets are crowded and 
become misformed in their passage into the barrel which 
'is still less than the bore of the paper shells. We think it 
quite possible that the metal shells could be made so that 
both kinds of cartridges could be used in same bore guns, 
and beg to call the attention of manufacturers of metal 
shells to the desirability of both kinds of shells correspond¬ 
ing in size. 
Name. 
Corporal Price. 
Corporal Bauchie.. 
Private Coughtry.. 
Corporal Gardner.. 
Corporal McMillan 
Score. 
.3 4 4 3 4—18 
4 3 4 3 4—18 
4 4 4 2 3—17 
.4 4 0 3 4—15 
.0 4 4 2 3—13 
On Saturday, June 6tli, will take place the opening match 
of the National Rifle Association for 1874. There will be 
five matches, as follows:—1st. Director’s match; 200 yards; 
military rifle; prize, gold badge. Second match— Turf , 
Field , and Farm badge; 200 yards; any breech loader. 
Third match—Military match; 200 yards; any military rifle; 
gold badge, etc. Fourth match—Open only to members 
National Rifle Association; 500 yards; prizes, gold badge, 
etc. Fifth match—Remington Diamond Badge; 500, 800, 
and 1,000 yards; any rifle. [For full particulars see Forest 
and Stream of May 7th]. 
—At last matters in regard to the English National Rifle 
Association have been arranged, and Mr. Ross, the greatest 
opponent of the innovations as to material of target and 
form, though having, as is stated in the last number of the 
Volunteer Service Gazette , “very temperately and frankly 
given expression to his dislike for the substitution of pen¬ 
etrable for impenetrable targets,” has become reconciled to 
the system of patching the targets. The new divisions of 
the target, Mr. Ross admitted, were questions of lesser 
importance, only he made the suggestion “that the bulls- 
eyes for the 500 and 600 yard ranges should be slightly in¬ 
creased so as to ensure their being within the ascertained 
power of the Snider.” We have taken especial note of these 
changes in Wimbledon, believing that all the pros and cons 
stated by us, taken from English sources will be of interest 
to us at some future time. “Coaching” is to be prohibited 
on the English ranges, but we suppose, with the new sys¬ 
tem, (as the dummy target very probably will not be used,) 
that telescopes must be brought to bear on the targets. 
“The use of telescopes by the competitors,” says our Eng¬ 
lish authority, “or rather by their friends is, we learn, to 
be permitted this year. Lord Ducie stating that that the 
‘patch’ system involved this indulgence;” At Creedmoor 
we foe&tfd last year some quite decided fumbling as to 
The Dominion Team for Wimbledon. —At a meeting 
of the Council of the Dominion Rifle Association, held on 
the 27th of May, the following team was appointed to go to 
Wimbledon:—Captain Arnold, New Brunswick; Color 
Sergt. Bailie, Ontario; Private Brosseau, Quebec; Captain 
Church, Nova Scotia; Private Disher, Ontario; Major J. 
M. Gibson, Ontario; Captain Hickey, Nova Scotia; Lieut. 
MacNaehton, Ontario; Captain J. C. MacPherson; Ontario; 
Captain J. J. Mason, Ontario; Private T. Mitchell, On¬ 
tario; Color Sergt. Omand, Ontario; Corp. Pain, Ontario; 
Corp. Pallen, New Brunswick; Captain Thomas, Quebec; 
Sergt. Sutherland, Ontario; Lieut. Whitman, Quebec; 
Battery Sergt. Major Winne, Montreal, Quebec; Ensign 
Wolfenden, British Columbia. 
—The Connecticut riflemen who have formed themselves 
into the American Rifle Association will hold their annual 
shooting festival on the 26th, 27tli and 28th of August next 
at Meriden. Preparation is being made among the New 
England regiments for shooting at Creedmoor. 
—E. H. Madison, of Brooklyn, has invented a new pro¬ 
cess for the “browning of gun barrels.” We have seen 
several specimens of the beautiful manner in which this 
expert has executed this delicate work and have no hesita¬ 
tion in recommending this process to all gun manufactories. 
—The Kankakee Sporting Club, of Kankakee City, Ill., 
Lave elected the following officers:—President, J. L. 
Shields; Yice President, S. McKelvey; Secretary, C. A. 
Carpenter. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
The members of the Sea View Park Association of New Dorp, Staten 
Island, held a very interesting pigeon shoot on May 30th. There were 
two matches, both at single birds. As will be seen by the scores, the 
shooting was very poor:— 
FIRST MATCH. 
SECOND MATCH. 
Merauke.0 11110000 1—5 Rodjier.V k 
Henry.0 0000001 1 1—3! Lindeman.0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1—o 
Rodjier did not shoot the tenth bird, as he could not tie Lindeman. In 
the third match Ficken won, and the fourth resulted in a tie, which was 
eventually won by Lindeman. Woodgoc* 
