Oct. 20, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



247 



together after exploring the last gulch and were blaming 

 Bur luck, when Bunch suddenly exclaimed, "Tiiere goes 

 a bear up the ridge." He was too far to shoot, so we 

 watched him. Aroused by some of Bunch's missiles, he 

 evidently felt very uneasy, sometimes getting into a clump 

 of brush, but never remaining long, now he came near, 

 or into Bunch's former tracks, which he feared to cross. 

 We watched his capers with great interest, when at last 

 Felix suggested to try to scare him with my rifle at long 

 range. Turning my Lyman sight to the highest notch I 

 lay down and blazed away. The first two shots went 

 low, Bunch through the glass seeing them strike. Hold- 

 ing a little higher my fifth shot must have hit him, for he 

 jumped very suddenly from a burnt log, and limped tow- 

 ard the nearest thicket. "We did not go after him. it was 

 getting dark and we were a long way from camp; besides 

 we thought him only slightly wounded. But this proved 

 different to my greatest surprise, when a week later, hunt- 

 ing grouse one morning on the ridge, where I had seen 

 him disappear, the dog found him dead. When Bunch, 

 Felix and I readied camp, we found that the other boys 

 had returned from the Deadwood fork, where they had 

 speut a few days after elk. They reported plenty of sign, 

 but the warm spell had driven the game back to their 

 mountain fastnesses. Mr. Bunch and Felix pulled out 

 for home the next day. 



Charles, Billy, Lee and myself, with some horses soon 

 had the deer in camp, and the following day leaving tents 

 and camp outfit, we started, loaded down with venison, 

 for Bunch's house. Monday Lee and I we t to Plat or 

 ville, where he found a ready market for his venison, 

 while I replenished our supplies. 



The boys decided to build a good cabin and smokehouse 

 it our last hunting grounds, to spend the rest of the winter 

 m hunting and trapping in that vicinity. We all pitched 

 in and helped carry lumber from the river to finish Bunch's 

 house. Charles, BiUy and I, loaded down with saws, axes, 

 and other building tools, went back to the old camp, the 

 boys to begin to build their cabin, and 1 to hunt and supply 

 them with meat. I killed few deer but principally prac- 

 ticed on grouse, shooting their heads off with my rifle. 

 One morning I went out early with my shotgun after a 

 mess of grouse to take down to Bunch's next day, I went 

 along the ridge, but became pretty near lost. My game- 

 bag, a gunnysack tied knapsack fashion, well filled with 

 grouse on my back, weighed me down considerably and 

 darkness overtook me before I knew it. Trying a short 

 cut across some ridges to the main ridge, which led to 

 camp, I became puzzled, and as it was pitch dark, I was 

 completely turned around. I fired my gun and listened 

 for an answer, which came, 1 thought from the wrong 

 direction. Climbing and groping my way up a steep hill, 

 I shot again, when I heard a faint answer in a different 

 direction. At last after several more shots, Billy came 

 up to me relieving me of my load, and soon we saw the 

 bright welcome campfire. I was hungry and pegged out. 

 The boys had waited supper for me, which never tasted 

 better in my life, and after a consoling pipe, I was soon 

 comfortably hidden in my sleeping bag. F. B. 



AN ARKANSAS OUTING. 



HAVING just returned from a two weeks' trip in the 

 wilds of Arkansas, I encroach upon your space, not 

 to herald my wonderful exploits, but to present a few 

 suggestions 'which may be of service to others in visiting 

 that country in pursuit of game. That there is a variety 

 and fair abundance of game in most sections of the State 

 is beyond question. Deer and turkeys in sufficient num- 

 bers to make hunting them of pleasurable interest, can 

 be found in every county of the State, and on Grand 

 Prairie below Brinkley, prairie chickens are quite plenty. 

 Quail are abundant everywhere outside of the heavy 

 timber lands, indeed more so than any country I ever 

 visited excepting California, Later in the season ducks 

 and geese can be found in great numbers in all the bay- 

 ous, sloughs and lakes, and those who like that sport can 

 certainly be satisfied. 



' And here let me offer my first suggestion. If any are 

 disposed to visit that country for the purpose of shooting, 

 either in September or October, permit me to say to them 

 in the imploring words of the refrain to an old song the 

 Hutchinson family used to sing — "Don't go! don't go!" 

 The first of November is early enough for several reasons 

 — the weather is too warm before then for the comfort or 

 pleasure of yourself or dog. H you get game it will soon 

 spoil on your hands. In hunting quail you will find the 

 ground so dry that your dog can not scent the birds, and, 

 besides, your faithful friend will suffer almost intolerable 

 thirst in an hour's run, and you will be forced to take 

 him a mile or more to some spot where he can at least 

 wallow in the mud mixed with a little water. My dog 

 actually came up and barked in my face one day, which 

 told me plainly, "I must have some water," and he had 

 not been out an hour. Again, if you look for deer or tur- 

 key in the timber you will find the leaves on the under- 

 brush and trees so thick that you can scarcely see fifty 

 yards in most localities, and the moment your game 

 starts it is lost to sight entirely. I am confident we 

 started from seventy-five to one hundred turkeys and only 

 succeeded in getting four, and I am sorry we got those, 

 for they spoiled before we could get them to a depot to 

 ship them home. Our quail and small game we took the 

 precaution to have cooked, and thus enjoyed a share of 

 it ourselves and divided with others who chanced to sit 

 at our table. 



But with all of these untoward circumstances my trip 

 was a pleasant and profitable one. I left home almost 

 sick, and though tramping from fifteen to twenty miles 

 almost every day while there, I returned feeling like a 

 new man; in fact I think the trip renewed my youth from 

 five to ten years: so that it is not all of hunting to get big 

 bags of game. I- enjoyed beyond expression wander ing 

 amid those magnificent forests which shut me out entirely 

 from the tread-mill drudgery called business, and I 

 revelled in a moral, mental and physical atmosphere that 

 d wellers in brick walls surrounded by paved streets know 

 not of. It is strange to me that those who have the time 

 and means at their command do not oftener take Such 

 life-giving trips. 



We spent most of our time at and within six or eight 

 miles of Wiener, Poinsett county, which perhaps is as 

 j>'Ood a point for all varieties of game as there is along 

 the route of the St. L., A. & T. R. R. on which Ave trav- 

 eled south from Cairo. On our return we met on the 

 train Mr. J. B. Fordyce, who gave us much information 

 in regard to the game localities in the State, and being a 



reliable gentleman and a true sportsman he would no doubt 

 cheerfully aid any who arc intending to visit the State 

 in pursuit of game by imparting the knowledge he has 

 gained by several years' experience in that country; in 

 fact he said he would be glad to do so; his address is at 

 Maiden, Ark., or Gatesville, Texas; he spends most of his 

 time between these two points along the line of the St. 

 L.. A. & T. R. R. From what I saw and heard I do not 

 hesitate to say that this State is an excellent one for an 

 outing when taken at the proper season. There arc im- 

 mense tracts of dense forest and thousands of acres of 

 open prairie, scarcely disturbed by the settler, where 

 game abounds in fair quantities and a party need not 

 return with empty bags when visiting that section in the 

 proper season . A. 

 Chicago, Ilk, Oct. 5. 



SCHULTZE GUNPOWDER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The present waterproofed granulated Schultze gun- 

 powder is the most perfect practical outcome of the 

 endeavors to utilize the discovery of the effect of nitric 

 acid upon cellulose (converting it into an explosive) for 

 Small arms. 



It was early found that gun cottons, the cotton forms of 

 these nitro-compounds, though giving such tempting re- 

 sults in total absence of smoke and solid residue, were far 

 too violent and sudden in their combustion for use in 

 ordinary firearms. 



Attention was then turned to other forms of woody 

 fibre, and the actual w-oody portions of trees were chosen 

 as giving the niost pliable compounds with nitric acid. 



The first Schultze gunpowder (so called from the name 

 of its introducer), after having given satisfactory results 

 in the home of its invention, Germany, was offered to the 

 English public about twenty years ago; it was rapidly 

 appreciated by English shooters and a. company was at 

 once formed to manufacture it in England, which com- 

 pany continues at the present day as the oldest and most 

 experienced of the makers of nitro-compounds and smoke- 

 less powders for small arms, having succeeded in over- 

 coming difficulties and prejudices, and in making their 

 manufacture a commercial success. Their latest form of 

 Schultze gunpowder, which they wish now to bring before 

 the shooting public of the States, has been generally 

 acknowledged as the perfect nitro-coinpound for shot- 

 guns. 



When first manufactured in England, nineteen years 

 ago, the Schultze gunpowder was in the form of little 

 particles or cubes of wood, cut transversely from the 

 trunks of selected trees, and. treated with the chemicals 

 necessary to render them capable of burning with suf- 

 ficient rapidity to act as a gunpowder. And in many re- 

 spects this cube gunpowder was very satisfactory, the 

 great drawbacks being the want of regular density in 

 manufacture, and the special loading — hard ramming — 

 required to develop good shooting results. 



To overcome these difficulties, the granulated form was 

 introduced ten years ago, and this, being of even gram, 

 and regular density, requiring no ramming or special 

 loading, giving as great facilities for loading as does black 

 powder, marked a great advance on the cube form , and 

 the granulated Schultze gained ground everywhere as a 

 safe, reliable gunpowder. 



It was, however, to a certain extent subject to the 

 effect of atmospheric influences, damp weather weaken- 

 ing and dry weather strengthening it. These drawbacks 

 were completely overcome about three years ago by 

 adopting a process by which, at one stage of the manu- 

 facture, every separate fibre is waterproofed before being- 

 formed into grains, and the rapidly increasing demand 

 for the waterproofed granulated Schultze gunpowder fox- 

 trap and general shooting, and the perfect safety to users 

 of it, warrant the manufacturers in calling their gun- 

 powder perfectly safe, reliable, effective, smokeless and 

 cleanly in use. 



The" company's factory is kept in a high state of effi- 

 ciency, and the processes are carried out with the great- 

 est care. In evidence it may be mentioned it is now ten 

 years since the slightest accident occurred in the manu- 

 facture, an excellent record for a powder factory. 



The shooting ranges, with the test'ng apparatus, are 

 very complete, and no expense is spared on this head to 

 adopt every known method of any value for arriving at 

 the true force and behavior of the gunpowder made. In 

 writing {Field, Nov. 10,1886) on a visit to the factory, the 

 editor of the London Field made these remarks: "These 

 works contain the most perfect and complete set of in- 

 struments for carrying out experimental investigations 

 connected with sporting guns that it has ever been our 

 fortune to meet with." 



The process of manufacture is briefly as follows : Soft 

 timber of clean growth is selected, and after being torn 

 to fragments is treated chemically until the whole of the 

 resinous and soluble matters in the wood are extracted 

 and the pure, finely divided cellulose remains. This is 

 carefully dried and treated with the usual acids. A long 

 course of purification then commences: it is washed with 

 cold, warm and boiling water successively, continued for 

 a month, until the nitro-compound is perfectly free from 

 every traca of decomposable matter, so that it may pass 

 the very stringent test for purity imposed by the English 

 authorities on all explosives in the British Isles. 



This test insures perfect safety in storage and handling, 

 and is a guarantee that Sclmltze gunpowder is a pure 

 stable compound; and that the authorities are satisfied 

 with the way in which Sclmltze passes the tests is evi- 

 denced by their annual report, in which they state the 

 whole of the samples of Schultze gunpowder tested passed 

 the test for purity very satisfactorily. 



The nitro-compound so formed is then ground to a min- 

 ute state of division, and at that stage waterproofed. 

 Chemicals to regulate the rapidity of combustion are then 

 added and the whole mixture is formed into grains. These 

 are subjected to heavy hydraulic pressure to regulate the 

 exact density of the grains, and finally dried and sifted. 

 But one quality, strength and size of grain is made, and 

 this is known throughout the shooting world as Schultze 

 gunpowder, granulated and waterproofed. When fin- 

 ished the powder undergoes exhaustive tests for its 

 strength, bursting force, rapidity of ignition and combus- 

 tion, etc., and if satisfactory, is passed to magazines, 

 where it is kept three months. Again it is exhaustively 

 tested, and if quite up to the mark, packed and issued. 

 This second testing is adopted to make assurance doubly 

 sure. It is made in very large batches, each one consist- 

 ing of many thousands of pounds — a most important 



point in all gunpowder making to secure perfectly uni- 

 form results. 



And now as to the properties of Schultze gunpowder. 

 Those which the public requires in a nitro-compound are 

 in the chief place (1) safety and (2) smokelessness; for, 

 given these with (?>) good strength, no one would be satis- 

 fied to use the black with its smoke aud dirt. Among the 

 minor points required are (4) cleanliness, (5) no action on 

 gun barrel (''pitting''). (6) less gun recoil, (7) quick igni- 

 tion, (8) perfect regularity. A word or two on each of 

 these points. 



1 . Safety. — The measure of pressure on gun barrels is 

 a point always carefully tested, and the total absence of 

 accidents in England with Schultze gunpowder is the best 

 proof the powder is rendered safe. Many elaborate ex- 

 periments have been carried out to show actual bursting 

 pressure on gun barrels; none of them perhaps give the 

 exact figures in pounds pressure, but they give compara- 

 tive results perfectly. 



The method adopted principally at the company's fac- 

 tory is described in detail in the London Field, Nov. 20, 

 188C. This is too long for reproduction here, but the 

 results show Schultze to gi ve less pressure on the powder 

 chamber than black gunpowder (taking No. 4 as the 

 standard), measure by measure. But on this point an 

 outside opinion would carry weight, and we a,re happy to 

 find the gentlemen who form the Proof House Guardians 

 of Birmingham and London have largely experimented in 

 this direction, and have found Schultze gives less pres- 

 sure charge by charge on the gun barrel than No. 4 black 

 powder, and even Messrs. Curtis & Harvey admit, in a 

 recently issued pamphlet describing experiments carried 

 out by themselves, that Schultze, gives less bursting pres- 

 sure on the powder chamber than does their own No. 4 

 black gunpowder. In neither case were these experi- 

 mentalists likely to be biassed in favor of Schultze gun- 

 powder. The editor of the London Field, a veteran ex- 

 perimentalist, recording the result of his experiments in 

 the issue of the Field of Feb. 14, 1885, reports the Schultze 

 gunpowder to be safe, and to give less pressure than No. 4 

 black powder, even under varying conditions of tempera- 

 ture and dryness, even when dried to absolute dryness, 

 and reporting upon the crusher system of taking pres- 

 sures in the issue of Nov. 20, 1886, he says: '"Black in- 

 variably shows a greater strain than Schultze at the first 

 crusher gauge." 



2. Smokelessness. — This the Schultze possesses to a 

 marked degree, being of all gunpowders offered to the 

 public the most smokeless. 



3. Strength.— Schultze is always issued giving a trifle 

 greater propelling force than double the weight of black 

 gunpowder, or measure by measure with black No. 4. The 

 strength is measured by various methods, but the crucial 

 test adopted is the velocity given to the body of the 

 charge of shot pellets; these are collected on a specially 

 designed sectioual target and the velocities of the pellets 

 measured by electrical chronograph. The general accept- 

 ance by the shooting public of Schultze as the hardest 

 hitting powder, especially where money is depending on 

 the result, is the best proof that the manufacturers are 

 not wrong when they claim for their Schultze gunpowder 

 "greater penetration" than black. 



4. Cleanliness. — In this also Schultze is in the van, the 

 solid residue (amounting to 25 per cent, of the charge 

 against that from black powder amounting to 65 

 per cent.) is white or nearly so, and condenses into dry 

 particles which roll from the gun or are driven out by 

 each discharge, and there is no greasy residue nor accu- 

 mulation in the barrel nor hard incrustation. 



5. Pitting in Barrel. — There is a total absence of this 

 with Schultze. The residue is alkaline and dry and never 

 corrodes the gun barrel. It is therefore not so necessary 

 to clean a gun when using Schultze as when using black 

 gunpowder. It is noticeable in guns in which Sclmltze 

 is fired from the first and black gunpowder from the sec- 

 ond barrel, after some months of usage, that the Sclmltze 

 barrel is perfectly bright, though the black barrel may 

 be and often is corroded. 



6. Less Gun Recoil. — The manufacturers do not aim at 

 making a powder which gives a very low gun recoil, 

 knowing that is incompatible with good propelling force 

 and safety in use, but as a matter of fact Schultze does 

 give about 71bs. less recoil in a 12-bore gun and lllbs. less 

 in a 10-bore gun. using corresponding charges, than black. 

 This is principally owing to the fouling being so much 

 less with Schultze than with black; the friction and dead 

 weight of the solid residue is therefore much less with 

 Schultze; for instance, 4drs. of Schultze in a 10-bore gun, 

 the usual charge, will give a solid residue of 14grs., while 

 the corresponding 4drs. of black will give a solid residue 

 of 78grs., giving 59grs. more of residue to be moved in 

 the case of black than in the case of Schultze; this is equal 

 to an extra -Joz. shot. This explains the seeming paradox 

 that Sclmltze with equal propelling force to black gives 

 less recoil. 



7. Quickness of Ignition. — There are two distinct opera- 

 tions performed when a gun is fired, the ignition of the 

 charge of powder by the primer and its subsequent com- 

 bustion when ignited; the quicker the combustion the 

 greater the strain on the gun barrel, while the quicker 

 the ignition the greater the comfort to the shooter. 

 Schultze is therefore made to ignite readily and to burn 

 comparatively slowly, the whole time taken by the two 

 operations from th Q fall of the hammer on the primer and 

 the leaving the muzzle of the gun of the shot, occupying 

 with the standard English Eley primer and Schultze gun- 

 powder about .0090 of a second. This is regularly tested 

 so as to guard against any tendency to hang fire. Experi- 

 ments carried out with American shells and primers show 

 these to have a strength compared with Eley's standard 

 primer and Belgian primers as follows: American No. 2, 

 6; Eley's ordinary. 9; Eley's stronger, 12; Belgian, 15 to 17. 

 As it is possible therefore that the American primer is 

 hardly strong enough to do justice to t^e Schultze, and 

 to obviate the necessity for any priming with black pow- 

 der, the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. and the Union 

 Metallic Cartridge Co. are kindly experimenting with a 

 view to issue a shell with a primer of the same strength 

 as Eley's ordinary, and this, if carried out, will give satis- 

 faction to users of black as w T ell as nitro-compounds, as 

 with a stronger primer even black powder gives more 



i satisfactory results. 



8. Lastly, perfect regularity is attained by great care 

 in manufacture, and by making in very large quantities 

 at the time, so that any small differences are lost in the 

 great body of the hatch. 



In conclusion allow me to state, we have opened an 



