ill - 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
305 
can remember losing cnly two wounded animals, and one of 
those was a bear which was knocked or to his back by the 
foree of the bullet, but jumped up and escaped along the 
mountain side among dense masses of nettles six or eight feet 
high. Iwas then a novice in the use of express rifles, and 
did not know that the hollow in the bullet should be much 
narrower than usually made in order to get sufficient pene- 
tration. " 
I do not believe in bullets so large as to spoil the shooting 
by the reeoil, but certainty like the heaviest that can be used, 
provided the kick does not affect the accuracy when enough 
powder is employed to give a long flat trajectory. General 
Marcy, of the United States army, in his book, “Thirty 
Years’ Life on the Border,” written in muzzleloading days, 
recommended round bullets of half an ounce weight. and 
that was then a favorite size among the Rocky Mountain 
trappers. ; ‘ , 
The conical ball of the .40-gauge is rather heavier, and if 
made with a small hole in the front and driven by seventy 
or eighty grains of powder, will expand to as great a 
diameter as the half an ounce round bullet and still have 
good penetration. . Sees 
Some sporlsmen employ for wild shooting a gun with a 
pair of shot barrels and a pair of rifled barrels fitting the 
sane stock. This is by no means a good system when look- 
ing for food, because there is frequently no time to change 
one set of barrels for the other before the game is out of 
range, 
While advocating the combined gun and rifle as the best 
weapon yet made, | believe that a double smoothbore might 
be constructed that would be still more efficient, A 16 or 
20-gauge, 7, 8 or 84 pound weight, ought to carry bullets 
steadily, if one barrel were bored a perfect cylinder, and the 
gui was provided with a sight at the breech, (When the 
breech sight is taken off even atifle, its accuracy is very 
materially lessened.) The other barrel might be choked for 
long shots at ducks, and the scattering properties of the 
cylinder would be of decided advantage for quick shots at 
rabbits and ruffed grouse. 
Many think a 16 or 20 bore too small for winged game, 
and certainly if aman goes into camp merely to make the 
largest possible bags of ducks for the market, he had better 
take a heavy 10-yauge; but for one who shoots only to obtain 
food while enjoying life in the woods a 16 or 20 bore is 
alply large, and has the advantage of carrying bullets with 
greater accuracy than the larger bores when the gun is of 
reasonable weight. A No. 16 of 8 pounds is 136 times 
heavier than its bullet, andit is often forgotten that a No. 12 
must be of 10 pounds to have the same proportionate weight. 
That small bores are sufficient may be shown by many facts 
from the experience of travelers, Dr. Rose, of the Hudson’s 
Bay Company, during his long journey to the shores of the 
Arctic Sea and back, used a gun of only 25-gauge, and spoke 
in the highest terms of its killing powers, even for such 
large birds as geese. 
Eiyery sportsman knows the advantage of a flat trajectory, 
By many experiments at targets | have found that a12-gauge 
smoothbore, of not more than 8 pounds, kicks quite enough 
for comfort when fired with bullets and 8 drams of powder. 
If properly bored, its bullets will bit a 6-inch ring at 40 yards 
and usually at 50, but they drop rapidly beyond the latter 
distance. A 14-bore of about 8 pounds, with 3 drams of 
powder, is more accurate than the 12, and carries to 60 yards 
without a perceptible drop, A 16-bore is stil) more accurate, 
and with only 24 drams has a flat trajectory up to fully 80 
ards. 
3} The most accurate smoothbore I ever possessed was a 42- 
gauge of 54 pounds, with barrels thick at the muzzle like a 
rifle. Jhad a breech sight fitted on the central rib, and 
loaded with 14 drams of powder, and bullets of 43 to the 
ound, with a greased linen patch. When shooting off-hand, 
have put 3 bullets successively into a page of the smallest- 
sized note paper at 100 measured yards, and from a sitting 
position could hit a bullseye of that size as regularly as with 
a rifle. With small shot the best charges were 4 ounce to 14 
drains of powder. It penetrated the samenumber of sheets 
of paper as a central fire 12-bore with 14 ounces and 3 drams, 
but unfortunately did not make a better pattern at 30 yards 
than the No, 12 at 40, s0 was not of much use for winged 
game. Judging, however, from the way in which it carried 
bullets, 1 believe that a16 or 20 bore of 8 pounds might be 
made to hit with one barrel a 6-inch square regularly at 100 
yards, Ifso, I would prefer it io a combined gun or rifle. 
For obtaining the best shooting from smoothbores, the 
barrels should be sloped evenly from breech to muzzle, with- 
out the part between being made thi» in the ordinary man- 
ner, This form diminishes the vibration so prejudicial to 
bullet shooting. 
Of breech actions I know none so firm, durable, and little 
likely to get out of order, as the plain double grip with back 
action locks, and a properly made doll’s head extension of 
the central rib. 
Antiquated as the notion may appear in the present day, 
if going on a long excursion without ample means of carriage, 
Iwould prefer a muzzleloader, on account of its requiring 
fewer wads and about 4 dram less powder in each charge, 
besides saving the trouble of taking care of the empty shells, 
Of course, tastes differ, but to me, when away from civili- 
zation, every article that can be well dispensed with is a 
nuisance, because of the extra care necessary to preyent its 
being lost. 
Tn the summer of 1869 I went with a friend into the Him- 
alaya Mountains up to the line of perpetual snow, and stayed 
there for several days, We were away about six weeks and, 
except when within two days’ march of the station from 
which we started, lived all the time wpon the produce of our 
guns and rifles, with the help of such things as tea, flour and 
rice. Large game was so scarce along the route that we 
killed only ten deer of various kinds, and the native attend- 
ants helped greatly to eat them, but almost every day we 
bagged pheasants, black partridges and fruit-eating green 
pigeons, which kept our own table well supplied. Our 
small shot barely lasted for the whole journey, and if our 
guns had been breechloaders we would either have run short 
of food or bave had to employ one or two extra men to carry 
cartridges, and this again would have increased the difficulty 
of supplying flour and rice for our gang when in ithe alti- 
fudes above the villages. My gun was a 16-bore, by one of 
the best London firms of that day, and with 1 ounce of shot 
and 24 drams of powder was about the hardest hitter I ever 
had, not even excepting No, 12 chokebores with 34 drams 
and 1 ounces. Once when it was loaded with BB shot and 
24 dratns of powder, I came unexpectedly upon a large buck 
gazelle, about 60 pounds weight, and hit him in the heart at 
30 yards distance by a snap shot, He fell on the spot with- 
out a kick, as dead as if a bullet had gone through his brain. 
There was no time tor bleeding, so bow will those who dis- 
_—— 
believe in the shock theory account for the suddenness of the 
animal’s death? ‘ 
_ As a controversy upon the use of buckshot has been going 
on in your paper for some weeks, I will give my experience 
of it. I first tried it in 1863 with the heavy 14-bore men- 
tioned in the first part of this letter, loading with three 
drams of powder and twelve shot in layers of four, While 
watching a runway on the Bonnechére River, in Canada, 
a large doe galloped past within sixteen yards, ‘The first 
barrel hit in the center of the shoulder, the shot being in a 
cluster six inches wide, and the whole twelve went out in 
the opposite side of the chest. The doe still galloped on, 
and the second barrel hit her when forty yards distant, when 
she fell dead, but evidently from the effects of the first shot. 
The second charge spread so much that one pellet struck 
the flank and another her ear, but none of those in the borly 
had gone through. This shows how rapidly the peilets lost 
their momentum. 
Not long atterward I had a standing shot at a deer fifty or 
sixty yards distant, and never saw him again, though in very 
open bush. The following season I had a rifle, but in the 
winter foolishly tried the gun with buckshot again on a 
runway. I[hit a deer in the shoulder galloping past at not 
more than thirty yards. The animal stopped for a moment 
at fifty yards, and I took steady aim at the back of his head 
with the other barrel and fired, when he ran away. Along 
with the hunter with whom I was staying, we followed all 
that day, but had no chance of shooting, although the tracks 
in the snow showed that the right shou!der was crippled and 
the deer running only upon three legs. The following morn- 
ing we started again, the gun loaded with a bullet in one 
barrel, and saw the dter for an instant, when he was gal- 
loping behind a fallen tree eighty yards distant. The bullet 
only cut some hair from the ridge of his back, and by the 
evening we had to give up ‘the pursuit. Some weeks after 
my return home the hunter wrote that he had killed a deer 
with his rifle which proved to be the same. He found two 
of my buekshot in the chest, but the wounds had almost 
healed. That is the last time i have ever gone alter large 
game with anything but bullets. 
I have had years of shooting in India, and find that when 
a gun fits the shoulder and the sportsman keeps cool, it is 
quite as easy to hit with bullet as with shot when within 380 
yards, and beyond that distance the bullet has greatly the 
advantage. I have tried numerous experiments at targets 
with buckshot, from muzzleloaders and breechloaders, cylin- 
der and choked, of 16, 14 and 12 gauge, and never found a 
gun throw closely cnough to insure three pellets in the front 
part of a deer’s chest beyond 85 yards, provided sufficient 
powder be used to give good penetration, Anything less 
than three pellets through the breast or thick part of the 
lungs will be unlikely to stop a deer, unless by chance a 
large blood vessel should be cut open. Buckshot of such a 
size that three will exactly chamber on a wad pushed } inch 
within the muzzle have always, in my guns, gone into a 
narrower space than pellets of a smaller size. I now have a 
16-gauge, 7-pound gun, that carries as closely as any that 1 
have tried. The barrel is choked on the jug principle, and 
with 9 pellets in layers of three, and 3 or 8} drams of Curtis 
& Harvey's No. 6 grain powder, the whole charge at 30 
yards goes into a foot or sometimes 9 inches square, yet at 
40 yards it spreads to 1 width of two feet or more. 
While fully admitting that a deer may occasionally be 
killed at 60 yards, 1am sure that for one bagged quite three 
get away wounded, and if hit at those long distances by one 
or more shot in the bowels, as is very probable, they are 
likely to linger in torture for two or more days and die from 
inflamed bowels. Personally [would far sooner let them 
go untouched than be guilty of such eruelty. Many sports- 
men greatly overestimate the distances at which they kill 
game. If they paced these, and also tried the patterns of 
their guns upon targets at measured ranges, their eyes would 
be considerably opened, and both large and small game would 
benefit by it. J.J. M, 
Lonpon, Eng., Oct. 22. 
GOOSE SHOOTING ON THE PLATTE. 
Liditor Forest and Stream: 
A party of five of us have just returned from a goose hunt 
on the River Platte, about 125 miles west of here. The re- 
sulf was very unsatisfactory, our score being only eighty 
geese in seyen days’ shooting. Two years ago, the same 
party in five days bagged 313 geese. The hunters "have so 
increased in the last three years, that the weary goose com- 
ing down from the north or in from the fields to rest and 
slake its thirst, can hardly find a place out of range of some 
one’s gun. Blinds line the bars in the stream for 100 miles 
so thickly as to preclude all chance of a fair bag. A flock 
of geese coming into the river can rarely strike it at any 
point without a volley being fired at it, and as the terror- 
stricken fowl move on up stream hunting a place of safety, 
their progress can be marked by the booming of the guns as 
they pass the gauntlet of blinds along their course. We first 
tried the river at Newark, but after slight scores and having 
our blinds robbed one night of nearly all of our decoys and 
game, we pulled up and drove twenty miles down the river 
along the bank in quest of some unoccupied spot. Butnone 
were to be found, Hunters were quartered at farmhouses 
or camping in tents on both sides of the river at short inter- 
vuls, And as we went down we met parties going up in the 
hope that had actuated us. The result of all this is to break 
up the habit of the geese in loitering on the Platte in their 
fight southward, and to hurry them on their journey where 
they can at least rest one day in peace. The chances are 
that if this wholesale hunting of them is continued for an- 
other year or two they will seek other lines in their migra- 
tions, and that we will never again see geese on the Platte 
in great numbers. At the station where we took the train 
coming home, we met a couple of gentlemen who have been 
in the habit of going out on the Platte annually after geese, 
This year they had occupied blinds just above us. They 
told us that one day neither one of them gota shot, We 
owed even our poor score largely to the fact that we hired 
two young native hunters who are famous honkers, to honk 
for us, and call a fresh flock in for us now and then. 
Just across the river from Foote’s, eight miles north of 
Kenesaw, a gentleman by the name of D. H. Talbot has a 
camp of five big tents, two or three teams, and nine men in 
his employ, four of them practical taxidermists. Just below 
where I located, one of his men occupied a blind surrounded 
by as fine a display of decoys as I ever saw, composed of 
geese, white brant, ducks, pelicans, plover, etc. One after- 
noon I went down to interview him. Mr, Talbot was him- 
self out in the fields, and his employee did not seem to know 
much concerning the object of this outfit. The party had 
been there three weeks and expected to remain till Nov, 15. 
They were killing everything that came along, but seemed 
to desire especially white brant and cranes. There they were 
paying 25 cents for dead geese, 50 cents for white brant and 
$1 each for cranes. As the fowls and birds were killed or 
purchased, they were skinned and their carcasses thrown 
away. Ihave learned since coming home that Mr. Talbot 
has advertisements in all the papers up that way oftering the 
prices I have named for all the game that may be taken to 
him. I was sorry that I did not meet Mr, Talbot. I should 
have been glad to have learned froin himself what his object 
was in this attempt at wholesale slaughter and the wasting 
of the carcasses of the dead fowls. Some of us thought pos- 
sibly that he was in the employ of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, but could searcely think that that institution would 
want the skins of so many ducks and geese. 
There was one feature of the outfit that made a strong im- 
pression upon us, and that was that, after such elaborate 
preparations and such a magnificent display of decoys, a 
young man totally inexperienced as a hunter and such a poor 
shot, as claimed by himself and of which all of us had ocular 
demonstration, should have been left alone for days in the 
blind. We estimated the expense of the entire outfit to be 
near a thousand dollars per month, and I think the highest 
score made at this blind any day during the three days we 
were there was three geese and two ducks, though many 
flocks came in and were shot at, but went away intact as 
they came. Of course it is all the better for the poor birds 
that this is so, but it did seem strange, and still seems strange, 
that a good hunter and a sood shot was not put in the blind, 
that the result might more nearly be commensurate with the 
outlay, Such hunters are numerous on the Platte and their 
services could be secured for a moderate compensation. 
Burr H. Pour. 
Lrycotn, Neb,, Novy. 3. 
THE MAINE GAME LAW. 
Liditor Forest and Stream: 
He who listens to the dictates of common sense will per- 
haps never enter a discussion in which his opponent must, 
Irom the nature of the case, hive the last word. Surely, if 
this contingency ever can arise, it presents itself when to 
express dissent from any statement or conclusion of an editor 
is the end in view, more especially if his own sheet must be 
the arena of debate. 
During a considerable portion of ten seasons [ have roamed 
the woods of Northwestern Maine, not loafing about a camp, 
but pack on back, traversing the inmost recesses of the 
wilderness, where few even of the guides ever haye oc- 
casion to go. 
The happiest hours of my life have been spent there, and 
no one can have its interests more at heart than I. 
Your issue of Oct. 40 contamed an editorial on “The 
Maine Deer Law,” in which the possibility of legislation 
changing the beginning of lhe opet season from Oct. 1 to 
Sept. 1, is discussed and condemned. 
Two sides of the question are presented, some reasons 
being given for the change, and others against it. 
The latter seem to me, however, to pivot on a mistake of 
fact. However it may be elsewhere, in the game region of 
Maine, at least, the fawns on the ist of September are no 
longer dependent on the doe for their sustenance. They are 
there born in April or May, the guides suy, and in four 
months thereafter are fully weaned. (‘‘Antelope and Deer 
of America,” Caton, p. 308.) The males will winter in her 
company and remain until a new generation appears, while 
the females may stay by her for still another season. But 
that they are not fully able to take care of themselves by the 
Ist of September in the game region of Maine, however it 
may be elsewhere, personal observation, confirmed by the 
opinion of those who live among them the year round, con- 
vinces me is a mistake. ; 
Some think that when the coat of the fawn assumes the 
color of the adult, it is no longer dependent on its mother 
for food, Ihave never seen a fawn in those woods with a 
spotted coat after August 20, while I have seen quite a 
number before September 1, in which the change indicated 
was complete. 
Now, without personally advocating either side of this 
question, has it not a third side? In fact, is not this third side 
the only side at which the legislators of Maine, as the trustees 
of their constituents, have any moral right to look? 
That the general sense of the country ai large grows daily 
more favorable to game protection, is not more certain than 
that without the support of a favorable public opinion, no 
amount of legislation will accomplish fhe end in view, 
Violations of game laws, from the nature of the case, take 
place in secret. With a neutral public opinion where the 
infraction takes place, detection and punishment become dit- 
ficult, while in the face of a hostile population this is quite 
impossible, 
To secure this essential, should not the friends of protection 
discard all sentimentalism and confine themselves to such 
measures as will bear the closest scrutiny of cold common 
sense? As it seems to me, the following is about as far as it 
is prudent to go, at least, for the present, To such an extent 
as the necessities of the case require, prohibit slaughter until 
the stock is well replenished; but when this result, has been 
obtained, then remove all restrictions whatever, except such 
as may be required to assure thaf the natural increase shall 
at least keep pace, if it does not somewhat exceed the annual 
destruction, 
So far almost any one will follow; but excite a suspicion 
that this reform rests on the spirit which would break a 
man’s neck to save the life of a chippy bird, and the dimin- 
ished number of the advocates of protection will soon stand 
alone and powerless before the community, 
Now it seems to me that neither the wishes nor the inter- 
ests of visiting sportsmen, nor the welfare of the game itself 
(except as these may be incidentally inyolved), should weigh 
with the legislators of Maine one iota, 
Is it not their plain duty to ask, what is for the greatest 
good of the greatest number of their constituents who depend 
upon the game region for a liveliood, and to govern them- 
selves accordingly? 
It must not be forgotten that this section is not, and never 
can be, an agricultural country. It is a sea of mountains, 
covered with forest, and interspersed with morass and water. 
Its latitude is high, and its altitude above the sea level great; 
and it groans under the burden of a climate, not inaptly de- 
scribed as nine months of winter and three months of yery 
late in the fall. Except in a few exceptionally favored 
localities, the most carvful farming will produce only the 
barest necessaries of life. On lumbering in the winter, and 
ou the money left by visiting sportsmen at other times, the 
very existence of those humble dwellings which dot the 
margin of the wilderness depend, and on the latter far more 
than the former, 
