7 
“Avs. 28, 1884]. 
Ba 
feed” when he sat down to the table at Central City. After 
“supper we smoked our cigars in the office, eliciting, during 
the time, that geese were fairly numerous but not so abund- 
ant as they had been the week before. We then arranged 
With a local teamster to call for us early in the morning and 
hau! us down to the river. The wind had whipped around 
to the north and the mercury had run down near the freezing 
point, so that when we were turned into the room assigned 
to us for our stay, we found a cheerful fire blazing away in 
the stove, quite a luxury. 
_ We got up early next morning—people out with me have 
‘a habit of doing that—and by the time breakfast was an- 
nounced we had on our hunting clothes and our outfit made 
ready so we could start when the wagon should call for us, 
Breakfast did not fal] behind the supper in quality, and 
Scip lent a willing, helping hand, as before. The programme 
was to stay out all day, so we had the folks prepare a stout 
Tanch for us to carry along. It had turned colder during 
the night and a crust of ice had formed over the mud and 
water, which made it rough work on the horses that hauled 
us down to the river. But we got there in time, and were 
dumped out in a willow thicket on the margin of the un- 
gightly Platte, our driver showing us the route he thought 
shallow enough to enable us to wade well out in the stream 
‘There were great flocks of ducks to be seen in every direc- 
tion, flying about here and there or silting in the water, no 
doubt greatly discommoded both by the swift rolling river 
and the young gale that was sweeping down from the north 
across the stream. The geese had mostly gone out to the 
fieids to feed. 
The absorbing question now was how were we to get our- 
selves and our traps out to good hars near the center of the 
river, The prospect did not appear at all inviting, Jam- 
_bertson and Scip had only hip boots, while 1 had wading 
pants, but I am a very light weight, and the switt water and 
numerous quicksands intimidate me. 
: “Well, we've got to try it,” said Scip, and, gathering up a 
Joad of one thing and another, he slipped down the bank into 
the river, Lambertson and I following. There were a couple 
of little towheads close together, apparently about a quarter 
of a mile from shore, and we concluded to make for those, 
‘and when there rést and reconnoiter. We all carried heavy 
loads and the wading was tedious and tiresome, the water 
being fearfully swift, the bottom treacherous, and often the 
Sentlemen with the boots being compelled to tiptoe in order to 
prevent taking in water. But our path carried us across 
Tiumerous little sandbars, where we could stop and “blow” 
find set up stakes to guide us on our return and to avoid the 
necessity of hunting again for a path. On reaching them we 
found our towheads perfect wind-breaks, and covered with 
such stufi—willows, dead grass, plum bushes and cedar— 
as we needed for blinds, 
Ladyised Scip to locate on a smal] bar nearly a quarter of 
~# mile further out, and gave him my ideas of a blind, Tak- 
ing his gun and ammunition, about fifteen decoys and a 
bundle of brush—a monster load fora light weight—the 
young man struck out. Lambertson and I concluded to 
build a blind together on a bar further down the river and 
not quite so far out, As we worked at it, we every now and 
then took a look at our young friend whom we saw slowly 
Anaking his way by zigzag lines, with now and then a square 
retreat, when he found himself likely to get beyond his depth, 
until at last he tumbled his load upon the bar I had desig- 
nated, and sat down to resta spell. Poor Joe, his faithful 
dog, had the more serious time of it. He was made to go 
before, and when the water was deep enough to compel him 
to swim the master was warned to turn back and try another 
Way. ‘The water was ice cold and the animal must have 
suifered no little, though he neyer shrank from it when 
ordered to go in. 
___ We first put out our decoys, and then began work on our 
blind. A few erratic geese were maneuyering around, and 
once in a while set sail for our outfit, but shied off again 
when they got near enough to ascertain there were a couple 
of buccaneers about. This, of course, threw us into con- 
sternation, and we labored like Turks fighting to complete 
the work, It seemed an age before the blindreached a point 
that gave us any satisfaction. Lambertson was so awfully 
tall that nothing short of a hay stack would hide him unless 
he would lie down and submit to being covered up with 
sand, which he persistently declined doing. Now end then, 
when we thought the thing had cost labur enough, I would 
walk back to the towhead and take a look at it. It loomed 
up large enough to scare a goose a mile away, but for all 
that I could see my companion as plain as day. And 
80 we kept on building, stopping a crack here, plug- 
ging a hole there, increasing the height in this 
place and that until near 10 o’clock, when we threw up the 
job and swore we would not put another lick upon it, in 
the meantime, Scip had made a pilgrimage or two to the 
towhead atter more brush and had, at last, erected himself 
a fair blind, but rather ‘‘open” for a real wild fowl. He 
had succeeded in pickiug a sandhill crane out of a flock at 
long range; which, up to that hour, constituted our entire 
bag, ‘The hour having arrived when the geese usually begin 
returning from the fields to rest and drink and fuss with 
‘each other as they congregate in flocks on the bars, we made 
ourselves as comfortable as possible by sitting down in the 
blinds, Lambertson and I using for seats the two decoy 
boxes and Scip a box he had that morning brought .out from 
town. The morning had been cold and blustery, with the 
wind square from the north, the sky being overcast by angry 
looking clouds hurrying southward, as if in haste to reach 
Plorida that they might there warm up. During their flight 
they treated us alternately to rain, sleet, hai] and snow, now 
and then driving the frozen rain against us with such force 
as to sting our hands and faces when these were exposed to 
the blows. While at work making the blinds we experi- 
enced no discomfort from this state of weather, but now, 
haying no work to do and nothing to engage our minds, we 
grew cold and our teeth rattled together as we sat. there 
‘waiting for the tardy geese. We danced imaginary war 
dances in the sands around the blinds and did what we could 
to keep up an active circulation and ‘‘down” the cold 
sillade of four shots, [at once gave chase, but before I got 
lat contrary goose I lost wind and temper, no doubt swore 
little, and wasted six or seven loads in trying to flatten him 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
out flatter on the water. At last I claimed my own and 
started back toward the blind. While going wp there, and 
when near il I saw a white brant coming in with wings set 
for the decoys. I dropped down on the bar and watched 
him sail m and light down right among them. I think the 
man on watch did not see the bird till it was down. I sup- 
posed he would flush it and knock it over in the air, but in 
a moment or two a puff of smoke rolled out of the blind and 
the brant rolled over on his back and began a series of flop- 
ping, At this juncture a pair of geese sailed in and Lam- 
bertson downed one of them, which fell in the current and 
began drifting away when he tried his legs on a chase, His 
bird being dead was soon overhauled and brought back, but 
as the hunter neared the blind the wounded brant arose from 
his recumbent position, took wing and lit out for the north 
pole, Lambertson giving him two parting shots without 
apparent effect. On coming up myself, nearly fagged out, 
I found some of my decoys knocked into smithereens, two 
of them each having nine holes through them, mostly in the 
head and neck. And then to think the cause of all this 
trouble had made its escape, 
Along in the middle of the afternoon, while Scip was bold- 
ing the fort and L. and I were seated behind the towhead 
toasting ourselves over the fire we had built there, and which 
we kept alive by homeopathic doses of small brush and twigs, 
two large geese alighted on a bar in front of us and about 
three hundred yards from Scip. 
“Tm going out there and shoo them up,” said I, ‘‘and may 
be they may go oyer to the boy.” So, taking my gun, I 
walked out to the outer edge of the second bar, as far as I 
cared to go for the deep water, which brought me to within 
about a hundred and fifty yards of the geese. At first they 
declined to fly, but by yellmg at the top of my voice and 
waving the tails of my rubber coat frantically in the air, they 
at length arose, but instead.of going off, as a sensible goose 
would do, they put for me in as straight a line as they could 
fly, coming directly up the wind. This freak astonished me. 
I stood there as steadily as possible, holding my gun at port, 
so as to be ready in case they came within range, When 
about seventy-five yards from me one of them turned aside 
and went away, but the other came slowly along as though 
J were the chap he had been in quest of all bisdays. ‘‘Honk, 
honk,” he said repeatedly, as he came on, while I held my 
five, for once, at least, in my life, to be sure of my game. 
When within forty yards of me the silly fowl seemed, all at 
onee, to realize the situation, for he suddenly came to a halt 
and attempted to turn and start down the wind, when I 
stopped proceedings in that direction by tumbling him over 
into the river, using hoth barrels, the first apparently scoring 
a Clear miss. This goose proved to he the largest one I ever 
saw, bringing up the scales strongly at fourteen and a half 
pounds, and measuring six feet eight inches from tip to up 
of wings. 
The day grew more uncomfortable as night came on, so 
that if was as much as either of us cared to do to remain in 
the blind as long as half an hour at atime, The geese did 
not return from the fields either at their morning hour or at 
night, consequently we had no flight, and scored only one 
sandhill crane and six geese during the day. Of course, 
none of us felt very enthusiastic though not greatly discour- 
aged, feeling satisfied that the furious wind had kept the 
geese either out in the fields or in lakes and ponds near them. 
But we were glad when we heard the yell of our teamster 
announcing his arrival to take usto town, and leaving all our 
traps except guns in the blinds, we hurried over to him, laid 
down in the dry straw he had brought alone with him inthe 
wagon, and were driven to the hotel, tired, cold and hungry, 
in addition to which both Lambertson and Scip had wet feet 
from getting over boot top. Besides, we were in a strictiy 
temperance town, and bitters could not be obtained for love 
or money, by coaxing, by bribes, or any other means ordin- 
arily available in such emergencies. But a good hot supper, 
with steaming tea, brought on the desired reaction, and when 
we retired 10 our rooms and had cleaned our guns, and dried 
our damp clothes, we rolled into bed feeling none the worse 
for the day’s experience. Before 10 o’clock the clouds had 
all drifted away, leaving the sky as clear as one could wish. 
The wind also died away during the night. ; 
On getting up in the morning we found the country white 
with frost and the ground considerably frozen, but the sun 
came up bright and cheerful and soon began to warm things 
up. Our enthusiasm haying calmed down somewhat, we 
were later getting down to the river than on the previous 
day. The water between the shore and the towhead had 
become deeper on account of the wind haying subsided in 
the night and allowing the water, which was driven to the 
southern shore during. the prevalence of the gale, to return 
to its natural channel in time of calm. The big blind and 
the decoys around it were all in the water, one or two of the 
latter having been washed away. ‘The entire bar on which 
the blind was located was covered, and quite a current was 
sweeping oyer it. Some of our traps, including a portion 
of Lambertson’s shells, had taken a soaking, but the most 
serious feature of the case was the fact that we were com- 
pelled to pull up and locate elsewhere, a thing we did. re- 
Juctantly, but with all dispatch, though not in time for the 
first incoming geese. These having probably remained out 
two days and nights, began their return unusually carly in 
the day, and, what was still more unusual, very few of them 
left. the river after they came in. 
Their favorite rendezvous was on the bars just above the 
bridge, about a mile and a half below us. Here they con- 
gregated in almost countless numbers, the white brant at 
that distance appearing liké a vast snow bank, This dis- 
play grew so conspicuous and the geese there being so noisy 
as to attract incoming geese a mile or more away, it isa 
wonder our pigmy outfit of dead geese and sheet-iron decoys 
brought in any at all. About 2 o’clock in the afternoon 
Lambertson waded out to shore and walked down there and 
fired some shots from shore. They rose up in clouds with a 
terrible racket, and a few came up to Scip and me aud were 
saluted, but much the greater number merely, after much 
ado, settled down on bars further out, already occupied by 
geese that had not been disturbed by the shots. 
The shooting was fairly good all day, The geese came 
along often enough to keep up the interest, but not so often 
as to bring on a surfeit. Lambertson and I did bad shooting 
and had bad luck in other ways. Inthe first place, our blind 
was an absolute scarecrow, and no doubt frightened off many 
a goose, We had a small bar, with a deep and swift channel 
on all sides of it, into which every goose we brought down 
fell and many of them were lost, especially the wounded 
ones, We wore ourselves out. chasing them. One who has 
never tried it cannot realize how quick a man may become 
exhausted trying to capture a wounded goose in the river 
Platte. The stiff current and the numerous guicksands render 
locomotion as trying upon a man’s powers of endurance as @ 
S85 
hearty foot race. In one of Lambertson’s pilgrimages after 
a wounded goose he got into quicksands, sank into water 
neatly to his hips, and came back utterly out of wind and 
without his fowl. We both failed so often to kill, we grew 
desperate and shot wider still. At last four geese came and 
hoyered over our decoys. I put my aim dead on one, say- 
ing, “‘Now, confound you, let me see you fly away,” So I 
banged away at that one and then at another, Lamberison 
doing the same. They did noi drop at once, and we stood 
there speechless with amazement and watched three of them 
tumble dead in the river half a mile away. 
In the meantime Scip was doing much better work. The 
geese came up to his decoys from the south between two 
towheads, near which he was located, and when a goose or 
a flock once started for him they seldom changed their 
course. The young man was evidently cool about his work, 
much more so than we were, for it seemed to us as the game 
came in, they were often nearly on line before his No. 10]im- 
bered up. He made but few bad shots. Two putts of smoke, 
two unshapely objects falling through the air, two splashes in 
the water, and faithful Joe rushing out to retrieve the dead 
fowl, was what we generally witnessed when a flock sailed 
into Scip. During the day he brought down thirty-two, 
twenty-eight of which Joe brought in, the others either fall- 
ing too far away or outswimming Joe in their race for life, 
The flight having ceased near sundown, we signalled Scip 
to pull up and come in. When he brought his first load over 
to the towhead, which had been our rendezyous, we met and 
congratulated the young man on his day’s work. He said 
he had neyer in all his life had such royal sport, or learned 
so much as to how to kill geese. He had secured just twice 
as many as Lambertson and I both together, our score for 
that day being only fourteen. 
The muscle of every one of us was thoroughly tested 
before we succeeded in getting our outfit and game to the 
main shore, notwithstanding the teamster who came after 
us haying come with waders on, and rendering us all the aid 
he could. Ifany one had seen Lambertson carry out both 
boxes of decoys at one load he would not ever doubt that 
gentleman’s strength, The geese were tied together in 
bunches and dragged through the water, I think some of the 
party made three trips before everything was brought off the 
bars. Of course we were tired, and it was nearly 10 o'clock 
when we reached the hotel. Our total score was forty-eight 
geese, one brant and sundry ducks that had been killed as 
they flew over the blinds. e left on the early morning 
train the next day for home, satisfied with the hunt. 
The big goose was given to me inthe divide, I had a 
suspicion it was tough, and quietly insisted 6n Scip taking 
it down home asa curiosity. He politely declined on the 
sround that he did not want to deprive me of my trophy, 
though 1 suspect he also had an idea the bird was ancient. 
The spring before, while in company with Mr. Hathaway, I 
had killed a goose that weighed precisely fourteen and a half 
pounds. It was the only goose we had, and we settled the 
question of division by giving it to Dan Lauer, the local 
editor of the State Jowrnal here. He had it roasted, but it 
was too tough for any member of his family, and he gave it 
to a festival then in progress for the benefit of some church, 
but no one there could masticate it, Dan says the last he 
saw of any part of the carcass was when two little negro 
boys, each with a leg, were going down street creating 
amusement by. their efforts to pull meat off the bones, 
I thought this last goose was a brother of the one that 
passed unscathed through a festival, and I made up my 
mind to give if to Charley Baum, a neighbor, against whom I 
had a grudge. Asthe gentle ruler over my household was 
saving up feathers, we picked all our geese before giving 
them away. I had told her of my scheme to wreak ven- 
geance on Charley. When we picked the big goose it was 
as fat as butter, its meat was white, and there was every in- 
dication that it was a tender fowl, the lady aforesaid insisting 
that it was so, and that we keep it for our own table. But 
I was afraid of it. JI was sure it was tough and I carried 
out my original intention. Two or three days after this I 
met Charley and he thanked me most cordially for the goose, 
alleging he had never eaten a more delicious one. I related 
this conversation to the lady aforesaid, 
“T told you so,” she said, ‘ 
“Oh, yes,” I replied, ‘‘that is what the woman said to her 
husband, when he told her the cow had eaten up the grind- 
stone.” 
My doubts as to that goose being tender will never be set 
at rest until every member of Charley’s household, including 
the cook then in charge, is put upon oath and swears it was 
not tough. Burr H. Porx, 
Lincony, Neb., Aug, 18, 1884. 
BULLET VERSUS BUCKSHOT, 
Hiditor Forest ani Stream: 
While the “Bullet versus Buckshot” war is raging, the 
writer can look on with equanimity, and will be on the win- 
ning side no matter how the battle ends. The fact is, my 
deer gun has two barrels, one a shot and the other a rifle bar- 
rel, 80 you see—to use a political phrase—I can “‘straddle” 
on this question. I do not wish to join in the war of “Bullet 
versus Buckshot” for obvious reasons, but am a secker after 
information on a subject which is closely connected with the 
question at issue, I would only remark en passant that the 
hunting ground in this country is so diversified, the shots at 
deer so few and far between, and life is too short to throw 
away any decent and lawful chance to bagadeer. The 
question which puzzles me, and which I would respectfully 
ask ‘‘Welis” or some other gentlemanly veteran ot the shot- 
gun is, ‘“Up to what distance will a buckshot gun be reason- 
ably certain to kill or thoroughly disable a deer, the gun to 
be a good one, properly loaded and held right?” 
Thad a little recent personal experience which I give to 
show why this is to me a PEA, question. I had a gun 
made to order with two sets of barrels. With shot barrels 
the gun weighs & pounds, and is a 12-gauge chokebore; with 
the other barrels the gun weighs 9% pounds, right barrel .45- 
caliber chambered for Government sliells, left barrel 12- 
gauge cylinder. With shot barrels, after careful trials at 
target, | obtained very satisfactory results with Nos. 6 and 
8shot, With the rifle at the ranges tried, from 30 to 150 
yards, with 300 grain bullet and 85 grains powder, was also 
well pleased. Now came what I had considered the easiest 
of the experiments—to make the buckshot barrel do its duty. 
Put up a target 3 feet by 4 feet and measured off 60 yards; 
loaded shells in accordance with tlie usual methods of load- 
ing, tried various sized shot, also wire cartridges, but could 
not get anything even remotely resembling a pattern, It 
then began to dawn on me that the deer that are killed with 
buckshot ai distances varying from 60 yards to 100 yards are 
usually killed ‘‘on paper.” Moved up to within 40 yards of 
