—— 
Jan. 22, 1885.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
505 
not apt to be a welcome visitor. y 
In consequence of our division of the spoils, we had free 
acc: ss to fields which are closed to most persons, and in case 
we visil that section azain, we shall find no trouble when we 
enter the territory of the owners of the soil. 
It is but proper that I say, of the 265 birds killed, Teceel 
got 108, Bro. D. 74, Wells 64. and Dr. Will 19. TT. used 
184 shells, Duffrey 178, Wells 128, and Dr. Will 69. 
If [ can so arrange it 1 will visit that county again durin 
the winter. In case [ do J expect to bag not less than seventy- 
five, withont using so many as 150 shes. One bird in two 
shots we regard as fair shooting, Many persons claim to be 
able to kill many more. I have thought that some of them 
are far better with the tongue than with the gun. 
Our friend Mud failed to go with us. His wife was not 
well and he could not accompany us This 1 very mueb re- 
pretied, for ou'side of the fact that he is an excellent com- 
panion, he has so many ways to afford amusement that his 
absence is regarded as quite a misfortune. He has the same 
little Scott which he did not swap off with Dr. Quint 
Worrin ton, : 
In some sections the birds are at present mainly in the 
woods in search of food. <A little later in the season they 
will come back to the fields, when better sport can be had. 
WELLS. 
Rockmewam, N. ©., Dec, 22, 1884. 
SOME REMARKABLE SHOTS. 
Hditor Forest and Stream: 
**Penobscot” tells of bagging three snipe at one shot. 
did the same thivg under almost the same circumstances. 
A friend and myself were hunt.og ducks, when, meeting 
with no success, we Janded near a mud hole on the borders 
of the marsh. Just as we did so, much to our astonishment, 
up went seven HWnglish snipe. Two of them settled a few 
yards distant, one of which I started up and secured at once, 
Five flew wild aod were now circling around, as though they 
meant to settle. But here they come, going as snipe in the 
early fall only can go, It was but the work of 2 moment. 
Two of the birds afe close together, while a third is ten feet 
away, and almost in range. Bang! and downdrop three, I 
am sure of this, for two oly are seen flying away, while | 
had a kind of indistinct vision that I saw one some distance 
from the others plunge into the marsh. We found them all. 
Among the 1ecollections of my boyhood is a circumstance 
that was considered quite singular at the time, It was the 
bageing of arabbit, a hawk and a partridge in two shots.. 
The way it happened was this: I was Jooking fur partridge, 
or properly speaking Lshould say ruffed grouse, when the 
dog started a rabbit not three yards from my feet. As it 
disappeared under a brush fence I fired and Ponto went off 
in pursuit. But just as [ was about to pull the trigger a 
partridve started only a little way from me, a spruce bush 
hiding it, and at the same instant ] saw a sharp-shinned 
hawk piss as a shadow before my eye, and heard something 
likea thud and a flop. Well. of course, | had to load (for 
this was'in the days that a boy considered himself happy if 
he had a single barrel muzzleloader), and while I was doing 
this the dog vrought me the rabbit. And now I would look 
for the partridge. I had only gone a few steps beyond the 
spruce bush, where he had started from, when what should 
I see but the hawk, as he glided up frum a log and lit upou 
a dead limb about thirty yards away. Here was a sbot and 
down he came. But now I must load ugain. And what is 
this that the dng is bringing me here? Why, it is tne part- 
ridge, warm and bleeding, a little piece of his breastis eaten 
off and his side torn out. 
So | once killed two gray squirrels under somewhat sin- 
gular circumsiauces, It was in the early morning, and I 
Wus among the nut trees almost as soou as the squirrels were. 
There is one feeding near me high up among tue branches; 
but now be is comiug down, seemingly to pass to another 
itmee. J must watch him and sight him along the branches 
until he is about to jump. Now he ison a long limh—take 
him just as lie gets to the end of it. | am following him 
With my eye along the gun barrel. Lut hus he stopped? for 
the sight leaves bis head and comes upon the head of one 
olnuting the other way, I see, I see, thy are smelling noses. 
ane, aud two squirrels at on; shot are mine. and m 
friends, who are so fond of the pretty creatures, will have a 
stuw for dinner, STILLABOY, 
Hilitor Forest and Stream: 
Sume twenty years ago I owned a long-barreled, fair- 
shooting, muzzlrloading rifle. One diy | saw two crows 10 
the corntield pulling the young corn, a trick they are pretty 
handy af, 1 took the rifle and crawled along a fence to get 
Dear enough to the crows for a shut, When not closer than 
150 yards the crows took alarm and rose on the wing. They 
flew high and irom me toward some woods. I stood a 
moment looking at them sailing away, then thought, as the 
rifle had been loaded two or three days, 1 would shoot it off 
aud clean it, 1 raised the breech of the rife to my hip, 
pointed the muzzle generally in the direction of the crows 
and fired, I shot one crow through the bouy and he fell 
dead about 600 yards from where 1 stood. G : 
. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
_ Under the head of *‘Renarkable Shots” I think the follow- 
ing might be worthy of note: 
In 1872, being attached to the engineering force of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, 1 was on the marsh across the 
wilderness that then lay between Fort Abercrombie, on the 
Red, and Fort Rice, on the Missouri rivers. I carried a 
.45-caliber rifle, chambered for the then Govt. cartridge, 70 
grains powder, 490 grains lead. Seeing a fiock of sandhill 
Craues standing in line on the prairie, at a long distance off, 
I raised my rifle to the shoulder and elevating the muzzle at 
about fifteen degrees or so. (lt was far above the ranges of 
my elevating rear sight.) J fired. The flock rose when the 
ound reached them, but in a moment one of the birds 
dropped ont of the string and fell to the ground. I found 
he had been shot through just below the wings. It was a 
large bird and proved a delicious addition to our camp fare 
next day. The distunce must haye been near half a mile. 
Knzorvr. Iowa. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was skirting the edge of a large bush swamp on my right, 
: hill rising toa height of fifty or sixty feet on my left, my 
dog at heel, one pleasant afternoon, when I noticed a quail 
I know whereof I speak, | when sharp to my 
left and behind jumped two quails. 
Checking myself quickly, to my first barrel the bird fell dead 
at twenty yards; my second dropped the bird in the swamp 
after his holding up for short distance. My dog going, as I 
supposed, to retrieve the first bird, passed by and np the hill 
fully forty yards, returning to me with two quail that L had 
killed sitting, with the first on the wing. As none arose 
from that vicinity they were the only birds there. 
One morning when point shooting [ was lying low for a red- 
breasted merganser (or sheldrake, as locally known) that was 
coming up against the wind, when as I arose from my blind 
to shoot, another caught my eye coming across the point from 
behind me and before the wind. Thinkinginstantly to take the 
faster bird first and then throw back for the other, and hay- 
ing given him a liberal forclay and about to pull, I noticed 
the other on a crect line, but’ nearer. Holding my forelay 
for an instant, [ pulled, shooting both birds dead. 
While boat shooting one day on Vineyard Sound, I saw 
coming four or five white-winged coots (or velyet ducks), 
about fifty or sixty feet in the air, and following after at 
forty or fifty yards, just clear of the waler,.a single of the 
same. ‘The former passed out of shot, and as the latter 
commenced to cut in when nearly opposite, I let him get 
well past me, and when at about forty yards distant shot 
him dead. A more surprised sportsman never sat in a boat, 
for at eighty or one hundred yards distant, and fifty feet in 
the air, out tumbled one of those that had just passed. As 
he dove instantly upon striking the water he was probably 
winged and I could only account for it by a shot changing 
its flight from striking the water, which retained remarkable 
I | force for a No. 3 shot. 
I started out from St. Louis with a friend several years 
since for a day’s shooting on the Illinois side, and although it 
was late when our train dropped us, wwe started fo the lake 
for the evening’s shooting, HKeturning to the gunning house 
when too dark to shoot, I sat upon a fallen tree for a 
moment awailing my companion, when the rush of wings 
attracted me, and I saw what I took to be a bunch of ducks 
passing icto the Jake, and a dark object following, I threw 
up and shot at the Jatter, and altbough the shot struck, 
heard no fall, and thought no more of it. The next morn- 
ing we were out before it was light enough for ducks to fly, 
and as I stepped into my blind | noticed several objects 
which, from their rize, I took to be geese, cross a narrow 
band which the sun was vilding in the east and disappear, 
A ininute later, hearing wings, | looked up, and seeing a dark 
object. passing over, 1 shot, hearing my shot strike as the 
night before and no thud, About noon, having wounded a 
mallard that set his wings for a strip of timber about a 
quarter of a mile distant, I thought as ducks were not then 
woying, | would walk over and see if there was any water 
there. Just as I entered the timber before me lay a fine 
goose, still limp, with a single shot in his breast—the result 
.f my shot of the early morning. Finding neither water 
nor my duck, | returned, agrecing, however, with my friend 
that | had no reason for complaint, I then went a little 
way up the lake to a point that ducks frequently passed 
near, and after sitting there a few minutes a teal passed 
back of me and I shot him down into the grass. In going 
to pick him up I stumbled upon my goose of the wight 
previous, which, having been wounded, iad crawled ashore 
and died, 
On one occasion when out for a day’s coot shooting with 
my friend 5. A. F,, of Boston (one of the best shots Lever 
saw Taise a gun upon a duck), our best shot was at a large 
V-shaped flock, wnich we took in such a position as to rake 
one arm und across the otter, expecting a dozen to fall to 
our first barrels. Each shot at the same instant, but not a 
bird fell at first discharge; yel at the hotel we were told 
that we had the largest bay of the season, which was then 
past its height. At a similar snot with a compunion we 
biought down fourteen, using Nos. 12 and 15 Se a 
Fatmouru, Mass. 
Editor Forest and Stream: ; 
When 1 was a lad, in Vermont, 1 was one day walking 
along an old wood road with the brush very thick on either 
side. Looking through the bushes 1 saw a partridge sitting 
high up on a loga tew rods away Iwas too young to 
realize the enormity of a ‘pot .shot,” so | covered the bird 
euretully and fired. When the smoke cleared away I saw 
my partridge sitving in the same place. I was very much 
astquished and gave her the other barrel, I then walked 
over to the log, and there I found two dead partridges lying 
close together on tbe further side of the log. 
Pditor Forest and Stream: 
My experience with the gun, an old flintlock musket, com- 
menced further back than my memory runs clear. But my 
first partridge (ruffed grouse) und my first rabbit (in import- 
ance far outweighipg my first buck), were epochs of such 
interest that none of the attending circumstances are blotted 
from memory’s tablet, nor ever will be, while fond recollec- 
tion returns to the scenes of my childhood. 
Il made a remarkable shot more than fifty years ago. Cir- 
cumstances; Corn planted, Crows plenty and destructive to 
the sprouting corn. Scene: Cornfield; a single crow on 
fence stake, henhawk on next stake; country boy with big 
mutket creeping behind stoue wall ruuning at right angles 
to the rail fence on which the marauders were sitting. 
Favorable situation gained, arguments were weighed pro and 
con, crow or hawk, which shal! it be; hawks kill the chick- 
ens, crows pull the corn. Verdict: Gorn has 1t, crow must 
die. Noise und smoke. Smoke passes off. Crow and hawk 
both in their death struggles, though twelve feet apart and 
not 1n line while silting on the fence stake. 
One more. Lightning strikes a tall hemlock in the Adi- 
rondacks, and kills 4 porcupine sitting at its foot. Saw the 
lightning stroke and the dead porcupine, as did others. 
J. H. D. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some years ago I had a rifle pistol, 13 inches long in the 
barrel, muzzleloader, globe sights, about 63 conical bullets 
to the pound, With this accurate little weapon, which did 
not weigh two pounds, I killed two pigeons at one shot at 
100 yards distance, a yellow-winged woodpecker at 120 
yards, 2 muskrat. at 140 yards, and squirrels continually 
from the tops of the highest trees. On one occasion I put 
seven bullets into a 6-inch ring at 220 yurds, and in the old 
days of turkey matches ] killed many a turkey at 150 yards 
with the same little gun, without even a skeleton stock. 
The last double shot I ever made with « smoothbore was 
at ducks, In an open place, covered by patches of low 
weeds, I saw three black ducks feeding. 1 paddled to within 
about 80 yards, not an inch less, and not being able to get 
any closer, I ‘‘let drive” at them. Just as the shot went off 
a flock of about fourteen blue-winged teal arose about 40 
yards off, and with the second barrel | brought down seven 
of thvir number. On going over to where the black ducks 
were when I fired at them, 1 found all three stone dead. 
The first barrel discharged was loaded with a No. 4 Bly wire 
cartridge. ALGONQUIN. 
Orrawa, Canada. 
Hidiior Forest and Stream; 
lam glad to see the boys are beginning to tell the truth 
about their shooting. In the first place, because it is always 
well to be good and George Washingtonian, and secondly, 
because it is just as well as not to be believed occasionally. 
Your teaders are spertsmen, and when contributors talk 
about killing every time or at a hundred yards, most of the 
former lay aside the articles of the latter, or mutter to them- 
selves a short, but uncomplimentary adjective implying want 
of veracity or intelligence. I was brought up as an upland 
shot, and acquired my education on quail, woodecock or par- 
tridge. When the scarcity of these reduced me to the infer- 
jor sport of the water, I made some queer work of it. Before 
this fall 1 used to read of the men who killed every quail 
that got up before them, and could produce a woodcock for 
every cap; but noticed that as a general thing I brought 
home as many birds as my companiuns, althongh I never 
pretended I could average over half my shots as kills. The 
men who kill every time are paper knights, or only shoot at 
about one bird out of three that rise, But to my contribu- 
tion of “‘wonderful shots.” 
J was once in my blind waiting for ducks when two mal- 
lards came along. They were evidently a pair, for the fore- 
most one wesa female and the rear one a male. They 
were flying at least ten feet apart and the second was two 
feet below the first. They were a long shot off, between 
forty and fifty yards—let your hundred yarders note my 
words —and I aimed’ deliberately at the head bird, intending 
to take the second with my other barrel. I fired, but the 
object of my evil intentions moved majestically onward, not 
suiticiently scared to hurry herself nor to dodge. She evi- 
dently did not know that there were any sportsmen abvut, 
did not seem to hear the report, and as for the shot they did 
not go her way. But the second bird, the male, ten feet behind 
the one I had fired at, doubled up, turned over and came 
down with a “swash” that drove the spray in a sheet toward 
high heaven. I was so sturtled at this unexpected result 
that I stood open-mouthed and did not even fire my second 
barrel, but a friend of mine who was in a blind a few hundred 
yards away, pushed out in his boat and came over to me to 
cone ieenate me on my “‘splendid shot.” “You killed him 
dead as could be,” he cried enthusiastically, ‘'one of 
the neatest things I ever saw, the other was too far off I 
suppose, although I did hope fer a minute that you were 
goiug to make a double of it.” I did not utter any exculpa- 
tions. J have made so many good shots without getting 
credit for them that I ought to have the benefit of an ocea- 
sional fluke. You see the wind was blowing hard and I was 
not up in the art of ‘‘holding ahead.” 
My other memorable shot was at a yelper. Mr. Francis, 
son of the famous life-boat mventor, was in the blind with 
me, and if he sees this he may recall the circumstances. He 
was out of the stand, which had been built on the meadow, 
and had left his gun, when a fine fat yelper came roaring 
into the stools as though he owned the world. Ou that day 
the wind was blowing a gale, so much so that the bird had 
all he could do to face it, and just hung over the stools, using 
nearly his entire strength to bold himself poised in the air. 
He rested thc-re practically motionless, as much so as though 
he were sitling on a branch, and was near enouch to kill 
easily. When I raised my gun and covered him I did so with 
the absolute certainty that be would come down heels over 
head into the grass. I pulled the trigger and dropped the 
butt from my shoulder sure there would be nothing more to 
do. ‘To my surprise the bird did not move; he remained in 
the same spot beating his wings, but no more affected by my 
efforts than though | had been at some other occupation, 80 
Iraised the *‘death-dealing tube” ouce more, and drew, if 
anything, a finer bead on his head. Why! if I had had a 
tific, I should have expected to cut his neck or knock his 
brains out, But again no result whatever followed. There 
he stood like some enchanted creature, or what they 
call among- gunners when the same happens wiin 
wildfow], “witch geese.” It seemed as though pow- 
der and shot ha lost their efficacy, and I felt 
as if the best thing tv do would be to fling the gun at him, 
But Mr. Francis, who had been cowering down in the grass 
both to keep out of sight and give me 4 fair chance, called 
lo me to tuke his gun which was lving beside me. This lL 
did, and fired botu barrels with precisely the same creditable 
consequences, and the fine fat yelper went off, hardly know- 
ing that he had been within peril of bis life, possibly un- 
aware that the fireworks had been gotten up for his especial 
benefit. The reason of all this was very simple, but not 
what an upland shooter would find out at once. I held 
straight enough in all cases, but did not allow for the wind. 
As every duck hunter uaderstands when the wind is strong 
enough to retard the flight of the bird, just as much allow- 
ance must be made for it as for his flight under full head- 
ay. 
I think those were the two most ‘‘wonderful shots’’ I ever 
made, and I describe {hem to your readers as a sort of en- 
couragement 1n telling the truth. Ropart B. Roosevext. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
An old lawyer friend of mine, Major Knapp, took a dead 
rest with au old long single-barre] shotgun at a chicken forty 
yards distant on a brush pile and banged away. About half 
way to the brush pile he picked up # chicken that walked 
into the line of fire just as he pulled trigger. Beyond the 
brush pile he found the chicken that he aimed at, and hear-— 
ing something rustling in the brush pile, he looked and saw 
a rabbit giying his last kick. Bang away again, oe “= 
CARROLLTON, Ill. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I wonder what sort of a cannon ‘‘Cape Rock” uses to kill 
squirrels and other small game with, that he cuts the head 
clean off every time; does he shoot it from the shoulder, or 
is it mounted on wheels? It seems to me if he could always 
“place his bullet in any desired spot,” such as cutting the 
cord behind a deer’s ear, etc., it would haye been better to 
have creased his squirrels at the base of the brain; there- 
by paralyzing them without mutilating the carcass. This 
method would have saved him the head for the table, the 
head being generally cousidered the choice part of a squirrel, 
Where he speaks of ‘“‘boring through” the half of seven- 
, 
