March 5, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



107 



BATTERY-SHOOTING. 



Editor Forest and Stream. 



I read with much interest your criticism on my article on 

 the. above -subject, also the reniatks of '"Sagamore" and 

 "Ten Bore. " In replying to yout criticism 1 will first say 

 that you mistake me when you say that I attribute your op- 

 position to battery-shooting to a selfish motive. This is not 

 the case with you, for, in the first place, the Forest and 

 Stream baa always shown the utmost fairness in all discus- 

 sions, regardless of the views advocated by itself ; and, in the 

 second place, the surroundings are different when batteries 

 are used in your local waters. I suppose the bays and sounds 

 along Long Island are similar in character to those of New 

 jersey, that is, surrounded by large bodies of marsh lands, 

 the points and ;bais of which are open to those who rise 

 earliest in the morning. If this be the case, aud I know it is 

 aloug the New Jersey coast, you could not he accused of sel- 

 fish motives in advocating the abolition of battery-shooting. 

 In regard to what you say (and the same reply will answer 

 ■•Sagamore") about stopping battery-shooting "because it is 

 the most successful way of killing wildfowl," you might re- 

 quest, with equal justice, that all the best shots should give 

 upshootine, or only shoot once a week or once a month, as 

 they kill more ducks than the poor shots. 



Now in reply to "Sagamore." In the first place, one 

 might suppose from his description of batteries (as well as 

 yours) that they were some terrible instrument of destruction, 

 something in the nature of a gaffing gun that only had to be 

 put out in the water to slay poor fowl by teus of thousands, 

 being wound up to ruu a certain time, killing aud driving 

 off all game where used. 

 "Sagamore's" description 

 of the tender is also very 

 amusing. Although draw- 

 ing almost entirely -on his 

 imagination for his points, 

 he has done well in the 

 story line-, but as he says 

 of my suggestion of hav- 

 ing "all shooting put a 

 stop to except battery- 

 shooting," he is of course 

 Joking, as in the tirst place 

 it is not the habit to ' 'tend" 

 the battery with a sailboat, 

 the use of which would 

 prevent many fowl coming 

 near the battery while the 

 crew were picking up the 

 "thousands" of birds killed 

 by these "infernal ma- 

 chines." Often, indeed, 

 when the best shooting is 

 to he had, there is not wind 

 enough to sail to advan- 

 tage, consequently row- 

 boats are used almost uni- 

 versally to pick up the 

 dead fowl. The yacht or 

 scow, as the case may be, is 

 occasionally sailed round 

 to break up the Jarge beds 

 of ducks when they form 

 too near the box, or in the 

 line of flight, and this does 

 no harm when the fowl are 

 not shot at from the yacht, 

 nor is the abuse of this 

 practice of sailing up the 

 ducks necessary to the use 

 of sinkboats, indeed I have 

 never seen really good 

 shooting result from it, 

 and I know it is only prac- 

 ticed in this section when 

 the lowl will not riy, which 

 is often the case on line 

 days. It is accusing the 

 box- shooters of lacking the 

 commonest kind of com- 

 mon sense to accuse them 

 of keeping the fowl so con- 

 tiuuallyharasscd as to d rive 

 them entirely off the feed- 

 ing ground. 



Finally, in regard to this 

 matter, let metellyou what 



took place no later than last week. One of our most invet- 

 erate point-shooters was in the "narrows" I spoke of iu my 

 last letter, with a man iu a canoe, sailing up the ducks in 

 the river so that they might show him shooting in the nar- 

 rows. I suppose, though, that a boat sent out by a point- 

 shooter does not scare the ducks away. How different 

 would it hav^ been if it had been a box -shooter's boat. The 

 ducks would doubtless have flown entirely out of the river 

 never to return. 



"Sagamore's" statement that the single ducks fly over the 

 points, and the flocks go to the boxes is so diametrically 

 opposed to not alone my experience, but that of every box 

 aud point shooter with whom I have conversed on the sub- 

 ject, that I am inclined to think be must be joking on tins 

 subject, as he accuses me of doing, in regard to confining 

 the shooting to batteries alone. It is so rare for large flocks 

 of ducks, except early in the fall, to come to the box, as to 

 be a matter of surprise wheu they do come. I do not mean 

 to say they never do', but that it is the rare exception, 

 whereas, in flying by a point, or over a bar, if the wind is 

 blowing hard enough to set the single ducks on the point, it 

 does the same for the flocks. . 



"Sagamore" makes a general statement of the destructive- 

 ness of box shooting, while I have shown that in this vicinity 

 at least no had results have followed the use of boxes. In 

 the cases I cited shooting from the shore was almost entirely 

 abandoned, and this, remember, when tlujrewere no boxes 

 in our waters, it being unlawful to use them. It was a case 

 of trying some other way of shooting or giving it up alto- 

 gether. The law was repealed aud boxes came into use. 

 We have been using them here now some eight or ten years, 

 and have now and have had for the last three or four years 

 more ducks in our waters than we had before the boxes came 

 into use. Knowing these to be facts, I deny "Sagamore's" 

 statement that if I have been shooting for thirty-five years I 

 must know "that the use of boxes drives away the fowl." 

 It seems to me that the decrying of box-shooting as destroy- 

 ing the greatest number of ducks is simply nonsense. Taking 



the whole number of shooters, tboso who use boxes are in a, 

 very small minority, and while it is true that out of a given 

 number of shooters those using batteries doubtless kill more 

 fowl than a like number who do not, yet out of the whole 

 number of fowl destroyed comparatively few can be charged 

 to the box -shooter, on 'the principle of "why do white sheep 

 eat more than black ones? the answer to which is obvious. 



"Sagamore" was unfortunate in his illustration of the 

 shooting in Sandusky Bay, if his real object is, as he would 

 have us to suppose, the protection of wildfowl, as, after the 

 boxes had reduced the number of birds killed to 1,200, I 

 should have supposed he ought to have, encouraged them to 

 continue. But what does be do? Stop the boxes and then 

 kill 9,000 But this doesn't injure shooting, 1 suppose he 

 thmks, as they were killed from the shore. If the facts are 

 as he states about the number of ducks thrown away at Nor- 

 folk and on the canal from Currituck, it was a sinful waste 

 of game; but it seems to me to argue that the shooting com- 

 mences too early in that locality, . But it can hardly lie used 

 as an argument against box-shooting, as the abuse of a thing 

 is no argument against its use; and is he sure that none of 

 the aforesaid thousands were killed by other means than by 

 the use of boxes V "Sagamore" asks me if I have ever heard 

 of "riparian rights." I ought to know something about 

 them, as 1 have all my life been interested in property in the 

 water and now own about a mile of water-front. His allu- 

 sion to riparian rights is annisiug when spoken of in connec- 

 tion with sinkboat-shootiug. I wish he would explain 

 himself. If he mean3 that any property owner has any con- 

 trol of where a shooter may anchor his box in waters where 

 it is lawful to use them, I would like to see bis authorities. 



ON THE RUNWAY. 



From a Sketch by R. H, S. 

 " Well, I Hear the Dogs at Last, but thef are a Good* Way 



It is evident to me that "Sagamore's" knowledge is like that 

 of many men who write against battery-shooting, not derived 

 from practical experience but only from hearsay. His des- 

 cription of the discomforts incident to the use of boxes, as 

 well as "Ten-Bore's," might lead one to think that they had 

 been using boxes as the most industrious market gunners do. 

 A doleful picture can be drawn of any kind of wildfowl 

 shooting. What can be more uncomfortable, for instance, 

 than a northwest point on a cold winter's day with a gale of 

 wind going, spray flying all over the blind, and making ice 

 as fast it touches one? Or a muddy point on a rainy day? I 

 think my box a paradise by comparison. 



The whole truth about box-shooting I think is this, that 

 boxes, as a rule, are used by those who shoot for market, 

 and the amateur sportsman can see no good in them for this 

 reason, but imagines everything evil of the boxes and of 

 those who use them, and, in respect to the latter, I am afraid 

 too often with truth; but we must remember that all game 

 laws to be successful must meet with the support of a 

 majority of the community. In framing game laws it seems 

 to me that we ought to consult those who live in the cities 

 and who are fond of eating game, but have no chance to 

 kill it, and if the chance were offered, have not the desire. 

 These people as members of the community have a right to 

 their share of game, and admitting, for the sake of argu- 

 ment, all you "bring against battery-shooting, it, even you 

 will admit, is a far better way of supplying the market than 

 the use of swivel guns, night, light shooting, netting and such 

 ahominable practices. That was why I said in my former 

 letter that the fact that a man sold his game should not be 

 used against him so long as he got it in a legitimate way. 



The over-killing of ducks from boxes is an evil that soon 

 corrects itself, as instead of falling into the trap, as you 

 seem to tbink they do, tbe fowl soon learn to take good care 

 of themselves, and an old canvasback or redhead can tell a 

 "layout" as soon as you could. Boxes are only used when 

 other means fail. Where fowl can successfully he killed 

 from the shore no one would wish to shoot out of a box for 



amusement. This is true here. We have no other way to 

 kill fowl; boxes have been introduced here, remember, after 

 other means have failed, and shore-shooting did fail here 

 before boxes were used. Now if it be necessary for the good 

 of the fowl to limit the number of shooting days, treat all 

 alike, and say that no manner of shooting shall take place 

 on the off days. Advocate this and you will see how the 

 shore-shooters will oppose it. "Sagamore" shows how sensi- 

 tive, he is on tire subject when he talks about communism in 

 connection with what I said about throwing the points open 

 if box -shooting is to be stopped, and which I repeat he ought 

 in all fairness to consent to before, he' can claim to be disin- 

 terested in his opposition to battery-shooting. While I have, 

 admitted that, a majority of boxes are used by market-shoot- 

 ers, such is not the case in this vicinity, for out of the fifteen 

 or twenty boxes owned in this and the two adjoining coun- 

 ties, not "one is used by market-shooters. We do not "lie in 

 water, snow and ice," nor with the "rain and snow beating 

 in our faces." This is, no doubt, what those do who shoot 

 for a living, and who, if they were in a point or bar, would 

 lie out in the rain and snow and have the cold water freeze 

 on them, exposing them to "pneumonia, consumption and 

 rheumatism," as" they do in the box. As we shoot for 

 amusement, when it storms too hard up goes the gun, held 

 across the head, soon the yacht is alongside, and in a com- 

 fortable cabin with pleasant companions, a nice hot punch or 

 some similar comfort, we manage to wait until the storm is 

 over. 



On this point I said before: "Of course, where good shoot- 

 ing can be had from the shore over decoys, as is the case, I 

 am told, iu the Rush, Gunpowder and other rivers in that 

 vicinity, it is very well not 

 to use boxes, as there is no 

 comparison between sit- 

 ting in a comfortable blind 

 on the shore and the hard 

 work necessary in setting 

 and taking up your box on 

 a cold day. But here, tee 

 ease is entirely different, 

 and I would and do much 

 prefer all the work and 

 discomfort necessary to 

 box-shooting, to sitting in 

 ever so comfortable a blind 

 on the shore and getting 

 nothing. As to point and 

 bar-shooting, as compared 

 to deooy-shooting, to my 

 taste (aud of course it is all 

 a matter of taste) there is 

 just the difference between 

 going into the field with 

 dc_s and being without 

 them, In other words, a 

 great deal of the pleasure, 

 to me, consists iu seeing 

 and working the ducks up 

 to the decoys." 



In regard to what you 

 say about the proposed 

 move to open the waters of 

 North Carolina to non-res- 

 idents, 1 have only this to 

 say, that in any law allow- 

 ing the use of boxes, there 

 ought to be, a clause pre- 

 venting their being an- 

 chored so as to interfere 

 with the shooting points. 

 This can easily be done 

 by -specifying that they 

 shall not be used, say, 

 within a quarter or half 

 mile of any known shoot- 

 ing point; but I imagine. 

 that the North Carolinians 

 will take care of them- 

 selves in this matter. 



In conclusion, if I am on- 

 ly to kill a certain amount 

 of game during the year, I 

 prefer to have a few days 

 of good sport to going out 

 every day during the sea- 

 son and killing two, three 

 or half a dozen ducks each 

 day, as the case may be. 

 For this reason I advocate box-shooting, and there are 

 many like me in this locality. I will add that to write dis- 

 interestedly on this subject one ought not to advocate the 

 abolishiug of all ways of shooting but his own, and that not 

 to he interfered with. Sinkboat. 



Easton, Md. 



Philadelphia Notes.— Philadelphia. March 2.— Open 

 violation of the game law is being earned on here without 

 fear or restraint, the dealers evidently knowing there is uo 

 active organization to interfere with them. The bays on the 

 Jersey coast have been frozen up since the middle of Janu- 

 ary, and the black ducks which remain with us all winter 

 have had a hard time of it. They ate extremely poor and 

 unfit to be shot, but notwithstanding this they are killed by 

 the baymen who send them to market. There is no species of 

 game that has not suffered greatly this winter. A duck 

 shooting friend of mine received a dispatch to-day from 

 Franklin City, Va., as follows; "The flats are covered with 

 ducks and geese, come." Thus it may be seen the fowl are 

 beginning to move north. Their stay in southern waters 

 haVl better be delayed, as in many of our rivers in places, it 

 is said, the water is frozen solid to tbe bottom. We are all 

 hoping for a gradual thaw, which at this writing is taking 

 place. — Homo. 



Vermont Deer— Colebrook, Feb. 2d.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Snow is three and one half feet deep in the north 

 of this State and the crust-hunters have begun as usual up 

 there. Last year at least seventy-five deer were killed by 

 crust-hunters in the North, and the prospect is fair for an- 

 other spring as favorable for tbe skin-hunters. Vermont law 

 makers would delay the date of the extermination of deer in 

 that State aud aid 'New Hampshire in the enforcement of 

 game laws if some one is sent to look after the game on the 

 broad waters of the Nalheghan River. Venison found in 

 New Hampshire that is killed in Vermont is not considered 

 bad eating, as their law now reads. — Ned Norton. 





i 



Off Yet." 



