May 9, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



817 



ing in the vicinity in season is said to be fine. Small 

 vaiue there is always plentiful, and when the members 

 zb down each year for a two- weeks' stay they have a 

 royal time. There are other clubs of tlie kind in the 

 State, but none on quite so elaborate a scale. Among 

 fclieni are the clubs at Winchester, Georgetown, Owens- 

 ooro, Lexington, Pincville and Mt. Sterling. 



Good dogs are in great demand here now, and those 

 jvho own them guard their animals as if they were made 

 pf. gold. There are many hunters who would buy a good 

 pointer or setter, and pay a good figure for the right kind 

 animal, but prevalent ideas here are that they are very 

 iCarce. H- H. B. 



liOursvrxLis, Ky. 



SHOOTING, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 

 1 have bera much interested in reading the articles in 

 St paper descriptive of the shooting clubs of Chicago 

 bud the resources for sport at tl.eir command. The more 

 f read up these matters, however, the more I become 

 Convinced that not many years hence the average sports- 

 Lan will have mighty little use for a gun, except possibly 

 topeltawayat clay targets or other inanimate objects. 

 Why? Because all the available shooting territory will 

 tie in possession of the city shooting clubs. Now,'there 

 are hundreds of the best sportsmen in our land who live 

 butside the limits of the cities, and who are the peers of 

 Say that live in any land under the sun, and who would 

 Cjorn to do an injury to the property of any man while 

 [rat for a day's sport with the gun or rod; yet let one of 

 these men set foot upon the niaish owned by some duck- 

 Big club, and straightway a game constable is after him 

 m though he were a villain of the deepest dye. Now, 

 Ibis may be all right from the club men's standpoint, but 

 pFthe rest of the world outside it looks a little 

 belfish. I will admit that if a party of gentle- 

 jaen should club together to restock some certain 

 Bract of land with game birds, such as quail or grouse, 

 it would be a gross injustice for other parties to shoot 

 rheir birds: but with the duck, snipe and woodcock, who 

 fee here to-day and yonder to-morrow, it is different. 

 Bod created the game birds for the use of mankind, and 

 [why a few should get them all and the majoritynone is a 

 Kmestion not easily answered. If club men see fit to pur- 

 chase land, and erect a club house for their accommoda- 

 fcjon in a game country, why, that is perfectly proper, 

 but they ou^ht to be willing to take then - chances with 

 tbe rest of the boys while out among the marshes. No 

 decent man would think of invading the immediate 

 grounds of tbe club house without invitation, but a mile 

 away among the reeds and rice one man is, or should be, 

 rather, as good as another. Take for example the St. 

 Clair fiats, when one gets up above the line of club houses 

 along the chamnl the lake is covered in every direction 

 with patches of rushes, and every little ways you will see 

 a notice posted on a stake forbidding any shooting. Now, 

 who put up these notices? "Why, theclub men, of course, 

 you say. Well, who do the club men derive their 

 authority from, pray tell? The Canadian clubs lease from 

 the Indians on Walpole Island, but on our side of the 

 jfjhannel the clubs have taken things into their own hands 

 end posted notices just where they please, and they will 

 keep you off, too. 



Now perhaps this is justice and all right, but I fail to 

 jfliecover wherein. As to the protection part of the matter, 

 Jam unable to see what the difference is between ten 

 men killing a hundred ducks each, or a hundred men 

 killing ten ducks each. There is a difference, but it is 

 •Aot apparent to the ducks probably; my experience has 

 'Been that the more shooters on a ducking ground the 

 Jafer the ducks. One thing I do believe, and wish I 

 jttight see it come to pass, that no man should be allowed 

 $b sell or barter away any of the game birds of which he 

 .iuay become possessed. If there was no market for 

 jgatne, men would know when they had killed enough. 

 I have done such a thing in years gone by as to hunt a 

 little for market, but the teachings of Forest and 

 jBtream, and the fear of soon becoming a "bloated bond- 

 holder," have shown me the error of my ways, and I am 

 ,i&ontented now if I get enough game for a good square 

 meal. Chippewa. 

 I Sjevxlle, O. 



TEN DAYS IN CAMP. 



I Editor Forest and Stream : 



Last fall I spent three days out in my shooting terri- 

 ! tory. I call it mine because I go there 'every season. I 

 Rpnd a great abundance of game left. I flushed four 

 coveys of quail, containing at least eighty birds in all. 

 iThe dog treed twenty or thirty squirrels, and jumped a 

 [number of rabbits. I look forward to good fall shooting. 

 [iThere are two bunches of wild turkeys there, one of 

 releven, the other thirteen. They were seen early in Feb- 

 ruary and looked fine and bid fair to furnish a goodly 

 Limniber of young for the fall shooting. They will in- 

 crease in spite of the gunner, as they know how to take 

 care of themselves in the wood, and it takes a man who 

 ! understands his business to get one. There is plenty of 

 mast in the wood, especially among the back timber. 



On Oct. 15, 1888, Jim and Frank packed tent, guns and 

 provisions on Jim's buckboard, to which was hitched his 

 mustang pony. Frank took the train and met Jim at the 

 I station, ten miles distant from town. A drive of eight 

 miles more took them to Basil's, where George put in his 

 appearance, and, exchanging the pony and buckboard for 

 mules and heavy wagon, we started for the old camp 

 I ground. On tbe way enough game was killed for supper, 

 but we had pork for breakfast. 



What pen can describe the beauties of the woods in 

 lovely October, and after a year of close attention to 

 ' business I am sure we all enjoyed it to the fullest extent, 

 taking in great draughts of the life-giving pure air far 

 •Jftway from the strife and turmoil of city life, and the 

 strain and vexations of business. We killed enough 

 game so that we always had meatin camp, fish and game, 

 and a good many of our friends at home had game on 

 their tables, where game is usually very scarce. Ten 

 days of that kind of enjoyment brought us both home 

 again with a new lease of life, and better morally, men- 

 tally and physically for having had a closer comm anion 

 with mother nature. 



We killed 157 head of game, caught some nice fish, no 

 accident occured, and on the whole had a splendid time. 



lEOKTON, 0. D. 



RIFLES FOR SMALL GAME. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I read with much interest in a recent issue of your 

 valuable paper of "Byrne's" luck shooting game with a 

 ,22cal. rifle. My experience has been very much like his, 

 both in northern Maine and in Hillsboro county, Fla. In 

 the latter country rice birds, mourning doves and quail 

 were the only birds I was sure of with the .22cal. On 

 several occasions I shot at wild pigeons, and saw them 

 fly away, apparently unharmed, but found them after- 

 ward with a bullet hole completely through the body. I 

 killed four alligators (one of them something over six 

 feet in length) while there, the first shot being placed in 

 the eye, and with the short cartridge. I have put no less 

 than nine bullets through a gray squirrel in the top of a 

 tall pine before bringing him down. This does not speak 

 very well for my shooting, but I did not seee his head at 

 any time long enough for a shot. It was no use at all to 

 shoot at herons and buzzards. 



I used a I5in. Stevens bicycle rifle, chambered for the 

 "long rifle" cartridge; which, by the way, gave me no 

 better satisfaction than the ordinary long. In most cases 

 where I took the "long rifle*' from the gun, I left the 

 bullet sticking in the chamber. I have never used either 

 of the .22 center -fire cartridges. They must be very good 

 for target purposes, but unless one is good shot enough to 

 take heads at all distances, I don't think them muoh good 

 at even small game. 



1 have now a Stevens .32-40 range rifle, rigged fore and 

 aft with Lyman sights, and though I do not pretend to be 

 much of a shot and never but once tried my hand at the 

 Creedmoor 200yds. target, on a regular range*, I have never 

 been beaten at long or short distance since I owned it. 

 But I lay about as much to the Lyman sight as I do to the 

 excellence of the rifle. Last fall we had a three days' 

 bunting match here in the Dead River country, and I had 

 a chance to test t he merits of the sights in wood and field, 

 in light and in shade, and I like them so well that a man 

 couldn't give me the best rifle made, for my own use, 

 with the ordinary crotch-sight on. I have never tried 

 the .32-40 on deer, or in fact on anything larger than 

 foxes, but I find it very satisfactory, except that it tears 

 small game pretty badly if shot in the body. I mean to 

 try a light powder charge and round bullet, at short 

 range, on grouse and squirrels. Perhaps some of the 

 readers of the Forest and Stream can give me their 

 experience with round bullets in a .32-40 through your 

 columns. 



The favorite hunting rifle here seems to be the .38-55 

 Martin. A guide here at Eustis named Emery, while 

 hunting deer in the fall, came upon four bears. He had 

 only seven cartridges in his Marlin, but he succeeded in 

 killing three of them and badly wounding the fourth. 

 It being late in the afternoon was all that prevented him 

 from gathering the last one. But for killing power on 

 big game I think there is no cartridge equal to the Gov- 

 ernment .45-70-405. Lyman Sight. 



Eustis, Maine, April 29. 



all gone to a neighbor's for the day. She screamed, 

 and the deer, the more he plunged the tighter he 

 got wound up, and the louder she yelled. Something 

 had to be done and done at once. She had a fine gun in 

 the house, loaded, but she would not approach it, as fire- 

 arms were her special dread. Among her many posses- 

 sions she had a large pair of tongs— fire tongs — that she 

 had brought over with her. She thoroughly understood 

 this firearm, and with all her housewifely instincts out- 

 raged, grabbed them and mailed in. She had her cloth- 

 ing slightly torn, but within five minutes they had veni- 

 son; she literally pounded the buck's skull to a jelly, 

 after which she told me she sat down and had a good 

 cry. It all depends on what you're used to. 



Her nephew, aged 14, within a week killed a doe with 

 a charge of No. 8 shot, fired from a converted flintlock 

 musket, certainly as ugly a looking weapon as I ever saw, 

 but it answered all the purposes of a modern repeater. 

 The boy was used to it. 



Game is growing scarcer and the mpans of destroying it 

 improving day by day, and I want to say to my fellow 

 sportsmen if you want to get any game while it is going, 

 stick to the gun that you are used to. Tealy. 



THE SEASON NEAR ST, LOUIS. 



QT. LOUIS. Mo., May 1.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 O The closing scenes in the drama of field shooting 

 were witnessed in this locality last week. All the ducks, 

 with the exception of a few wood ducks, have skipped for 

 their northern breeding haunts. Wood ducks in good 

 numbers breed in this locality, and about August splendid 

 sport may be had on them. 



Sniping has been slow and of very little interest during 

 the week. Quite a number of the sportsmen have been 

 out in quest of them, but as a rule the bags made were 

 small, and many of them vow they shall not make an- 

 other effort this season to bag any more. It was hoped 

 that the past season would be an exceptionally f avoidable 

 one for the birds, but it proved juU the contrary. The 

 marshes were, -with the exception of a week, in most ex- 

 cellent condition, and before the birds began to make 

 their appearance the sportsmen were in high glee over 

 the prospects of the sport in store for them. Whv the 

 birds failed to come this way is a question very difficult 

 to answer. Old sportsmen who were seen and questioned 

 regarding it, simply shook their heads and said nothing. 

 Large shipments of birds were received by the game deal- 

 ers in this city from points south of here, and there was 

 every reason to feel certain that they would come through 

 here and also tarry long enough to furnish a little sport 

 to the anxious sportsmen. A few fair bags were made 

 during the season, but tbe amount does not compare with 

 what was customary for this locality. What birds are 

 coming to this market now are from points several hun- 

 dred miles north. Unser Fritz. 



SMOKY FIREPLACES. 



WILL some kind reader of Forest and Stream give 

 me the dimensions of an open-hearth fireplace that 

 will burn cord wood and not allow the smoke to escape 

 into the room? At our club house we built an open- 

 hearth fireplace that smoked so badly that we tore it 

 down. We rebuilt it, and the second smoked as badly 

 as the first. We then built a new hearth on the west 

 side, the first and second were on the south side of the 

 bouse. The third smoked so badly that we tore it down 

 and rebuilt it, and that one is but little improvement on 

 the other three. It will smoke. Will some one who 

 knows how tell me how to buitd an open-hearth fireplace 

 that will take all the smoke up the chimney ? KEOUK. 



[It is assumed that Keouk's Inquiry refers to a one- 

 story house. This being so, let him build his chimney 

 five or six feet square on the inside, carry it up square 

 to the spring of his gable, leave the opening into the 

 club house five feet high, arching the open side if he 

 likes. At this height the opening at top may be contracted 

 eighteen inches each way, and the chimney sloped 

 upward from that to the top of the roof, at which height 

 the opening may be reduced to a foot square. Then raise 

 the chimney another four or five feet without reduction. 

 The hearth should be raised six inches in front, sloping 

 back to nine or ten inches behind, and if a piece of grat- 

 ing or a few iron bars are available, it is better to have a 

 portion of the hearth for an ashpit and draft, laying the 

 grating or bars across the vacant strip, which may extend 

 from the front to three or four feet back. Finally" a 

 curtain is wanted to contract the square opening into 

 the room by r reducing its height. This curtain may be of 

 tin or sheet iron, the width of the fireplace, and from 

 eighteen inches to two feet deep, and should be tacked 

 or nailed to the top of the opening. If this opening is 

 arched, the curtain is simply required to span the upper 

 arc of the arch. Perhaps a curtain to his present fire- 

 place and a flour barrel on top of the chimney for draft 

 would do it.] 



WHAT YOU'RE USED TO. 



THERE has been more or less discussion in your journal 

 as to the relative merits of rifles, as to weight of 

 lead, the amount of powder to be used to propel it, size 

 of bore, height of trajectory, etc. This discussion has 

 been going on to my personal knowledge for twenty T 

 years, and ardent sportsmen are still unsatisfied. Now, 

 is there not another side to this question? We, of course, 

 know that a good workman with good tools can do 

 marvelous things, but can an indifferent mechanic work 

 with the good man's tools? May he not be able to do 

 better work with the tools that he is used to? 



A long-range globe-sighted rifle in the hands of a 

 marksman can be made to run up a score of bullseyes 

 down a firing range, but will it in the timber do better 

 work on deer than a bored out musket loaded with nine 

 buckshot? The size of your game bag, or rather bag of 

 game, depends a great deal on the knowledge of the fire- 

 arms you're used to. An estimable English lady who 

 came to Canada some twenty-five years ago was one day 

 deeply interested in getting out the family washing. She 

 had sheets and tablecloths out drying, when to her horror 

 she saw the line go down and her spotless clothes 

 trampled in the dirt. A large buck caught by the 

 antlers was the cause of the trouble. There was 

 not a man within five miles of her — they had 



Pennsylvania Game Extermination.— Editor Fo7*est 

 and Stream: A few instances of the way game is being 

 destroyed in this neighborhood have come under my 

 observation since January 1, in conversation with a 

 young man who lived near. I saw four boys with a dog, 

 going into a piece of woods where in season I had shot at 

 quail, grouse and rabbits. Seeing something that resem- 

 bled a gun barrel in one of their bands I said: "Are those 

 boys hunting?" "Yes," said the young man, "that dog 

 will run rabbits, and when they are holed they dig them 

 out with that hoe or crowbar, that you imagine is a gun, 

 and in this way they furnish meat for the family as long 

 as they can find rabbit, coon or w^oodchuck. Not many 

 years since a number of unprincipled sportsmen residing 

 here kept and made use of ferrets, which, when under 

 control, will clear out rabbits faster than all the breech- 

 loaders in existence, and when allowed to escape and 

 roam at large work incalculable destruction among our 

 game, both fur and feathered. One year ago a neigh- 

 boring farmer shot a ferret near his bain. Passing 

 through his woods a few days since, under a ledge of 

 rocks he discovered the half-devoured body of a ruffed 

 grouse. A few inches off a crevice in the rocks showed 

 the den of the slayer, a fox, as he supposed. Procuring 

 a dynamite cartridge he tried to dislodge the occupant, 

 but rending asunder the rock disturbed him not. A steel 

 trap was next tried. For two nigbts it was pushed aside, 

 but on the third night the trapper was successful and the 

 murderer was caught. "What do you suppose it was?" 

 said my farmer friend. "A fox, of course," was my 

 reply. "No sir," said he, "it was another of those mis- 

 erable ferrets that was left or got away from its owner 

 last fall, and has probably killed most all the birds and 

 rabbits my woods harbor, as I have not seen nearly as 

 many recently as at the end of the shooting season." 

 Our game warden has been looking for some of these 

 f erreters tbe past autumn, but failed to make a case so far. 

 One case that has come to my knowledge illustrates what 

 can be done with ferrets. Three miles from this town 

 there lies as fair a little valley for game as a sportsman 

 could wish for. Five years ago its timber and brush 

 piles were alive with cottontails. Every brush fence 

 was a nursery and every other brush heap contained a 

 rabbit. In this valley lived a farmer having a son who 

 was unable to keep up his end at hard work, being partly 

 crippled. They procured a ferret, and the boy brought 

 rabbits to the game dealers here by the hundred, many 

 being kittens or only half grown. To-day not a cotton- 

 tail is to be found in the neighborhood for a radius of 

 some miles. They have been completely cleaned out by 

 ferrets. A few ruffed grouse are left, but by importing 

 a Connecticut bird snarer the work of extermination 

 would be complete.— W. P. D. (Towanda, Pa.). 



Spring in New Brunswick. — Mr. Orr informs me 

 that the flight of wild geese over the country between the 

 Nashwalk and Miramichi rivers has been very large this 

 spring, and that these birds alighted and fed much more 

 than usual on the high lands. Two were caught there in 

 steel traps set for them in the fields; one of these, which 

 turned out to be a bird in good condition, had its leg 

 broken by the trap and consequently had to be killed, the 

 other is now a captive and is walking about with its 

 wings cut as contentedly as one could expect to see a wild 

 goose in captivity. — Edward Jack (Frederic ton, Can.). 



Forest and Stream, Box 2,833, N. Y. city, hns descriptive illus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. LefliriiWeirs book, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing," which will be mailed free on request. The book is pro- 

 nounced by "Nanit," "trloan," "Dick Swivellcr," "Svbiilene" and 

 other competent authorities to be the best treatise on the subject 

 extant. 



