April 31, 1887. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



277 



agent is ever present ready to act, and the subtle agencies 

 which stimulate the process are ever lurking around, and 

 if you desire to keep your gun in hand for instant work, 

 there is no application known which is a certain security 

 against the plague. You may neglect, take risks and by 

 chance escape injury, and while some aids are better than 

 otners, there is no reliable security against the evil save 

 wise and vigilant care. If the time ever comes when the 

 interior of guns shall be made bv any process rust defy- 

 ing, it will be a great relief to those who prize and use 

 them. F. M. W. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Here is a little piece of my experience extending over 

 the space of seventeen years on the sea coast of Texas. 



By the closest attention to the inside of my gun barrels 

 for the first eighteen months I was able to keep a pair of 

 laminated steel barrels almost entirely clear of rust. This 

 was by cleaning within an hour after use, wiping dry 

 and covering with whatever lubricant was obtainable in 

 camp, and on my return home cleaning with hot water 

 and lubricating with a solution of mercurial ointment and 

 sweet oil. I suppose any other oil would have answered 

 just as well. At the end of the eighteen months, how- 

 ever, many little pits began to show on the polished sur- 

 face, and I then attributed it to the mercury and have 

 never used it since. My next new gun was carefully 

 kept for the same length of time by treating in the same 

 manner except that I used sperm or fish oil, rehned by 

 putting in it scraps of iron, and after a week or two care- 

 fully drawing off the top of the oil in a separate bottle; 

 and' so I gave' the inside of the barrels four or five coats 

 of pure oil instead of oil and mercurial ointment. This 

 did not keep off the pitted appearance more than eighteen 

 months. 



My next gun I never cleaned after using, but oiling 

 well the outside of the barrels set the gun away with the 

 residue of burnt powder in it. 



I found that after four or five days had elapsed this 

 residuum changed its character .and looked like wet ashes 

 of a gray color instead of black. 



But before two years had elapsed those miserable spots 

 appeared, and I believe worse than in either of the other 

 cases. I now have a gun which I have been using nearly 

 three years and it looks as if the small-pox had paid it a 

 visit. I have tried all kinds of patent rust preventives, 

 but I cannot say much for any of them. None of my 

 guns have had any red mst inside the barrels, and once 

 I commenced the practice of varnishing the outside with 

 a solution of gum tolu and alcohol. I have had no trouble 

 with the outside. The locks are easily kept in order by 

 cleaning and oiling after use. My own idea is that on a 

 salt-water coast no amount of care will prevent a gun 

 from pitting on the inside if it is used ranch. All of my 

 guns have been shot from two to four thousand times' 

 during a whiter, and perhaps one-half as many times for 

 the balance of the year. I know of some guns that have 

 been kept bright inside, but they are but very little used. 



BEXA.R. 



NEW ENGLAND GAME AND FISH. 



THERE is nothing inspiriting in the weather to the 

 sportsman with rod and line. Indeed the reports of 

 ice and snowbanks chill even the enthusiast to the very 

 bones, and his ardor for the rushing stream and green 

 woods dies out with a shiver. It will take several weeks 

 of warm weather to warm him up, to add even a spark 

 to the enthusiasm of former seasons. There is something 

 peculiar concerning the influence of the season on the 

 sportsman; the weather warms him or makes his feelings 

 cold, according to the season. If by some mysterious 

 freak of nature — concerning which there is little danger 

 — the ice should suddenly be removed, weeks of the trout 

 and salmon season would go by with scarcely a votary of 

 the rod and line hieing himself to the lake and the stream. 

 Warm suns, bright skies and green grass are. the influ- 

 ences that exercise then power upon us to be on the move 

 -to the favorite waters. The latest accounts from the 

 Maine waters are not encouraging. A letter of April 15 

 from Richardson Lake, one of the Andi-oscoggins, says 

 that there are still 4ft. of snow on the ice and the ice 

 itself is 30in. thick. This letter is from a lady, by the 

 way, Mrs. Sessions, who, with her husband Pirn., has 

 spent more than half a dozen winters in care of Capt. 

 A. J. Farrar's Lake View Cottage at the South Arm. All 

 the sportsmen who have dined at the South Arm the past 

 few years remember her. The curious point in her case 

 is that she has not once been out to the . settlement since 

 she first came in, though it is but twelve and a half miles 

 through the woods to Andover, her native town. Her 

 letter further says that the whiter has been the hardest 

 she has ever experienced in that region. There has been 

 but little hunting and fishing out of season, for the 

 weather has been too severe the greater part of the time. 

 This lady, though spending the majority of her time in 

 the woods, is by no means a hermit, nor has she lost any 

 of the refinement that might be said to belong to the set- 

 tlement, or even the city. She surrounds herself with 

 plants and flowers, so far as the severities of the climate, 

 bringing frosts in every month in the year, will permit. 

 She has house plants that she has carried through many 

 winters. Her boat load of pansies and petunias were the 

 delight of those visitors who saw it last season. An old 

 boat was improvised and filled with earth, and into this 

 the more hardy flowers were set. They had to be pro- 

 tected from frosty nights, but the sight was one to be 

 remembered, as well as rare, in the woods. She is also 

 interested in canaries, a large number of which birds are 

 to be heard in her home. 



There are good reasons to believe that the ruffed grouse 

 in the woods of Maine have wintered well, though there 

 are the usual stories of their destruction under the snow. 

 But it must be borne in mind that there has been but very 

 little snow crust, though the snows have been remarkably 

 deep. A letter from one of the best woodsmen in the 

 Androscoggin Lake region, who has been in the woods a 

 good deal on snowshoes after gum the past winter, says 

 that the partridges have wintered well. The deer have 

 also fared well where they have been out of the reach of 

 the lumbermen. This woodsman and guide is of the 

 opinion that there are a good many desr in that region. 

 But the lumbermen have been at work in some sections 

 there, and from all that I can hear, there is to be a reck- 

 oning with these same lumbermen. That they have 

 killed deer in the snow there is no doubt, and just so sure 

 as then names and the particulars can be found out, they 



shall be called to an account in the Forest and Stream, 

 if not to the law. Every sportsman in the land shall 

 know the names of these lawbreakers, and if a rich lum- 

 berman is mean enough to slaughter deer in the snow in 

 winter to save the cost of beef, why the public shall know 

 it. The Commissioners have been crippled for want of 

 means for a year or two past, but it is likely that another 

 winter there'will be detectives employed to visit the lum- 

 ber camps. Deer killing in winter by the Maine lumber- 

 men has got to be stopped, if there is any power in public 

 sentiment. 



The trout season promises to be very late this year, and 

 likewise the season for salmon in the Penobscot, but there 

 are some curious features in this matter. But very few 

 Penobscot salmon have yet come into the markets, by 

 reason of the backwardness of the season , and yet Mr. 

 Fred Ayre, the noted Penobscot salmon fly-fisherman, of 

 Bangor, was in Boston yesterday and left the news that 

 the salmon were already leaping in the open rapid water 

 below the dam, though the rest of the river is still encased 

 in ice. This set some of our Boston sportsmen on the 

 alert, and they will depart for that region as soon as the 

 ice is out of the river. So far as the trout fishermen are 

 concerned, it is altogether likely that there will be less 

 of rushing away as soon as the ice is out of the Maine 

 lakes this year than usual. The weather is too cold and 

 the sportsmen are likely to be content to stay at home till 

 June this year. Indeed present indications "suggest that 

 the ice will not be out of the great lakes much before that 

 date. 



The Phillips. Maine, Phonograph says that the decision 

 of the Governor and Council, in the case of the charges 

 preferred against the Fish and Game Commissioners, has 

 not yet been made public. That is really very funny, but 

 the reason is just the same as the reason why Jack didn't 

 eat his supper. The people of North Franklin, if they 

 read the Phonograph and no other paper, would be in 

 danger of believing that they had actually made out 

 charges against these same Commissioners , instead of being 

 parties in the most peculiar farce ever brought before the 

 government of a State. If its items indicate anything, 

 that same paper is the poacher's friend, and has been for 

 some years. One of its correspondents, in the last num- 

 ber, warns a game warden to "look out for his scalp.'" 

 And again it is facetious over the silly assertion that a 

 deer was seen playing with a dog, and later that the 

 deer — in close time"— was found with a bullet hole through 

 him. The item winds up with: "Accidents will happen." 

 Why has not the paper honor enough to state flatly that 

 somebody has been hounding deer, that it is strictly 

 against the law — a crime — under the statutes of the State V 

 Then in warning Warden Himtoon to "look out for his 

 scalp,'' does it mean to encourage another warde n murder 

 like that double one at Fletcher Brook last fall ? Again 



its favorite item reads: "Mr. and Mr. are in 



the lake regions enjoying our magnificent hunting and 

 fishing." It repeats this item, notwithstanding every 

 species of game at the time one would stand the ghost of 

 a chance of getting is under the protection or the law, 

 and never once does it turn square in its track and say 

 that there is such a thing as a close season. I can only 

 say: Shame! shame on such a paper! But I can be truly 

 thankful that its influence is even smaller than its circu- 

 lation. Special. 



PENETRATION TESTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Feb. 2 last I made a test for penetration, which was 

 published in your paper, and I was requested by 

 your correspondent "Von W." to make a different test, 

 which I did to-day. The test on Feb. 2 was as follows: 



2J^ drs. powder, 5 thick wads, 1 oz. shot, 1 thin wad 50 



'2Yz drs. powder, 4 thick wads, 1 oz. shot. 1 thin wad -. 70 



3 drs. powder, 3 thick wads, 1 oz. shot, lthin wad 85 



3 drs. powder, 2 thick wads, 1>r oz. shot, 1 thin wad 75 



3)4 drs. powder, 2 thick wads, l}£oz. shot, 1 thin wad 90 



tyA drs. powder, 2 thick wads, 1^ oz. shot, 1 thick wad 120 



This test was made w T ith Laflin & Rand Ducking- 

 powder, No. 3. The thick wad was U. M. C. black edge. 

 The second test, made this afternoon, is as follows: 



drs. powder, 1 thick, 1 felt wad, I oz. shot, 1 thin wad 90 



2\-o drs. powder, 1 thin, 1 felt wad, 1 oz. shot, 1 thin wad H5 



3 drs. powder, 1 thin, 1 felt wad, 1 oz. shot, 1 thin wad 87 



3 drs. powder, 1 thin, 1 felt wad, ty* oz. shot, 1 thin wad 85 



3'4 drs. powder, 1 thin, 1 felt wad, 1 oz. shot, 1 thin wad Ill 



oJ4 drs. powder, 1 thin, 1 felt wad, 114 « z - s uot > 1 thin wad 90 



3J.6 drs. powder, 1 thiu, 1 felt wad, 1 oz. shot, 1 thin wad 105 



3}4 drs. powder, 1 thin, 1 felt wad, IJ-3 oz. 1 thin wad 92 



The last test was made with Hazard Ducking No. 5 

 powder. The outside figure refers to the number of 

 pages penetrated of a Government report. The gun used 

 was 12-bore W. & C, Scott & Son, 7+lbs. modified choke, 

 at 30yds. The felt wad used was best quality TJ. M. C. 

 f in. thick, and the thin wad stiff cardboard. * The shot 

 in both tests was. drop shot. J. M. W. 



Augusta, Ga., April 13. 



LEWIS WHITZEL'S GUN. 



BEACH HILL, W. Va.- Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 was at a local rifle shooting match a few weeks ago. 

 The guns used were all very long and heavy muzzleloaders, 

 with a shader over the entire top of the barrel. I was the 

 only person that used a breechloading rifle, and my gun. 

 by the way, was a curiosity to them ail. A man has to 

 do very close work at these matches to win, often cutting 

 a way the cross (X) no bigger than a gnat at 60yds. , and 

 then not winning. My attention was attracted to a 

 young man approaching with one of these long rifles on 

 his shoulder. "There comes Killnigger." came from a 

 half dozen mouths at ence. They referred to the rifle he 

 carried. Most of these guns have a local or knickname. 

 Mr. E. said, "There comes the Lewis Whitzel gain." I 

 was not a little surprised to think that the historical rifle 

 of that notorious "red skin' 1 ' hunter was now before my 

 eyes; in fact I could hardly believe it, and perhaps ex- 

 pressed myself that way. But I was answered, "We 

 reckon that to be the gun that Lewis Whitzel used; but 

 the barrel is the only original part, we think; it has been 

 stocked one or more times and has been dressed out inside 

 many times." The barrel is forty odd inches long and 

 the rear sight has been in tAvo other seats besides the one 

 it now occupies. Guessing at the caliber I think it would 

 run about seventy round balls to the pound. When I was 

 a boy I used to read of the many exploits of Lewis 

 Whitzel and this trusty rifle. J. H. W. 



Missouri Ducking. — Duck shooters will find good 

 shooting in season at Williamstown, Mo. — G. L. H. I 



A Moonlight Ride for Deer.— Bismarck, Dak.— It 

 was an ideal night, with a snow of two inches, mild and 

 clear and sparkling. The Indian ponies were brought 

 out at about 6 o'clock in the evening. We had only five 

 miles to go and were soon there, for these tough little 

 fellows will go on a run for that distance. While on a 

 fast lope my friend E. -cried, "Hold! there is a deer," and 

 looking to the left, there within fifty -two steps, as it after- 

 ward proved, stood a fine buck. I had my repeater ready, 

 but E. having a shotgun had to load. Those were long 

 moments till he said ready, but the deer stood tossing his 

 beautiful head. We counted 1,2, 3 and fired. The deer 

 seemed to have got some of our excitement, for he bounded 

 away at a fine gait. We had been rumiing our ponies 

 and they were breathing fast and hard, and the motion 

 made it almost impossible to hit even a barn. We saw 

 two more deer while sitting at a haystack, but the wind 

 had come up a little and they scented us, and kept away 

 about 150yds., so we could not get a sight on them. We 

 started home, taking the loads out of our guns, and were 

 in a place where we did not dream of seeing deer, when, 

 all at once out went a big one almost from under the 

 ponies' feet, and stopped within 10yds. of us. You can 

 imagine the wild hurry of two fellows to get guns loaded. 

 Well, we were ready just as we saw the white tail disap- 

 pear behind some brush. We had not gone on 100yds., 

 when looking up on the bluff, 75yds. , there stood a hand- 

 some buck, so beautifully outlined between us and the 

 sky. We were all nerves for the moment and went for 

 our pockets, and I was ready in time, but E. said wait; 

 we would have gotten the deer I am certain — no, I am 

 not certain, as the sequel will jirove. When E. was ready 

 I saw him, instead of taking aim, sliding off his pony. 

 Just at that moment the deer made a step and was behind 

 the bluff. When I came to unload I found I had put in a 

 blank cartridge. This is not so much of a disappointment 

 to us as it would be to an Eastern hunter, for we can go 

 out any day or night and see the same sight. — W. 



Pumpers at Game.— Maj. H. W. Merrill sends us this 

 extract from a tetter received by him fTom a Montana 

 correspondent: "There was a time when most all the 

 game killed was within 100yds., as you say, for large, or 

 50yds. for small game. The time has passed in this coun- 

 try for that. One must make long shots as a rule. The 

 large game is scarce and hard to find, still more difficult 

 to approach. I have not myself to blame, as I never 

 killed game that I did not want and never for hides alone. 

 The hide hunters killed off most. I have before now 

 unshed there were nothing but muzzleloaders in the 

 country. I once had out a party or 'tourist hunters' 

 who kept shooting at a band of buffalo until I stopped 

 them. The plan had been for each to select an old bull 

 and kill it: I was to kill a cow for camp meat. After the 

 shooting commenced I shot twice at my cow and saw her 

 fall, and then watched the rest. I saw buffalo limping 

 off in all directions, and directing my attention to the 

 shooters I saw them aiming at the band of over two hun- 

 dred animals and shooting as fast as possible. They had 

 re] leaters and were keeping the air full of bullets. I 

 stopped them as soon as possible, begging them not to 

 shoot at the band but put out of misery those wounded; 

 this they did, but they had killed several more than were 

 intended. How many wounded ones escaped I do not 

 know. Since then I have disliked all magazine rifles in 

 th e hands of most tourists. They get wild as soon as they 

 commence shooting, and as a rule end by shooting until 

 every cartridge is out of their magazines. Often I have 

 heard the click of the hammer on an empty chamber. 

 Very few men will reserve their fire, as I have seen Col. 

 Pickett do. After firing one shot (he is as careful as 

 though he had a muzzleloader) he will load as soon as 

 possible, but wait for results from his first shot. That is 

 the reason he killed seventeen out of twenty-four bear 

 with one shot each ; most men would have been shooting 

 as long as there were signs of life." — H. 



Anekt Bio Baos. — The Monmouth Gazette tells of two 

 citizens of that village who came home on Monday from a 

 five weeks' hunt near New Boston, during which they 

 killed over 2,000 ducks. During a given four days in 

 March they lulled 225 and a week ago to-day they killed 

 eighty, all" of which had to be thrown away the next clay 

 because of the warm weather. The Gazette says " they 

 had a tip-top hunt." We heartily rejoice at the above. 

 A very few such expeditions, if all our exchanges w T ill be 

 good enough to publish accounts of them, will suffice to 

 put an end to spring shooting. Our sportsmen, and every- 

 body else who knows enough to handle a gun, have been 

 prodigal of our game fowl to an extent that is worse than 

 reckless. Two thousand ducks killed in March or April 

 is as good as ten thousand killed in November. How long 

 will huiuvrs need to kill these birds at the rate of eighty 

 a day iintil the only specimens found in the whole Missis- 

 sippi valley will be those that are mounted in glass cases ? 

 When this country of ours was new ; when ducks and 

 deer aad chickens and email and turkeys fairly swarmed 

 about Burlington, and when the infernal shotgun and pot 

 hunter were unknown, men took their rifles and killed 

 what they needed for food and no more. Nowadays 

 men kill, not to supply the needs, but to gratify their love 

 of killing. It is time that an end was put to this wanton 

 slaughter. If every hunter who goes out will come in 

 with half a dozen ducks, as many as any man can want, 

 the number of birds killed by spring shooting will not 

 materially interfere with their perpetuation, but the kill- 

 ing of 2,000 birds in a month by two men who have 

 nothing better to do than to turn their efforts to the 

 destruction of the wildfowl of our country is inexcusable 

 on any ground whatever. Monmouth is not alone in this 

 matter. Burlington has men who would have done just as 

 much of this work as any one else had they had opportu- 

 nity, and so has every town on the Mississippi. They all 

 need reining up.— Burlington (Ioiva) Haivkeye. 



Kentucky Quail. — In Madison and Lincoln counties, 

 Ky., they shoot and trap email in summer and at other 

 times, without regard to season or reason. The Forest 

 and Stream ought to do missionarv service here. — G. L. 

 H. (Stanford, Kv.). 



Brass and Paper Shells.— I have noticed that the 

 use of brass shells causes a gun to foul more than when 

 paper shells are used. Is this a general rule?— G. 



