166 
‘ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sepr. 25, 1884, 
only an occasional drop of blood—at only twenty-five yards; 
and be would have been wondering until this day had not 
the poor thing chanced to 1un across my rifle. He for once 
was made to acknowledge the cruelty of his favorite weapon. 
lam not “‘authority” in these matters, only a tiller of the 
soil, a sometimes shooter of the gun and a faithful reader of 
FoREST AND STREAM, But when any of you drop off to 
see me, with venison in your thoughts and blood in your eye, 
please bring a gun worthy your game. CHIPPRWA. 
AupuBoN, Minn., Sept. 13. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have no special wish to be drawn into the controversy of 
‘Bullet vs. Buckshot,” yet I can not help putting in my oar 
to remark that like neatly everything else on this mundane 
sphere your correspondents seem to imagine that the question 
is entirely one-sided and that inasmuch as each one is right, 
so must the man who differs from him be all wrong. -Can- 
not both, foa certain degree, be right? Until I came to 
Florida J had neycr killed or seen killed a deer with any- 
thing but a rifle, but since coming here I have seen several 
killed with buckshot, and under circumstances when more 
than ordinary skill would have been required with arifle; the 
deer running ahead of hounds through brush and timber and 
at a goodly distance, too. 
My judgment formed from what I haye seen is that the 
shotgun is more deadly than the rifle, and in the hands of 
men who can hold on a jumping deer, that fewer will get 
away to die a lingering death than with a rifle. I have shot 
many deer in the West through the lungs and anywhere back 
of that, that would run so far that unaided 1 would never 
haye found them. Now Ihave seen no deer killed here at 
less thar sixty yards (some at over one hundred and none hit 
with less than three buckshot, and out of more than a dozen 
killed in this Way none ran more than one hundred yards 
after the shot. Let ‘‘Piute” say if this is verv great cruelly. 
To “Bobolink,” in your issue of Sept. 4, I would say that 
his gun is probably not bored properly, or else he does not 
use a size of shot that exactly fit his chamber. With my gun, 
a 10-80-10, 1 can put from three to five out of a charge of 
12-0 buck in a twelve-inch circle at seventy-five yards every 
time, and once put ten out of twelve in a target 18xx4 at 
seventy-eight Jong steps. Several of my friends here have 
guns that will do as_well, and one, a 10-386-11-pound Parker, 
will do better. Q, U. At. 
ORLANDO, Florida. 
Fiditer Forest and Stream: 
In reply to -‘Bobolink” in your issue of Aug. 28, I would 
say that a good B. L. gun is sure of a deer at 60 yards, pro- 
viding said gun is properly loaded (and held right), which is 
the mostimportant part. I have a gun, 12-bore, 84 pounds, 
that will do it every time with my mode of loading; but 
then I don’t use pistol balls for shot. My charge is 4 drams 
good powder, 21 No, 3 buckshot. Itis not often a deer is 
killed over 40 yards in this scrub oak country; only occa- 
sionally a long shotis had. Perhaps ‘‘Bobolink” may think 
No. 8 shot too small, but I feel sure they would Lill a deer at 
90 or eyen at 100 yards, providing they struck in the vicinity 
of the vitals. Please let us hear from others on the subject. 
DEER HUNTER. 
HATCHYILLE, Cape Cod, Mass. 
Hditor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of Sept. 4 comes an article from “Wells,” in 
which he criticises my statements of Aug. 10 in reference to 
using shot on large as wellas sma'l game, In speaking of 
the lutter, he “thinks I was unfortunate in the use of my lan- 
guage.” I stated the case fairly as it looked to me, and do 
tiot wish to alter it now, I love to see the woods full of 
game, and when they are I can always get my share with 
a rifle; not as much, perhaps, as one would have brought to 
bag with shot, but then I like the appearance of it so much 
better killed with ball that 1 was willing and could afford to 
do with less. When game became so scarce that i coulu not 
get enough with the rifle, 1 never thought of calling to my 
aid the use of the shotgun, as | would look upon its use in 
my woodlands on small game with as much contempt as a 
man would upon a can of nitro-glycerine to be used in his 
fish ponds. ie = 
“Wells” does not agree with me in thinking that it is 
“barbaric” to hound deer, and he wishes to know how, and 
if hounding foxes is burbaric. 1 hope he doves not class a 
fox, pursued and killed for mere fun, stripped of its hide 
and thrown away, or the wolf, wildcat and many other dep- 
redators (on which there is a bounty paid for the killing) on 
4 jevel with the deer. To either of the former I could deal 
out a dose of strychnia with impunity, and perhaps *‘Wells” 
could do the same; but I could not think of slaughtering 
deer in that way. I should make a grand distinction there- 
fore in the mode of hunting and killing of game, owing 
largely tu the kind and use to be made of the same after its 
eapiure, I have lived in a country and ai a time when the 
hounding of deer was in full vogue; have seen them driven 
by dogs into the fields when they were so exhausted that 
they could not jump the fence to make their escape, and in 
their vain endeavors to find a hole or low place to get out 
overtaken by the pack and torn into a mangled mass; have 
known the pack to follow them all day and eyen into the 
night, and then the dogs could be shaken off only by the 
deer taking to some large pond or river; haye seen them 
driven into lakes, where they would be rowed down and 
brained with a club, filled with buckshot, or butchered any 
other way to dispatch them, 
“Wells” wishes to know if shining a deer’s eyes at night 
and shooting him standing with a rifle are civilized and 
sportsmanlike, and whether approaching a deer at feed 
among the lily pads in a boat is civilized and sportsmanlike? 
To both of which I would reply yes, as 1 think it much mvre 
civilized and sportsmanhbe to secure a shot in that way than 
before the hound, for the reason that if 1 bagged the game in 
that way the venison would be cool, light colored, of good 
keeping qualities, taste natural, and be wholesome. It I 
missed, the game would only have to skip into the brush out 
of sight and beitree. But suppose I took a shot before the 
hound and hit it hard. lf soit is cut up with buckshot, and 
it the chase had been continued Jong the meat is black and 
feverish, has lost its fine flavor and kecping qualities and 
will be classed only as third-rate at best, If I miss or wound 
slightly, the chase is kept up, the deer harassed all day and 
perhaps all night; it is lucky if it-escapes its pursuers, but is 
liab e to be caught and torn into pieces to appease the appe- 
tite of a hungry pack of hounds This is the distinction I 
make as requested by ‘*Wells” in comparing the two modes 
of hunting deer. Nevertheless, were 1 placed in a southern 
latitude without snow to assist in stalking, on ground so 
thick with brush and brambles as to preclude all chances of 
success with a rifle, 1 might be proyoked into trying some 
other mode of hunting, a hound and bucksbot, however, 
would be my last resort. Rather than that I would try the 
plan of Robinson Crusoe on them for a while, honestly be- 
lieving they would, could they have their choice, much pre- 
fer being snared than run down by dogs or riddled with 
buckshot, Cap Lock, 
Priwseure, N. ¥,, Sept. 8. 
[‘‘Cap Lock’s” communication was inadvertently omitted 
from our last issue. | 
Hiditor Forest and Stream: 
Why do not some of our buckshot deer slayers give us 
some practical experience and not so much theory? I for 
one have been using buckshot for several years shooting 
deer, and must say with great success, Some years ago my 
first shot at a deer was with a Sharps rifle. I hit it in the 
body about the middle, the ball passing through and coming 
out just forward of the hip. The deer seemed to skip along, 
as if nothing had happened, to a point of land extending 
into a lake some three hundred yards from where we were 
standing. 'The deer on reaching the point saw some parties 
in a boat, turned and came back to where we were standing. 
A friend who was with me had a shotgun loaded witb buck- 
shot, and as it passed pave it a ‘‘blizzard’” which keeled the 
old fellow over without it knowing what hitit. The deer 
was going all the time at a Maud 8. gait. I have no doubt 
that if I had struck it in a vitul place the bullet would have 
done the work, but the chances were certainly in favor of 
the buckshot, at least six to one. Before the season closed 
the past year I shot five deer, making five straight shots and 
killing them within a distance of from forty to eighty yards. 
Four of them fell within their tracks when shut, the fifth 
within fifty yards, I could mention many more cases, For 
deer on a runway, when one has a chance to shoot at from 
fifty to seventy-five yards, give me a good shotgun, properly 
loaded, every time, and if I don’t get venison it will be the 
fault of the shooter. For still-hunting and Jong-distance 
shooting of course the rifle must be used. 
Great care must be taken in loading buckshot. Fora 
chokebore No. 12 gauge use. No. 2 buck, provided they 
chamber nicely in the muzzle of the gun, and place them in 
regular layers of say five shot each, leaving a space in the 
center. Use three layers, making fifteen shot, in the load, 
still keeping the space open in the center, then place over 
the shot a thin cardboard wad. The space in the center 
will relieve all danger in shooting shot from a chokebore 
gun, and the charge will make a better distribution than any- 
thing I have ever tried. The followingis the result of a few 
experiments I made a short time ago in relation to charges 
of powder and sizes of shot: . 
Target 24x20; used Laflin & Rand’s Orange Lightning No. 
6 powder, Tatham’s shot; two pink-edge (Ely) wads over 
powder and cardboard over shot; 9 pellets shot to the 
charge. 
Powder, Distance, Shot in Powder, Distance, Shot in 
drams. Shot, yards. target. drams. Shot. yards. target. 
4 00 40 4 3 0 40 6 
4 00 60 4 =) 0 60 2 
3 00 60 5 3 0 75 1 
3 00 60 2 3146 No. 2 Buck. 60 5 
3 00 40 %. st 40 11 
3 00 via) 1 3% SS 40 va 
3 AX)» os 15 24 3 40 q 
3h 0 60 3 % 4s 95 4 
3 0 40 4 8 oY 60 9 
The best distribution and penetration was made by using | 
three drams of powder. In usmg 00 J think there is more 
or less danger in a chokebore gun; would therefore not 
advise it. J. W. V. 
FarrMonT, Minn. 
Norges rrom MAssacuusnrrs,—Taunton, Mass., Sept. 22. 
—The opening week of partridge shooting here was so yery 
hot (in fact, the hottest weather we had for the summer) 
that it was impossible to endure a tramp through the woods 
and thickets after the grand old grouse. Sept. 18 was a cool, 
clear day, and 1 took advantage of it by going over one of 
my old partridge and woodcock grounds. I did not find as 
many partridges at this place us 1 did last year, but they may 
be stowed away in some thick swamp beeause of the dryness 
of these grounds. I succeeded in bagging two fine grouse and 
two woodcock. I found woodcock more plentiful than | 
have seen them before for quite a number of seasons. Have 
been out several times.since, but do not find as many part 
ridges as J did last year at this date, The foliage is thicker 
than I ever saw it before at this timé in Septémber. Several 
partridges I shot I would not have found but for the dog. 
T haye not heard of. any great bags of birds made here yet, 
and do not think there has been any. From what | have 
seen and heard, quail have bred well and are quite abundant. 
Since 1 wroie last I have heard from several places on Cape 
Cod, and at these places quite a number of fine coveys of 
quail haye, been seen lately.—CimEsTER. 
Doperne BuLuETs.—Camp in Blue Mountain, San Juan 
County, Utah —Auitor Forest and Stream: In the fight on 
the 15th of July between F. and B. Troops, Sixth Cavalry, 
and forty cowhoys on one side, and 100 hostile Piute Indians 
on the other side, which commenced at 6 o’clock A. M. and 
continued all day till 9 P, M., as many as 3,500 shots were 
fired. Distance, 800 10 1,100 yards, It was no trouble to 
dodge the bullets by watching the flash of the guns, even 
after you heard the reports of the guns. It would be much 
harder to dodge a charge of .45-500-150. Just after we left 
Arizona last spring Sergt. Morrison, of F. Troop, killed 14 
deer at 18 shots, 100 to 850 yards, then dropped the carbine 
in Black River on return, The boys made up a collection to 
pay for it in about fifteen minutes, One chief and thirty 
“bucks” compelled ten of the Twenty-second Infantry to give 
up seven prisoners four days ago. This Piute war will cost 
“Uncle Sam” as much as the Modoc war, seu if it don’t. 
Game of all kinds is very scarce here now, saw none ona ride 
of 300 miles.—G. H, Coormr. 
Warn We Kin Gur ’em.—‘‘We don’t care much about 
laws up here; we ginerally take things when we kin get ‘em. 
lt makes ’em taste better,” said a resident of Sussex county, 
N. J., to a Newark Sunday Call reporter the otherday, when 
the remark was made that none of our game birds could be 
shot in September. He only differed from his neighbors in 
being a little more candid than some of them. When asked. 
if any one in the vicinity would interest themselves enough 
to apprehend a city sportsman if he was violating the law, a 
countryman said he '‘reckoned” he would if the man looked 
as if he could pay a fine, None of the natives could remem- 
ber a case in which a gunner had been punished for killing 
game out of season in their county, 
GAME mv MArker.—There is not much liveliness in the 
market, although the supply is abundant and prime. Wild 
turkeys, the breast, meat of which is dart, briug 25 cents a 
pound, Venison from Minnesota is 25 cents a. pound, Wild 
pigeons cost $3 a dozen, stall-fed bring $3.50 a dozen, Par- 
tridges cost $1.50 a brace. Grouse are $1.25 a brace, 
Woodcock has advanced to $2 a brace,  Willet snipe cost 
25 cents each, English snipe ave $3a dozen. Ji ersey snipe 
bring $3; and plover are $3 a dozen. Corn plover and small 
yellow legs cost $1.50 a dozen. Large yellow legs bring $3 
a dozen; reed birds cost $1.25 a dozen; rice birds bring 50 
cents a dozen; small birds cost 50 cents a dozen also, and corn 
snipe cost $150 a dozen. Guinea fowl are $1.50 a pair; 
canyasback ducks bring $3 a brace, redheads $1.50. Both 
mallard and black ducks sell for $1.25 a brace. Teal, cray 
ducks, wood-ducks, broadbills, widgeon, etc., sell for 75 
cents a brace.—V. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 19. 
A DENVER Crus.—About twenty-five of our most promi- 
nent citizens, lovers of field sports, haye just organized the 
Standard Shooting Club, and leased a series of lakes and 
propose erecting a club house. Among the number are Rey. 
Myron Reed, the pastor of the Congregational Church, who 
ig @ genuine sportsmen; Ool. ©. W. Fisher, president Den- 
ver & New Orleans Railroad; Mr, S. H, Standard, secretary 
of the Cattle Growers’ Association, who is president of the 
shooting club, and in whose honor it is named; the Sedow 
brothers, crack field shots; Gen. John Pierce, president 
Union Bank; Hon. Alfred Bulters, a prominent cattle man, 
and Messrs, Bostwick, Dingle, Edbrooke, Higgins, Kinzey, 
and others prominent in business and professional circles. 
So that when you get out this way we will endeavor to show 
you a few ‘‘dooks.”—W. D, T 
New Jersey Game Nores.—Madison, N. J., Sept. 19,— 
A few woodduck have been seen along the Passaic River 
lately, Woodduck are in considerable numbers in the 
spring, but are seldom seen during the summer months, 
Was fishing yesterday at Passaic Riyer—no luck. <A few 
black bass have been caught in the river weighing from + to 
2 pounds. Started a fine bevy of partridges yesterday three- 
fourths grown, No snipe yet. Our meadows are in very 
bad condition at present, since no rain has fallen for some 
time past. If we have a good rain before the end of next 
week snipe will afford fine sport. Some years ago one could 
bag enough birds fur a day’s sport around here, but now the 
game is so scarce it is almost impossible to break a dog half 
way decently.—SixrnEn—Born, : 
“SPLENDID Work.”—The Hast Saginaw, Mich., Morning 
Herald copies, with the headline—‘Splendid Work for a 
Summer Vacation, Even if It be Contrary to Law’—an ae- 
count from the Milwaukee, Wis,, Wisconsin, of the way 
deer are killed in the latter State in summer and contrary to 
the law. The account says: “The deer are not in very. 
good condition, many being abandoned after the killing 
owing to their leanness.” It must be ‘‘splendid work.” We 
know sportsmen in East Saginaw who can give the Herald 
editor some points on what real_deer shooting is, and we 
hope that he may be taken in hand as a fit subject in neéd of 
moral enlightenment. , 
Rai SHooTme.—Philadelphia, Sept. 20.—Adverse winds, 
causing poor tides, continues to make poor rail shooting. 
There are plenty of birds but no water. The old heads 
patiently wait for the easterly winds of the autumnal 
equinox, and can start in an hour's notice when water 
cnough comes into the river wherewith to reach the places 
where the rail are now secure. ‘The abscence of rain for 
some time bas dried up the snipe ponds, and a dense stowth 
of vegetation covers the meadows. Quite a number haye 
been killed on the drift stuff on the borders of the river. 
Teal are fairly plentiful on the Delaware.—Homo. 
Ram ix Connectricur.—Middletown, Conn., Sept. 20.— 
The quail and partridge shooting promises well about here. 
I was at Essex yesterday, bagged seventy rail, but these 
were not plenty, and contrary to the common opinion, which 
is, that the later in the season the larger and fatter the birds, 
were notably small and poor. My pusher, B. Hayden, says 
he has noticed that to be generally the case. It may he 
accounted for by the excessive shooting, which clears out 
the birds before they have time to rest and fatten, and so 
all we get are fresh flights.—A. 
Onto Quait.—Moseow, Ohio, Sept, 19.—The hunting 
near this place promises fo be the finest that we have had 
for a number of years. While out some days ago, I noticed 
several fine coveys of quail, and as they were protected hy 
the farmers last winter, they are numerous and very tame. 
Never before have rabbits been so plenty as now, and squir- 
rels can be had in abundance near here. All sportsmen in 
and around here are making great preparation for the com- 
ing harvest in the hunting line.—G. G. J. 
Creaninc Brass SHeiis.—Hditor Forest and Stream: A 
correspondent in your last issue wants to know how to clean 
brass shells. I have used brass shells ever since they came 
out, and my experience has heen that the less they are 
cleaned (inside) the better work they do. Let the inside of 
the shell alone; if it is dirty it will hold the wads miare 
securely. Vinegar rubbed on with arag, followed by hot 
water will clean the outside. J! think it a good plan to use 
nickel-plated shells —Mmat-HAwK. 
Onto Rurrep GRoust.— Wooster, O., Sept. 15.—Ruffedl 
grouse shooting splendid—better than for years, and every- 
body that hunts can haye all the shooting they want, but to 
get all the birds they want is quite another thing. The 
dense cover makes it difficult shooting. Some extra good 
bags have been made, running from two to ten brace a day. 
My best bag the past week was ten and a half brace, over 
‘Keon, a sixteen-months old pup, the property of Mr, Prank 
A. Magee, Chelsea, Muss,—Jonn Botos. 
Winn Ducks iw Cenrrap Parx.—Last Sunday, reports 
the Sun, two wild ducks that had been fying as high as the 
fifteen-story flats swooped down on thelake in Central Park, 
The other ducks turned up their bills at them, and the black 
swans regarded them with distant curiosity, The two wild 
ducks made such a tour of the Park as they might on the 
lake, then rose into the air and flew south, far over the Park 
frees, 
