86 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug. S?, 1885. 



day tlie brolliers determined to cliange camp, without any 

 intimation to us of their puipose, and on our return at night 

 •we found the place silent and deserted. Fastened to a post 

 wliich had supported a corner of our game shed, was a per- 

 emptory order for us to take down the shed and remove it 

 and whatever else i-emained and bring it down to the new 

 camp, which we had to seek; and the notice was signed by 

 the firm of E. H. & J. Ball. Night had set in, and being 

 fatigued and hungiy, we paid no attention to the order and 

 commenced Imntiug for the camp-fire. On arriving. Ball, 

 .seeing we had not obeyed the mandate, would hear no ex- 

 planations. Tt was then that his crankiness became appa- 

 ]-ent. That one of a party where all were equal should arro- 

 gate to himself the right to command his companions seemed 

 absiird in the extreme. He stormed until bedtime, but we 

 paid no attention to him, as it was evident the two would act 

 togetlier. When we retired at night Eadburg noticed that 

 Ball secreted a hunting knife in his lu'east, a very unusual 

 thing, Radburg, giving me the wink, suggested that we 

 together visit a deer lick hard by. This we did, and on the 

 way he told me of Ball's actions, and we concluded he con- 

 templated some evil. We carefidly loaded our guns and put 

 on fresh caps; returned to camp and retired, but did not dis- 

 robe. Three times during the night we observed Ball rise on 

 his elbow and gaze intently first at one and then at the other. 

 We .slept "on our arms," a's the soldiers say. When morn- 

 ing came the crank was as polite and affable as one could 

 wish; but his treachery was apparent, and we determined to 

 return home. So, when the firm left for the woods, we 

 boarded my canoe and started for Hodgson's Landing, where 

 we took steamer for Vicksbm-g and thence to New Orleans. 



With the exception of the episode referred to, I was much 

 pleased with my hunt and returned fifteen pounds heavier in 

 weight by ray month's sojourn in the Tazoo country. Our 

 spoils amounted to seventeen deer, be.sides wildfowl, etc. 



James D. Jacksok. 



THE CHOICE OF GUNS.— I!. 



it'^pHE world moA-es." Improvement and progress are 

 Jl everywhere visible, and nowhere more noticeably 

 than in our firearms. A quarter of a centurj^ ago "Frank 

 Forester" wrote that the days of the flintlock were passed; 

 that it had been superseded and displaced by the percussion 

 gun; that "the most inveterate supporters of the old flash- 

 in-the-pan sy.stem had been compelled to abandon their preju- 

 dices on the subject and conform to the progressive improve- 

 ment of the arm," 



But notwithstanding the enlightened views entertained by 

 this writer he could not keep step with the march of im- 

 provement, nor anticipate the future development of inven- 

 tions then in their infancy. When he wrote, Lefaucheus 

 had but just applied the breechloading principle to sporting 

 guns. "Frank Forester" quotes "Stonehenge's" description 

 and praise of the new arm, but lie avows that the praise is 

 to him inexplicable, and proceeds at some length to ridicule 

 the invention. "This gun," says he, "has no nipple, no 

 possibility of being loaded and tired except with the iden- 

 tical cartridge prepared for it, which is, and can be, only 

 prepared at the shop which supplies the gun. It is true the 

 cartridge case remains in the gun and can be withdrawn 

 and recapped and recharged a number of times; but apart 

 from the inconvenience of lugging about on your person a 

 hundred or two, if you expect a good day's sport, of these 

 cartridges - since the idea of a sportsman sitting down in the 

 middle of a snipe bog or a cock brake to recharge his cart- 

 ridges out of a powdei and shot magazine, wliich he must 

 also carry with him is preposterous— what op earth is the 

 shooter to do if he takes it into his head to visit the Hima- 

 layas, or the Rocky Mountains, or Canada, or the Cape, or 

 any other distant shooting ground (by no means impos.sible 

 to or unattempted by the British sportsman), where cart- 

 ridges for the breechloading double barrels certain!}^ are not 

 to be found? Is he to carry with him, in heaven's name, a 

 hundred barrels of cartridges on camel back, or mule back, 

 or his own back, with the consciousness that these iudispen- 

 sables once used up his double barrel is of less use than a 

 broomstick? The want of simplicity is enough to ruin any 

 invention; and it needs no prophet to foretell that this must 

 be inoperative except as a pretty plaything to be used at 

 home."* 



These sentiments were not, however, peculiar to Herbert ; 

 tliey found general expre,s,sion among the writers of that day. 

 Kor are similar sentiments peculiar to Herbert's time, but 

 they find expres,sion in later works. In a fresh edition of a 

 book published a few years ago, the writer describes with 

 some minuteness the lever under-guard, pin-fire, breech- 

 loader; he insists there have been "no decided improvements 

 in the original Lef'aucheux model except in the modification 

 of the machinery and a convenient method of separating the 

 barrels from the'stock ;" he expresses his doubts whether the 

 central-fire cartridge is an improvement on the pin-fire, and 

 avers that if the pin-fire guu had come into general use before 

 the introduction of the central-fire, the latter would never 

 have been accepted.! 



Indeed, improvements in firearms have followed so fast 

 one upon another, that the breechloader described in any 

 American work with which 1 am acquainted, how late so- 

 ever the edition, is not the breechloader of to-day, in which 

 alone the sportsman, as sportsman, and not as antiquarian, 

 is interested. The lapse of half a decade of years has hither- 

 to been sufticient to render any published description of 

 breechloading fowling pieces ob,solete; and if the future 

 holds in store for us improvements so important and so 

 numerous as the past has furnished, the fate of what is here 

 written will scarcely be different from that of descriptive 

 publications now obsolete. Notwithstanding the many ob- 

 jections that have been urged against proposed improve- 

 ments and the many predictions of failure, the breechloader 

 has displaced the muzzleloader, the top action has superseded 

 the bottom-action, the center-fire has crowded out the pin- 

 fire and the hammerless is fast taking the place of the ham- 

 mer gun. Verily, the world does move. 



And so 1 may safely assert that the days of the muzzle- 

 loader are "dwindled to their shortest span," and that for 

 quail shootijig, or any other sort of shooting to which a shot- 

 gun is adapted, you should have, or at least it is better to 

 have, a breechloader and not a muzzleloader; that this breech- 

 loader should have a top lever and not a bottom lever; that it 

 should be a center-fire and not a pin-fire; and, if you can 

 afford it, that it should be a hammerless gun and not a gun 

 with hammers. 



I shall not endeavor to discuss the manufacture of fire- 

 arms nor enter into the details of their mechanical structure, 

 for, were I competent to the task, such discussion would be 



* "Manual for Young Sportsmen," 89-71. 

 t ' Florida and Game Vv'^ater Birds," 163-182. 



almost useless to you as a sportsman; but I shall freely give 

 such opinions as experience, observation and study have en- 

 abled me to form, together with the reasons for these opinions 

 when it is deemed necessary to state them and when they 

 can be stated without too great prolixity; and these opinions, 

 you may be assured, are unbiased and uninfluenced by any 

 prejudice for or against any gun or gunmaker or any sort of 

 obligation to any. I shall speak, as one sportsman to an- 

 other, my plain thoughts, without arrogation, leaving expe- 

 rience to prove the correctness or incorrectness of my judg- 

 ments. 



Twenty-eight years ago a high authority in sporting mat- 

 ters asserted that if a man intended purchasing a gun below 

 one hundred dollars he should by all means get an American 

 and not an imported gun; and this opinion has been time and 

 again repeated by later writers, and to-day finds constant 

 utterance in the "journals devoted to field sports. Since 

 "Frank Forester" made this statement American gun-makers 

 have made much progress— taken great strides in their art — 

 of which those who reiterate the statement take no note. 

 The statement is of itself still trae, as true as ever it was, aud 

 twice and thrice as true; but the converse of it — that above a 

 hundred dollars a man should buy an imported and not an 

 American gun — is not true now, even though it was true a 

 quarter of a century ago. For my opinion is fixed stead- 

 fastly that no American citizen should nov be counselled to 

 buy an imported gun of any price, no matter how costly, 

 unless he is willing and able to purchase one of the highest 

 grade and finest make, such as Purdey or Jjancaster or Dou- 

 gall, or a few others of the great Loudon makers can alene 

 turn out. Up to two hundred dollars certainly, and even up 

 to two hundred and fifty or three hundred dollars I believe 

 you can get an American made gun that is equal in every 

 respect to any foreign gun to be had for the same money. I 

 know that this is not the current opinion, or, at any rate, 

 that, this is not the current expressed opinion; that it is the 

 fashion to sneer at American guns and to praise to the skies 

 the so-called "works of art" that are put upon the market by 

 Birmingham manufacturers as fine guns and sold at fancy 

 prices. 



It is pleasant to see a sportsman take piide in his gun; it 

 is a good indication, fair evidence that he is a true sports- 

 man; and 1 would not say aught to detract from this love of 

 the beautiful and artistic in firearms. 'But I am weary of this 

 affectation to discuss so many beauties in a thing for no rea- 

 son except its foreign origin. I am weary of this deprecia- 

 tion of an ai-ticle simply because it is home-mafle. I am 

 weary of hearing nothing but praise of the English and 

 fault-finding of the American guns. I am weary of hearing 

 language used years ago by writers on this subject and ap- 

 plied by them only to the very finest London-made guns 

 which sell in the market at five hundred dollars or more, 

 repeated and applied to Birmingham guns, which sell at 

 retail for less than half that price, and to which the original 

 writers had no idea of applying their language. In plain 

 words, I am tired of hearing that Clark & Sneider, or Le- 

 f ever , or Hasdell, or one or two other American makers, cannot 

 and do not turn out, at an equal or lower price, guns in every 

 respect equal, if not superior, to any Clabrough, or Daly, or 

 Green, or Scott, or Greener, or Westley Richards gun that 

 ever has been sold in these United States for two hundred 

 and fifty dollars or under. And I wish to distinctly avow 

 that price and intrinsic value considered, I do not "believe 

 in the absolute and unapproachable superiority of the Eng- 

 lish guns." I do believe that there are now, and for the future 

 will be, guns made by American makers that are and will 

 continue to be" equal to the same grade of English guns.* 

 T do not so assert because I am an American, or to please 

 the patriotic American sportsman, and while proud of the 

 achievements of American gimmakers, I am sure my judg- 

 ment is not warped by feeling, and that so far as my knowl- 

 edge of the subject extends, I can do equal and exact justice 

 between the foreign and the home manufacturer. 



And here it maybe well to say that the very highest grade 

 London guns are, beyond question, the most beautiful, as 

 they are the most costly weapons in the world; and if you 

 are willing to pay a good round price for the gun itself— its 

 full value— and as much more for external show, buy a finest 

 grade London-made gun. It is true that thirty-five per cent. 

 ad mlorem will be duty, and a considerable additional sum 

 freight, insurance, consul fees, port dues, and the like ; but 

 I am assuming that you want the best and finest gun to be 

 had for money; that you are wUling to pay for display, and 

 that the price is of no consequence so that you succeed in 

 getting what you want. In this case, I say, order from one 

 of the old London establishments, whose fame is world wide, 

 one of its finest guns, and you will have as handsome a 

 weapon as the world contains and as good a one. 



But the number of American sportsmen that can afford to 

 indulge in a luxury so expensive as the finest London gun is 

 small indeed. More of them buy guns at one hundred 

 dollars and under than go over that price; and for American 

 sportsmen I write, and my purpose is to give them such aid 

 as»l am capable of giving, to getting the best value for thBir 

 money. 



If, as is usually the case with American sportsmeq, you 

 desire to purchase a gun for its intrinsic value, 1 have no 

 hesitancy in saying that, let its price be what it may, you 

 will get a better and more serviceable gun— more intrinsic 

 value— for vour money by buying an American gun than you 

 can possibly get by buying any imported gun of any make 

 whatever. Up to a certain price— which is variable, but 

 which may be stated to be from one hundred and fifty to 

 two hundred dollars— every dollar added to the price of a 

 gun adds a dollar's worth of gun; but every dollar paid be- 

 yond the one hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars is so 

 much paid for external show. When you go beyond three 

 hundred dollars — that is, beyond one hundred and fifty or 

 two hundred dollars for gun, and beyond one hundred or 

 one hundred and fifty dollars for display— you should buy a 

 London gun; but up to something like that price— unless you 

 are willing to pay for the very handsomest and most costly 

 finish— your investment in an American gun will be the 

 better one. 



And there is even such a thing as buying the cheaper 

 grades of guns for show. I have even heard men talk and 

 have read what they have written, about the "exquisite fin- 

 ish," "perfect balance," "elegant proportions," f!/* ^'ffem ad 

 nauseum, of low-priced imported guns, and have heard and 

 read their assertions that American guns of similar price 

 lacked these essentials of what they were pleased to term 

 "works of art." 



If you are bent upon display, and have not the means to 

 indulge in the genuine article, but must resort to pinchbeck, 

 you may, for someihmg like fifty dollars, buy a Birmingham 



*See "Gloan," Breechloader, contra, p. 34. 



or Belgian shooting-iron covered all over with cheap engrav- 

 ing; but, if you are alive after firing it off, don't sav f told 

 you to shoot it. Such a gun may never burst, but it is liable 

 to burst; and if it fails, it is not the maker's fault. It is 

 fully as dangerous to the .shooter as to the game, and in all 

 probability will, at the best, shake to pieces after a year's 

 usage. The country is flooded with the class of guns to 

 which I refer, marked with all sorts of fictitious names, such 

 as Manton, Moore, H. Richards, W. Richards, Saxton, 

 Arden, Evans, and the like ad infinUum. They arc made to 

 deceive, and the dealers know it; they are accessories before 

 the fact to every death occurring from the defective construc- 

 tion of the guns. Yet, for paltry gain, they continue to set 

 these man-traps for the unwary. No informed man will buy 

 or use one of them, but the inexperienced are daily deceived 

 with them. Avoid them as you would an infernal machine 

 •set to explode at your approach. Buy no gun, under any 

 circumstances, upon which the maker is ashamed to put his 

 name. Buy no gun marked with a fictitious name, whether 

 it be a "Moore t% Harris" hammerless made by W. & 0. 

 Scott & Sons, or the vilest "Moore" or "Manton " that ever 

 was turned out by a German factory. Be not deceived by 

 the "ginger-bread work" placed on low-priced imported 

 guns, for you may be sure that beneath the "engi'avlng," 

 and concealed by it, are serious defects— dangerous^ deficien- 

 cies— in the weapon. You cannot buy a reliable and durable 

 imported gun at fifty dollars or under; but from American 

 manufacturers, such as the Parker Brothers, the Colt Fire- 

 arms Manufacturing Co., the Remington Firearms Co., 

 L. C. Smith, Harrington & Richardson,' the American Arms 

 Company, and perhaps one or two others, can be had at a 

 net price of fifty dollars or under, a plain, sound, serviceable 

 and safe machine-made hammer gun that will do you good 

 service and will be worth every dollar you put into it. It 

 will not, like the imported gun of the same price, be covered 

 with engraving, but will be perfectly plain; it will not, like 

 such a gun, profess to have "fine Damascus barrels," but will 

 be exactly what it appears to be. 



The sportsmen that buy guns at $50 and under usually 

 buy them for service and not for show, and they cannot 

 hesitate between the plaiu but reliable work of American 

 makers and the vile products of foreign manufacturers. And 

 his tuHte must be wretched indeed who can see more beauty 

 in the tawdry, stamped, foreign work than in the plain lines 

 of the American fabric. 



On all guns, except perhaps'a few of those that are made 

 to order only, there is a list price and a net price. This is a 

 so-called seci'et of the trade, but it is a secret so generally 

 known to experienced sportsmen that its present, operation 

 is adverse to the interests of tho.se only who are least in- 

 formed, and who, as a usual thing, are least able to bear the 

 oppression of paying from 20 to 40 per cent, more than their 

 better informed and wealthier neighbors. No sensible man 

 will object to paying the dealer a fair profit, but this way of 

 discriminating in favor of one and against another, of im- 

 posing upon the ignorance of the inexperienced, ought, for 

 its very un justness, to have an end. The practical operation 

 is about this : If I order a gun in my own name it will cost 

 me |o(), but if I get a retail country merchant, Avho never 

 had a gun in his stock in his life, to make my order, I can 

 get it for $35. Or, if I am acquainted with the system of 

 giving discounts, I can buy a gun for |7o that will cost you 

 $100. This is a vicious system. Even the largest dealers in 

 guns and sportsmen's supplies sell most of their goods dhectly 

 to the sportsmen or indirectly to him by the circumlocution 

 above mentioned, and not to tradesmen to be sold agaia. 

 Under these circumstances prices should be uniform and. 

 just. So much on this subject. Ah-Pe. 



DAKOTA GAME AND SHOOTING. 



AS I sit here in my oflBce wnth a cool breeze pafi.sing over 

 me, I cannot help but think how the people in the 

 East must suffer from the heat. We sleep under blankets 

 every night. Let me preface my series of letters witli a word 

 for the country, that the sportsman, who will read of the 

 finest shooting ground to be found in the United States be- 

 fore I am through, may better appreciate the .surroundings, 

 and not carry the impres.sion, as many do, that the society 

 is composed of cowboys and Indians. I have lived here two 

 years, having come from Pennsylvania for my health, which 

 was so broken that no one thought I could recover. The 

 trouble was with my lungs. I am weU, and write this that 

 any one seeing it mnj do as I did. We have one of the 

 finest wheat growing countries the sun ever .shone on. Last 

 year there were grand crops, and this season it is the 

 same. In a drive of five or six miles one may see ten thou- 

 sand acres of as fine wheat as it is possible to raise. 



There are beautiful farms to be had for the taking. The 

 climateis the finest I ever saw. I came from Wilhamsport, Pa., 

 where the climate is ever changing; here it is cold in winter, 

 but dry and clear, so that one does not feel it. The society is 

 just as good as in any country or city: the people enjoy life 

 better. The ladies ride horseback and drive till their cheeks 

 glow with health. Bismarck is located at the crossing of 

 the Mississippi River by the great Northern Pacific Raikoad. 

 It is admitted by all to be the future great city of the 

 Northwest. We expect some two or three more railroads 

 in here next year. Any one wishing more information 

 about the country can write me as we want to see people 

 come in, 



This is the sportsman's paradise. But facts are better than 

 talk. Last Saturday was the first day for chicken shooting. 

 I got up in the morning, took my Indian pony, and as I had 

 to be in my office at 9 o'clock, I took a flying trip with a 

 friend to the countrv. We came in vath nineteen chickens, 

 quite enough for any two sportsmen to bag in a few hours so 

 near town. Two of' my friends went out the same morning, 

 drove about fifteen miles out and came in with eighty-two, and 

 another party with 130. This will give you an idea of the 

 chicken shooting. We pay no attention to the plover, in my 

 estimation one of the very best game birds. They are here 

 from May till September in great numbers, and would be 

 fine sport for any one not spoiled by seeing larger game. 



Last evening i took my wife and dog— both being as fond 

 of the sport as myself— we went out for a little airing, and 

 within a half mile of the caiiital I put up two large coveys 

 of chickeas. I had a picnic. My dog being a little green 

 fiushed the first one, and I did not follow them up, so that l 

 only got a few, but as many as I wanted, for my ice chest is 

 full of them all the time.' In ray next I will speak of the 

 geese and ducks, which come by the acre in October. The 

 chicken shooting is splendid tilfcold weather, and the geese 

 and ducks and deer come in in October. The fare is low 

 from Pittsburgh. By getting a laud seeker's ticket you get 

 the round trip for about $.50. " W. H. Williamson. 



Bismarck, Dakota. 



