“Nov. 27, 1884] _ 
— = ’ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
347 
Such experiences as these naturally cause a man to ask what 
he can denend on 
Now as to accuracy. it makes a vast difference in my esti- 
mation whether the point blauk of a rifle is in inverse ratio 
to the drop of stock. A. crescent-shaped butt with bottle- 
nosed cartridge, 450 to the peck, will make a fearful hole 
in an animal if the stock is properly checked. The check- 
ing of the animal depends largely on this latter. But after 
all it is the shock that kills. Ask any man who has had a 
current from a Brush machine sent through him. The com- 
ing gun is the one haying the greatest amount of shock in it. 
A sort of paralytic or apoplectic shock. We all know how 
this acts on humanity, why should it not act similarly on 
animals. True they (the animals) might run some after being 
hit, but it would be an erratic, short-lived flight. 
In the center-fire cartridges the bearing surface of the ball 
when impinging on the twist naturally suffer an appreciable 
loss of motion caused by the fulminate being placed too far 
back of the magazine, consequenily the upset is reached 
before the breech-block can escape. Such being the case it 
would seem highly important that the butt-plate which inter- 
feres with the prompt action of the “neck” should be narrowed 
to a point where the groove will barely miss the shoulder. 
Otherwise derangement of sight will ensue and the approxi- 
mate curve of the bullet will be sufticientiy variable to cause 
trouble. There is no necessity of defining this. ‘‘Bengal 
Sepoy’s’” pessimistic view of the disproportion existing be- 
tween the cost of cartridges and weight of bullet will deceive 
noone, The factis, the striking energy is to the muzzle 
velocity asthe pull is to the trigger, At 335 yards I have 
tarely done better than 7 bullets into 6 long by 8 wide by 
5 high, 104 bullets into 4 wide by 8 long by 9 high, and 9 
bullets into 74 round, This with elongated swedge, Skim- 
merhorn tube and loop hole, is a beautiful weapon because 
harmless in the hands of the didn’t-know-it-was-loaded idiot. 
AJ, & W, Folly is hardly so good for chipmunks as the 
new U. 8. Express, .11-153-21, which paralyzes without 
mutilating. The trajectory of this needs to be flattened a 
little, however, as this species of game rarely rises over 100 
yards. For gray squirrels .82 is much too large, ,22 too 
small, I should advise, say .23%, bullet irregular rhomboid 
with rapidly decreasing circumference. For fox squirrels 
we need a .6-41-26, four turns to the inch, modified drop. 
With due deference to ‘‘J. T.’s” knowledge and experience 
with Californian rodents, I affirm that Eastern squirrels 
need different ordnance, For deer, if I were in Florida, I 
should, by all means, use the regular .31-64-154, as deer are 
known to be smaller there than in Pennsylvania. In North 
Carolina the most effective weapon wouid be a .33-69-161, as 
deer there are considerably larger, having more to eat. In 
the Northern States east of the Rocky Mountains the well- 
known Blunt 8mo. .42-71-209 lightning express will kill 
cleaner than any otherif the gun is clean, A mule deer, asthe 
name implies, requires much heavier ordnance to fetch him 
to time. If permitted he will carry away a large amount of 
lead and expletives. The coming gun for this kind of game, 
elk and caribou, is the portable electrical Gatling, Siemens 
battery, and Brush dynamo. This would seem to be the 
gun par excellence for antelope, for they can usually be 
seen a great way and it is necessary to shoot as long as they 
can be seen: We frequently read of hunters emptying their 
Westchesters at them and then following the wounded game 
allday. ‘This in itself is enough to condemn the gun, We 
want a gun the ball of which has an affinity for the particular 
game it is made for, and which it will search out and corral 
without needless waste of time and muscle. Some one wants 
to find such a gun quickly too, for before many days there 
will be no use for rifles except to show our children as 
weapons ‘‘we used to shoot deer with before they were ex- 
tinct.” 
Such are my ideas on the “Choice of Hunting Rifles.” If 
they help any one in his dilemma caused by so many con- 
flicting views published in Forrest AND STREAM, | shall 
feel that they haye accomplished wonders, 5. 
MONTANA GAME. 
I SUPPOSED I was coming into a paradise of a game coun- 
try, but-what changes afew years bring about. Only 
as late as °80 the buffalo came within a mile of the post, and 
bleached skulls are scattered about here everywhere; but 
to-day you cannot hear of even one buifalo, In Big Horn 
Mountuins, which used to swarm with elk, etc., are now also 
about barren of them, and deer seem to be remarkably 
scarce. J have beeu here now nearly two months, and have 
to see my first piece of venison yet, We have no game 
birds excepting the sharp-tailel grouse and sage chickens, 
with a few ducks passing through. The sharp-tails sre 
plenty, and these are the only birds that are so. It is really 
# surprise to me to see how quick the large game has van- 
ished from the face of this country, and I had no idea how 
neatly the buffalo was exterminated. If you want a robe 
now that is worth anything you have to send to St. Paul for 
it. Our Indian neighbors, the Crows, whose agency is 
twelve miles south of the post, have none to sell any longer: 
and I believe this season there will be scarcely any robes 
shipped from the trading posts north of here. The only 
game which seems to hold its own Is the rattlesnake. These 
are as plenty as ever. One of the officers while out driving 
afew days agoran into quite a colony of them and shot 
fourteen. He says that he saw atleast 100. The next day 
he weni to the_same place again and killed fifteen more 
There seems to be a perfect den of them in that locality, and 1 
presume they collect there to occupy some of the vacant 
prairie dog butrows for winter quarters. I am going to in- 
vestigate some of these burrows after the cold weather sets 
im and see what I can find. 
Woy. 16.—I do not believe that I shall have to change my 
opinion about the game very much. Sharp-tail grouse are 
yery plenty, sagetow!] moderately so in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the post. Of ducks there are none at present, Earlier 
in the season a good many pass through, hut none stay very 
long, on account of scarcity of feed. the Big Horn Moun- 
tains, sixty miles south of here, one can find afew elk yet 
and some deer, mountain sheep and bear: the latter, I no- 
derstand, are not at all uncomimon. The buffalo are gone. 
The southern slope of the mountains have not been hunicd 
as much as the northern, and game is more plentiful there 
than on this side, which is constantly hunted by the Crow 
_ Indians, who have driven the game away since the agency 
_ has been moved overon the Little Horn River, Thestreams 
contain some catfish, sturgeon and other inferior kinds of 
food fishes, and in the mountains good trout fishing can be 
had, none, however, nearer than fifty miles that amounts to 
anything. One thing is certain—the days for plenty of large 
arith this region are over, and it is astonishing how rap- 
¥ 
7 
~~ 
y it has almost heen exterminated. But if the large game 
is gone, you can have plenty of sport in killing rattlesnakes, 
which seem to be more abundant here than anywhere I have 
yet been in the West. I believe I told you what Dr. Price 
Saw one day in this line, and that he killed fourteen one day 
(Oct. 14) and fifteen the next. Another party I learn has 
killed 123 in the same vicinity, having to pass in the neigh- 
borhood daily. The latter number have all been killed since 
Oct, 15. One was killed as late as Nov, 8. What she was 
doing out &s late as that puzzles me. If I do not find it too 
much work Iam going to investigate one of their dens this 
winter and see what it looks like. There is no question in 
my mind that this particular place is the gathering point of 
nearly all the rattlesnakes in the neighborhood to hibernate. 
Strange to say a species of ballsnake seems to live in the 
same holes with the rattlesnake, at least it would appear so, 
finding four right among them. I have two of these now in 
alcohol. CxHaAs, E, BENDIRE. 
Fort Custer, Montana, 
AN UNEXPECTED BEAR HUNT. 
Ox morning, after a breakfast of venison broiled and 
fried, potatoes white and flaky, fried trout and crisp 
toast, with flapjacks and maple syrup as a ‘‘finisher,” Will 
and I were discussing various plans for spending the day. 
George, the guide, suggested going down to the lake and 
trying the trout at Brandy Brook. Will thought the fra- 
grant bed of boughs and some cool lemonade more to his 
taste, while I proposed a trip to Baldface or Graves’ Moun- 
tain and a climb to the summit, from which could be had a 
magnificent view. ‘To this Will entered a most plaintive ob- 
jection, as he said he had tumbles and bruises enough fol- 
lowing trails, without endangering his bones and his two 
hundred pounds of flesh climbing any mountains; so we made 
a compromise, After an early dinner we were to go from 
our camp to John Pond and catch enough trout for supper, 
then carry up to Gull Pond, where I was to watch for a 
daylight shot at a deer, and if no deer were to be seen, to float 
there that night, for it was my first year in the woods and 
I was not aboye a jacklight and the murderous buckshot. 
The next morning I was to make the ascent with George, 
for Gull Pond, lying as it does on the very side of the 
mountain, the climb would be from there a comparatively 
short one, while Will would watch for a morning shot dur- 
ing Our absence. 
After putting the camp in shape and hanging everything 
as high as possible in the way of boots, shoes, hunting cases 
and other delicacies the predatory hedge hog delights in, we 
started for John Pond, taking with us but one gun, Will’s 
three-barrel Baker, for I had never shot at a deer with a rifle, 
and I felt with that gun if £ missed with ball I would have 
the “scatter” to fall back on. Will carried no gun, as we 
took turns in hunting, and this was my day. Reaching the 
pond we paddled a raft out to a stake near the middle of the 
pond, the raft being formed of two logs with slabs nailed 
crosswise. The guide carried the boat up to Gull Pond, 
while we were fishing with very indifferent success, for it is 
very rare that the trout will rise to a fly there, except early 
in the season, and they are very capricious regarding bait 
also, and after some two hours we had but four trout to 
show for our labor, but as these would average near a pound 
each we felt very well satisfied, and made our way to the 
landing at the trail leading to the other pond. 
We had to cross Gull Pond to reach the usual camping 
place, and when we jound the camp, to perpetrate a bull, 
there was no camp there, it having been destroyed by some 
of the miscreants who are to be occasionally found in the 
woods as well as elsewhere, ready to destroy that which is 
of no longer use to them. : 
As it was late in August the bark would not peel, so we 
set to work to make a pole and brush shelter, and with the 
aid of a rubber blanket thought we ‘could endure a very re- 
spectable rain storm should it be our fortune to have one, as 
the gathering clouds and distant rumbling of the thunder 
seemed to indicate. The guide’s hound, Belle, was tied to a 
stake, and we had driven the crotched poles and put up the 
cross pole that was to act as a support to the poles and 
brush, when we heard a crashing in the dead brush that 
skirted the pond and then a slight splashing in the water. 
Thinking it must be a deer I Joaded the three barrels, and 
put four buckshot cartridges in my pocket. Willand George 
stood motionless while 1 cautiously advanced toward the 
noise, which was growing louder and néarer. With the ut- 
most caution I advanced when the heavy gust of wind that 
often precedes a storm, struck our partly constructed shelter 
and with a crash it fell on the sleeping hound who emitted a 
most dismal howl of fear and pain. Instantly the noise in 
the bushes ceased, but after perhaps half a minute the break- 
ing of twigs and brush began again, upon which George 
called out, “It’s nothing but a dumb hedge hog, a deer wouid 
have lit out betore this.” 3 
As a sworn enemy to the hedge hog I was resolved to make 
the quills fly, and without further caution walked rapidly 
‘toward the noise, Will and George being just behind when, 
to our surprise, out of the bushes on the keen jump came an 
old bear, followed by her cub. Before the sun could be 
raised, she cleared a log and was in the brush again, but as 
the cub struck the log I fired the rifle, and the cub, after a 
curious sort of a squeak, climbed a spruce with almost the 
eg of a cat, the blood squirting out in jets from both 
sides, 
Giving him acharge of buckshot and waiting only lone 
enough to see him tumbling, I tore after the old bear, fol- 
lowed by the sound of a struggle, a yelp and a curse behind 
me. for although the rifle ball had gone through the lungs, 
and the charge of buckshot was well centered, the cub had 
broken the hound’s shoulder, Will having cut the rope that 
held her as quickly as possible, and she had immediately at- 
tacked the cub, who raised himself on his haunches and gave 
Suenos stroke with his paw, then fell over backward, 
dead. : 
So much for the vitality of the black bear and only a cub 
at that. Oatching a glimpse of the bear I raised the gun to 
shoot when George stepped out of the bushes almost in line 
with the bear, so fearing to fire I ran to George, and as the 
i age se was higher than my head I handed the gun 
to him and he blazed away at her as she was disappearing: 
over log. She did not stop but turned down into a ravine, 
and as she was climbing the opposite side I gave her another 
shot, and a little later had another vanishing view and fired, 
She kept on but seemed to be circling back toward ber cuh, 
and presently we lost her entirely. _ Thinking she would re- 
turn to her cub I followed the edge of the ravine back 
toward camp, while the guide keptup above me, armed with 
a big club he had picked up. Thinking a large rock jutting 
out over the ravine would give me an extended view, I put 
the gun on the rock and yas scrambling up it on hands and 
knees when a warning yell and a crash near me caused me to 
turn my eyes to the right, and there not thirty feet away was 
the bear charging for me with every hair on end, her jaws 
half open, while her eyes fairly glinted with rage. A log lay 
between us, and I had just time to grab the gun as she 
reached it, and as she raised herself to clear it I took a quick 
aim full m her breast and fired, the muzzle of the gun 
not over eight feet from her breast. With a convulsive spring 
she tumbled over the log and laid almost at my feet where I 
emptied my last sheli in her side, and then gave a whoop of 
delight that convinced Will, who was still at the landing a 
most anxious listener to the pursuit, that I had received a 
fatal embrace, 
George was at my side in a moment ready to defend me if 
need be with his club, but when he saw the successful end, 
we executed a war dance that would riyal a Sioux pow-wow,. 
while our yells set all the echoes ringing, and a voice floated 
up from below, ‘‘Are you all right?” 
George descended the mountain and brought Will up to 
view our trophy, The next thing was to gét the old lady 
down to the landing, and this we found a job of no small 
dimensions, but after removing his ‘‘inner half” we dragged 
and slid her for the greater part of the way, and then George 
got under her with his tremendous shoulders, and stagger- 
ing along, made the landing, where he dropped his burden, 
exhausted. 
By this time the shades of night were falling, and the rain 
which had been pattering on the leayes began with a regular 
down pour, and we made all speed to rig up some protection, 
but it was a poor apology that we offered as a guard against 
the torrents, for the rubber blanket was but six feet long by 
four and a half wide, and with two two hundred pounders 
and myself, there was not a superabundance of room, but a 
big fire warmed us, although from our knees down there 
was no protection from the pelting rain, but [ was so filled 
with elation that I could have endured a couch in a snow- 
bank, for I lived that afternoon over fifty times that night, 
and a dozen times under pretext of keeping up the fire. I 
stole to the oak under which we had left our game, and 
there in the rain I stood and gloated with barbaric joy over 
the stiffening forms. 
I felt as though I had grown afoot. On skinning the old 
bear wefound that several buckshot had struck herin the 
fattest part of the ham, but whether the result of George’s 
aim or my own we could not tell. It was owing to this 
wound, coupled with the loss of her cub, that probably made 
her so savage; for, eminent authorities to the contrary on the 
black bear’s ferocity, she certainly had ‘‘fire in her eye,” if 
she meant nothing by it; and when a bear is on the charge 
at a distance of ten feet it certainly looks as if it meant busi- 
ness. To say that I was a proud boy when showing tlie hide 
of the old bear and the cub entire to the admiring crowd at 
the hotel, but feebly expresses my feelings, and even now 
the sight of the cub mounting guard at the entrance to the 
hall, with a silver card receiver between his paws, and the 
skin of his mother, with open jaws and mounted head, 
stretching her length on the library floor, sends a thrill of 
pleasure and pleasant remembrance through me. 
ONONDAGA, 
THE MAINE DEER SEASON. 
fiditer Forest and Stream: 
Lamreading with much interest the articles upon game 
protection, especially when they relate to Maine, as they ap- 
pear in Forest AND StREAM, In the issue of Noy. 13, Mr. 
Wells has made out a strong case for the visiting sportsman 
and jack-hunter, but I cannot allow that all his assertions 
are correct, those relating to the natural habits of the deer 
in particular, As the question of open season for all kinds 
of game depends upon natural laws, if is important that we 
fully understand them, and not rush blindly to change a law 
that is doing so much to restock our forests as our pres- 
ent Maine fish and game laws. We all have our ideas, 
and it is. not impossible that selfishness may warp them, 
Some men may desire an early vacation, and being law-abid- 
-ing gentlemen, a law to suit their convenience, the Rangeley 
guides also may desire jacking to please their city friends, | 
think in winter of 1882-3 jacking had a champion from 
that quarter, 
For years I have spent my vacation in the woods of Maine, 
and my experience is this: I have repeatedly seen fawn in 
their spoited*coats in October, and does in their blue. The 
largest and poorest doe I ever saw killed was shot Oct. 15, 
1882, and she had not weaned her fawn. I shot two does 
the last week in October, and both had milk in their udders. 
Oct. 5, 1882, I started for the woods, and on the way, for 
camp use, a friend gave me a fawn still in his spotted coat. 
I saw tiny tracks while with ex-Goy. Connor’s party the last 
week in October. Warden Hill heard several fawn bleating 
for their mothers, and Frank Foss saw one in his spotted 
coat too small to kill, last week. The does are just begin- 
ning to leave their retreats at this time, Nov. 18. I am cer- 
tain that in Eastern Maine the greater number of fawn are 
born in June, afew in May, and a much greaterin July, 
the young does bringing forth their young later, and the 
older ones earlier in the season. I know that does usually 
leave their hiding places the last of November and first of 
December, which shows that Apriland May are too early 
by two months for the completion of gestation. I have 
taken much interest in this question, for it has always seemed 
desirable to have the open season commence as soon as the 
safety of the young will admit. I think the open season for 
all kinds of game should open and close at the same time, 
Can we safely allow fifteen daysin Se; tember? I fear not. 
I did at one time think we might add September, but after 
much careful investigation I am satisfied I was greatly mis- 
taken, Jacking is perfectly out of the question, for when 
meat for camp use cannot be procured legitimately, it shows 
that the forests are not “teeming” with game and needs rest 
from hunting, not new devices for the last deer. 
There is another and important reason why September 
would be a destructive month for deer: it is the annual 
droughts socommon in Maine, When we havea dry Sep- 
tember deer are driven by thirst and the pest of flies to the 
shores of streams and lakes, where they can be slaughterad 
in unlimited numbers with the greatest ease. At this season 
our wardens are worked to their utmost to preveut their 
slaughter by the senseless local poachers and the visiting 
sportsman with his hound and jack. Our experience with 
Visiting sportsmen in the past is not such as we would desire, 
yet we are ready to give our neighbors an equal chance; but 
they must allow us to legislate for ourselves, and more, we 
understand the temper of our people as well as the natural 
habits of our game, We have seen our forests nearly de- 
pleted of large game by the poachers, and now, after years 
96 hard labor, much abuse, and without thanks, to he told 
Tt forects are “teeming” with large game, that our poverty ., 
