Sept. 2i, 1885.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



167 



THE TRAJECTORY TEST. 



Mdiior Foreat and Strewn: 



In the fortlicoming rifle trial youwill have done for Ameri- 

 can sportsmen and military nien just what your great col- 

 laboniteur .the London Field did for the same class in 

 Eugl:ind tbree years ago. I fully concur with Major Merrill 

 and JVIr. Van Dyke ia what they say conceruing the muzzle- 

 loading rifle. While I believe that the breechloader has 

 created a new era in modern tactics that could only have 

 heen effected by a long rnnge arm of precision, susceptible of 

 rapid loading, "yet as "a hunting rifle at ranges of 100 yards 

 and ucder it can never compare in precision, absolutely 

 faultless, wilh the best-made muzzleloader. I have owned 

 and carefully tested Sharps, caliber .40 and .4.5; Remington's 

 .44, Marlin's .40-60, and Ballard's Union Hill .33 and Pacific 

 .40-90. My experience is that Sharps' and Balhrd's ai'e the 

 best single-shot breechloaders for field work. But none of 

 them will make the target at, say, 40 to 60 yards (piling the 

 bnilets right on top ot'one another) that can be made" by a 

 good shot with the old-time muzzleloading rifle. I witnessed 

 a curious and interesting instance of this which may be 

 worth recording. 



I own a flint-lock rifle that is nearly one hundred years 

 old, but in an admirable state of preservation. The caliber 

 is about .46, while the barroJ is 89 inches long and weighs 

 10 pounds. About a year ago I sent this rifle to an excellent 

 practical gunsmith and hadlt put in order. The lock must 

 have been the work of a master, for to day^ it is as soft, 

 smooth and silken in its workings as those of one of Pur- 

 dey's best £80 express rifles. One lovely day last March, I 

 and an ollicer of the United States Corps of Engineers, who 

 was my guest, concluded to match the centenarian for 

 accuracy against his .40-90 Sharps that had done approved 

 work on elk and hlacktail deer in the Rockies, and my new 

 Ifi-pouud, .40-c;ilibcr, 90-385 Ballard JSlo. 5 Pacific. The 

 target was 40 yards distant from the firing point, and the 

 shooting was from a dead rest. We took turns in shooting 

 the flint-lock rifle, which was loaded with 90 grains of the 

 strongest quick-burning English rifle powder, and a round 

 bullet that fitted perfectly, patched with strong linen grea.9ed 

 with tallow. We shot at. a round pasteboard target, 2i 

 inches in diameter tacked to an oaken plank, wluch was set 

 up against a brick wall. The llint-lock rifle put one bullet 

 on top of the other with a deadly accuracy that I have never 

 seen excelled. It did not miss fire once in 14 shots. I had 

 fortunately bought some extremely fine gun flints in London 

 ten years ago for this ride. They gave out abundant sparks, 

 which accounts for its never failing. Every bullet we fired 

 from this rifle was inside the white pasteboard. We had 3 

 of these 2^-inch discs. The first was cut to pieces by the 

 bullets from the muzzleloader, the second was hit 4 times 

 out of 7 shots with the Ballard, and by 5 shots out of 10 from 

 the Sharps. The sights on all three were the usual notch and 

 long silver front "bead." 



Where small game (squirrels and turkeys) is abundant 

 there is no more Selightful shooting than with an accurate 

 muzzleloading rifle. Why the modern small-bore breech- 

 loader cannot be made to shoot with the deadly certainty of 

 the muzzleloader is beyond compreheiusion. I have yet to 

 see one that will. Why does not some maker of muzzle- 

 loading rifles advertise in your widely read journal and do 

 many sportsmen a real service? I know of many gentlemen 

 who would gladly add a muzzleloading rifle to their batteries 

 if they knew where such a gun could be built. 



I live in a far South State, and in the fall and winter re- 

 side on a great cotton plantation situated on a lovely tribu- 

 tary of the Mississippi River. Large game of all sorts, such 

 as deer, bear, sometimes panther and wolves, is fairly plenti- 

 ful. My neighbors number many gentlemen who are ardent 

 sportsmen, and as four-fifths of them have had either a 

 European education or were graduated f i"om Yale or Harvard, 

 the society is of the best. The plantations are large, and run 

 from 1,000 to 15,000 acres, consequently we have no near 

 neighbors. Some of the finest guns in America are owned 

 in this community. One gentleman has a battery of Purdey 's 

 consisting of two heavy lO's, a pair of 13's, one 16-bore and 

 a .4-50 double Express rifle, the total cost of which, not in- 

 cluding duty, was £400 sterfing. We read the Londo7i Field 

 and the Forest and Stkeam and concur in the belief that in 

 literary excellence your journal excels its great British con- 

 temporary. I simply intended to say when I commenced 

 what has been so unconsciously spun out, that your rifle trials 

 is precisely what American sportsmen have long desired, 

 and in your hands it will be fairly and intelligent]^'^ con- 

 ducted. 



1 wonder if your contributor. Major Merrill, is the former 

 captain of Dragoons, who in "the roaring forties" was a 

 dashing hard-riding 8cd>reur always first to the fore, be it at 

 fea>t or when the bugle sounded "boots and saddles" for a 

 long hard ride after marauding Comanche or stealthy Lipan? 

 If it be the same man, 1 am glad to know he is still on this 

 side. What memories are evoked when one begins to call 

 up the ghosts of forty golden years ago ! 



Mississippi Lowlands. 



Sept. 16. 



THE PENALTIES OF CARELESSNESS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



"He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall 

 suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." 



As several serious accidents (?) have recently been recorded 

 from the careless handhng of shells in loading, I will give 

 you several facts that recently came within my'observalion. 

 Strolling into the store of a friend, I found the proprietor, 

 who is somewhat of a sportsman, engaged in seating primers 

 on loaded shells in this wise : Holding the loaded shell in 

 one hand, driving the primer into its seat with blows from a 

 pound weight in tlie other hand. When remonstrated with 

 of the danger and utter recklessness of this proceeding, he 

 replied, "I'll be blanked if I pay $4 for a set of reloading 

 tools." If the fool blows out his brains or is maimed for life, 

 1 for one can say. served him right. 



Only a few days after, I struck a youngster with his 

 newly-purchased single 13-bore, seating primers on loaded 

 shells with blows from a tack hammer. I at once took the 

 liberty of also admonishing andreproviug him pretty sharply, 

 ut the same time callmg the attention of his father (who'is 

 too much absorbed in business affairs to pay any attention to 

 either recreation or any of its aids), who at once sent for the 

 proper reloading tools. I took pleasure of course in instruct- 

 ing the youth in their proper use. 



Should this stiike the eye or ear of any one guilty of like 

 ignorance, or more properly, foolhardy recklessness, let me 

 repeat your old warning, "don't." If you aie too poor or 

 too penm-ious to procure proper tools and fair knowledge of 

 the handling of explosives, better leave them alone, and 



above aU, having obtained such knowledge, exercise the 

 utmost care and circumspection. 



True, the breechloader is a safer weapon than a muzzle- 

 loader: but beware in the handling of the loaded shells or 

 cartridges. Occasionally a cap or primer will fail to fire 

 from the blow of the firing pin. On your peril, do not 

 "monkey" with it in a perilous attempt to withdraw the 

 primer (which you suppose to be inert) for the purpose of 

 inserting a fresh one. Better throw that cartridge into the 

 river, or if you must preserve the shell, first carefully with- 

 draw the charge without interfering in the least manner 

 with the primer until the charge is withdrawn; the insertion 

 of an expelling needle or other instrument, a de-capping 

 tool, a blow or even pressure will sometimes fire that very 

 primer which failed in the arm in which it was tried. 



Backwoods. 



West Virginia. 



DIANA ON THE PRAIRIES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I want to tell you of a hunt I had last evening that pleased 

 me very much, and especially the ladies of our city, and if 

 you have any lady readers it will please them too. After 

 ofllce hours two of my friends, with my wife and myself, 

 went out three miles to a, slough. My wife had never" fired 

 a gun, but she had prevailed on me to get a single 13-gauge 

 for her to try. We landed safely, and the gentlemen and 

 myself having rubber boots, started in, leaving her in the high 

 grass. It was not long before three mallards came my way. 

 I shot, and two of them answered to the call. The third 

 wended his way on swift wing in the direction where my 

 wife was. I heard the small 13-gauge bark, and saw the 

 duck drop. I could not believe it until I heard her shooting. 

 We all laughed and helped her find her duck, just sixty 

 yards from where she had stood, and as the duck 'fell at the 

 instant it was shot you will see it was ft fine shot. We put 

 it down as a chance shot and intimated the same, which 

 made the young lady indignant, and she declared that she 

 held just a little ahead of the duck as I had told her to do, 

 and would prove it to be no chance shot if another come her 

 way. But the second one s-he missed, which dampened her 

 ardor very much. The third one came flyina: very fast, about 

 forty yards away. She took deliberate aim, and the duck 

 ctune down. This was too mucli for her, and true to woman 

 nature, she threw the gun into the high grass and ran for the 

 duck. The duck was soon found, but the gun not so easily. It 

 took a long, patient hunt before wecameupon it. I will leave 

 you to imagine the lady's feeling ax the second success No 

 more ducks came her way. The first one was the hand- 

 somest male mallard I ever say^, and the largest, weighing 

 almost five pounds. It now hangs on a beautiful black vel- 

 vet plaque in our dining room. All who have seen it say it 

 is the most handsomely mounted bird they ever saw, and the 

 mounting was accomplished in a few hours by one of the 

 gentlemen of the parly. He simply^ skinned the duck care- 

 fully, put plenty of arsenic on the skin, filled it with cotton 

 and shaped it, and I never saw any bird so natural after 

 being mounted. This was all done unknown to the lady, 

 and her delight on seeing it was unbounded. The gentlemen 

 of the party got a few mallards, when the birds all left. 

 But I understood them, and told the boys they would return 

 about dark. So they did; they came by the hundreds, and 

 such a banging for about ten minutes you seldem hear. We 

 must have killed fifty mallards, but some fell in the grass so 

 you could not find them. We came home with thirty-five. 

 I think we could have killed one hundred jack snipe. They 

 are in flocks of twenty. I did kill three at one shot, but we 

 don't bother with small game in this country. These will not 

 stay^ long as the frosty nights will soon cause them to 

 migrate. W. H. Williamson. 



BisMAKCK, Dalioto. 



REED BIRDS ON LAKE ERIE. 



LARGE flocks of reed birds, great companies of many 

 hundreds each, have been passing over to the south- 

 west against a strong wind, during the entire day, and so 

 low that one bent on slaughter could have made a most re- 

 spectable bag. Immense numbers of these birds used to fre- 

 quent the wild rice marshes along the south shore of Lake 

 Erie in the early fall to feed upon this grain, but we have 

 never known any one to make a specialty of shooting them, 

 as is done on the Atlantic coast. 



During the first ten or twelve days of this month the well- 

 known chinh chink call of the reed bird may be heard over- 

 head both day and night, but never before have we seen 

 them migrating in large flocks by day; possibly this is done 

 by night, the large flights seen to-day being an exception, 

 from some cause or other, to the general rule. The reed 

 bird (he is called bobolink and skunk blackbird now) breeds 

 with us the last of May, but in limited numbers; it is only 

 now and then he is .seen dancing in his white and black 

 plumage over our meadows in the spring. The swarms that 

 used to haunt the marshes in the faU must have come from 

 breeding places far to the north. Dr. E. Sterling. 



Cleyb!I,amd, Sept. 8, 1885. 



Arkansas.— Hot Springs.— Since the 1st of September 

 deer hunting has been the order of the day. Dining the fii'st 

 few days of the open season deer could be started with dogs 

 almost anywhere in the hilly country north of here, but the 

 woods have been overrun with dogs and hunters until now 

 scarcely a deer can be started. They^ have been either killed 

 or have left for more secure quarters. I know of about 

 twenty deer being killed within a range of country perhaps 

 six miles across. If the hounds coula have been kept out of 

 the woods there would have been fine sport all the fall. Mr. 

 Goza, of this countj^ has the credit of killing the first deer 

 legally this fall. He went to his jjeafield at "midnight and 

 before 1 o'clock on the morning of the 1st of September had 

 killed a fine buck which had come in to feed on the peas. 

 Quail are fairly plentiful, and there is a promise of good 

 sport with them when the season opens the first of next 

 month. Squirrels are scarce, they nearly all having migrated 

 away from here more than a year ago. Fishing in the 

 Washita has been superb all the summer. Bass are our 

 principal game fish. By the way, I do not know of a stream 

 that would yield finer sport to the canoeist. Beautifully 

 clear water, mountain scenery along its upper waters, rapid's 

 enough to make it interesting.- Lew Willow. 



Indian Territory.— Prairie City, L T., Sept. 7.— Tiie 

 chicken season has been a fah one so far. The continual 

 shooting of them out of season, prairie fires while they are 

 nesting, and an insect callachicker that destroys them when 

 young, are the causes of their scarcity. Quail are very 

 plenty. — T. 



Moke Trouble about Stolen Doas.— The St. Louis 

 BepuMican reports: "St. Louis sportsmen have found more 

 than poor sport to grumble at with Southern Minnesota this 

 season. Several dogs seem to have been railroaded out of 

 sight just before the Iowa border was reached by hunter.? 

 returning southward, and it has even been claimed that a 

 regular business of doff stealing is made at certain railroad 

 crossings, where the animals of south-bound shooters may 

 be easily sent east or west. The most valuable St. Louis 

 dog so lost this year is Grouse, a coal bhick Enjriish setter, 

 which belonged to Dr. J. G. Parrish. The doctor started 

 in company with Mr. Jolm D. Johnson, the eminent attorney, 

 from Minneapolis one day last week, both gentlemen having 

 seen Grouse securely tied in the baggage car by (,he baggage 

 man, into whose charge they gave the animal. It had u 

 collar with railroad direction tag tacked on and was fastened 

 wilh quite a stout rope. On arrival at Albert Lea for break- 

 fast, the doctor went to take his dog in company, but found 

 it had disappeared, and on looking at the rope saw ttiat it 

 had clearly been cut. On questioning the baggage man, he 

 stated that the dog had gnawed the rope in two at a station 

 north of Albert Lea. The raih-oad officials have made 

 inquiry of the man who has since given them the name of a 

 town not quite so far north as being that where the dog 

 escaped. The motive of the change ot town is clearly that of 

 preventing his being asked why he did not at the first stop- 

 page of the trf^n acquaint the owner of his loss. This case 

 would seem to , be simple enouiih, but it is indorsed by 

 others. It is not very long since a party of Eastern gentle- 

 men, returning from grouse hunting in Faribault and Martin 

 counties, Minnesota, drove to Winnebago City, to take the 

 Southern Minnesota road to LaCrosse on their way home. 

 They had sis very handsome setters along and saw them 

 stabled at the Collins House on the evening of their arrival. 

 Next morning the whole were gone. The gentlemen put off 

 their departure and declared their intention of remaining 

 until their property was returned. The village authorities 

 felt that a practice which was carried on of most years with- 

 out much of a row to follow had gone a trifle too far this 

 time. Ordinarily the loser of a single dog met with half a 

 dozen sympathizers, who swore to find and ship it next day. 

 An easy enoijgh promise to fulfill if they had chosen to do 

 so, as the animal was pretty sure to be in one of their own 

 barns— but the theft of a whole kennel and the determination 

 of a number of wealthy gentlemen to remain and prosecute 

 might be serious, and certainly would keep away some long- 

 pursed sportsmen. A biu-gain was struck, and for the sum 

 of $100 a man named Nick Lattin wasinduced to take a drive 

 out on the prairie, from whence he returned in a couple of 

 hours with all of the truants. Many such instances might 

 be added. Albert Lea is such a main crossing place that if 

 the practice of dog stealing be permitted to go on there un- 

 challenged. Southern sportsmen will have to leave theu- dogs 

 at home if they propose to take them shooting in Minnesota. 

 Capt. Wm. Mitchell, the head of the Albert Lea police, used 

 to have the town in a good moral condition. It will be well 

 if he uses his powers sufliciently to assist the railroati 

 authorities in securing the return of Dr. Parrish's dog." 



An Alarming Transmogrification.— Dannemora, N. 

 Y. — One day last June John and Charles Turner, two fisher- 

 men, were catching minnows in one of the bays of Chazy 

 Lake, when one of them called the attention of his partner 

 to some animal swimming across the lake forty rods away. 

 They at once pronounced it a big doe, and having no regard 

 for game laws or fawn, they proceeded to cut a good stout 

 club. After some little delay and discussion as to who 

 would do the clubDing, they launched their frail craft and 

 started in pursuit of their venison. On drawing near they 

 saw that instead of a doe it was a large black bear, and the 

 "tail holt" was too short for them. Being cheated out of 

 broiled venison for supper, thej' agreed to compromise with 

 bear meat; and silently paddling up behind, the sapling was 

 brought down with terrific force on bruin s head. To say 

 the bear was surprised would be drawing it mild. With a 

 growl and snort that could be heard at least a mile away, he 

 turned and seized the paddle in his teeth and reduced it to 

 splinters in a jifl:y, then cliarged on the boat. Having a 

 light Saranac skiff and oars akeady shipped, they com- 

 menced a race for the shore. The boat reached the shore 

 first and the fishermen leaping out made good time to the 

 nearest cabin. Old bruin came over the stern of tne boat, 

 and not finding his enemies, devoured a fine string of salmon 

 trout, and taking a short nap without being disturbed again 

 stalled and swam the lake in safety. — Romer. 



Maryland Rail Shooting. — Rail shooters are now hav- 

 ing lots of fun on the Wicomico marshes, at Sahsbury, Md., 

 and all along down the river. The game and gunners are 

 also out in force on the Patuxcnt marshes. The best feeding 

 grounds extend along the river for about twenty-five miles 

 fi'om the bridge which crosses the Patuxent near Upper 

 Marlboro', Prince George's county. In this section of the 

 river one of the largest stretches of marsh land extends along 

 the Prince George's side a little above the village of Notting- 

 ham. This is the favorite spot for the game. Sportsmen 

 are now coming here from Baliimoie, Washington, Annapo- 

 lis and all the adjacent sections. Besides visitors that come 

 from almost every direction to see then- country cousins at 

 this season of the year and get a shot at the ortolans, the gun- 

 ners of the border counties are in the marshes at almost 

 every high tide. Standing on one of the high blutTs on the 

 Calvert side, the smoke is seen curling up from countless 

 guns on almost every part of the river, and the quick, sharp 

 report of the breechleader is heard at intervals of a few sec- 

 onds. At Nottingham, near Croom Station, a little village 

 that is noted only for its antiquity and quaintness, and tiie 

 rendezvous of gentlemen who are seeking sport on the Upper 

 Patuxent, every tiling is moving now at quite a lively gait. 

 The hotel has brightened up, and everything is propitious 

 for sportsmen during the ortolan season. 



The West Jersey Game Protective Society met at 

 o3t Market street, Camden, Sept, 17, and the treasurer's re- 

 port was read, which showed that the total expenses from 

 April 16 to September 16 were ^3,130, and that there way 

 still a balance in the treasury of |f,3ll. The society during 

 the last six months have distributed 3,006 quail in the 

 counties over which it has jurisdiction. A Board of Direc- 

 tors was elected, and also Wilfiam Eisenbrowu, President, 

 'Chas H. Barnard, Secretary and Geo. E Taylor, Treasurer. 

 The detectives employed by the society are very active in 

 their work of challenging rail and reed bird shooters for 

 their hcense whenever they can reach them, and there is 

 scai'cely a sportsmen from Philadelphia who selects the New 

 Jersey side of the Delaware for "his ground but what is 

 accosted. — Homo. 



