338 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



ilf®T. 29, 18H8, 



RIFLES FOR SMALL GAME, 



Editor Forest and Stream: , . . i 



I notice in a late issue that "N. Orleans" was m wan tot 

 a rifle to use on clucks at 130 to 200yds. Our shooting 

 here is at small game, and a good deal of it is at such 

 distances as he speaks of. I tried a Winchester .38, and 

 while it is a good gun, it was too large. Next I tried a 

 .82 rim-fire Smith & Wesson. It shoots very nicely for 

 squirrel hunting, but did not come up to my idea of a 

 gun for ducks that were shy, woodchucks and foxes. I 

 next ordered a Stevens .32cal., 35grs. powder and a bul- 

 let weighing 165grs. The rifle was sighted with Lyman s 

 paten t°sigbts, and it ju,t filled the bill. It was the best 

 shootin? rifle that I ever owned. Wnat I mean is that I 

 could do closer shooting with it, and the penetration was 

 all any one could desire. I should advise "N. Orleans" to 

 get one of those rifles, and I prorate him that he wfll be 

 well satisfied with it. I have sold the rifle to one who 

 shoots a great deal at the target, besides doing consider- 

 able htinting, and he p-aises the gun very highly, I have 

 been doing a different kind of shooting lately and would 

 like to have ''Iron Ramrod" write a little more about the 

 .23c d. cartridge. At present lam shooting rabbits be- 

 fore a hound for my hunting; and I want a rifle to do it 

 with. Now, I would like to know at what distance the 

 little .22 will do the work. Can I kill a rabbit easily at 

 from 50 to 100yds. When they are near me I always 

 shoot at them on the run, but in some places where I 

 hunt I have to take them when they are sitting, aTd at 

 long distances, too. Sometimes I have to go without get- 

 ting one became of the distance. I want the rifle for 

 that kiud of sho 'ling, also a ray squirrels and at the heads 

 of grouse. Would "Iron Ramrod" recommend the .22 

 "long rifle" (rim-fire) cartridge for such use? If not, then 

 what? I do not take to the shotgun ucless I can have 

 wing-shooting, and that is out of the question here. Our 

 laws forbid the use of a dog hunting grouse. H. B. S. 

 East Berkshire, Vfc., Nov. 19. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



If "N. Orleans" will get a Winchester .22-15-45 mounted 

 with Lyman sights he will find it just the thing. It is 

 light to carry, makes very light repoit, the ammunition 

 is not expensive, the whole thing can be bought for little 

 money, and it will hit a duck as far as he can see to take 

 aim. R. S. F. 



Lacoitoa, N. H. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



N ->w as a brother sportsman the rifle which I recom- 

 mend to "N. Orleans" is the .3.2-40 Ballard No. 4 perfec- 

 tion rifle, which, I think, would answer his purpose, but 

 if he prefers a magazine gun I would likewise recom- 

 mend a .32-40 Marlin repeater, which I have used and find 

 to be as good a m id-range reflating rifle as I ever handled. 

 I think that either of the above mentioned sizes would 

 answer his purpose as I have used them in thickly settled 

 country mostly upon crows and hawks, finding them 

 very powerful for small-bore gun. 

 Brooklyn, L. I. A CONSTANT READER. 



A HUNT ON THE WEST GALLATIN. 



A PARTY of four was organized to make the trip and 

 to start on the 17th of August, that being just before 

 "bugling" time for elk, and when their antlers were freest 

 from breaks, thus enabling us to procure a few good 

 specimens without killing very many bulls to select from. 

 Bears were also quite plentiful at that season of the year, 

 although their fur was not so good as later in the fall. 



Getting our horses up early on the morning of the 17th 

 our saddles and packs were soon adjusted, guns placed in 

 slings, and we mounted the hurricane deck of our cayuses 

 and oade adieu to civilization for the time. A more liappy 

 and expectant party never started on a similar trip. After 

 traveling about twenty miles we went into camp for 

 the night, and while some of the party were arranging 

 camp and attending to the ponies the rest were whipping 

 the West Gallatin for trout; and in the course of half an 

 hour they had quite enough for supper and breakfast. 

 That night, while seated around a blazing camp-fire, every 

 one lived high in anticipation and tried to keep each 

 other's spirits running as high as possible. All were tired 

 after the long jaunt and in good condition to enjoy a 

 long night's rest. 



On the morning of the 18th we broke camp early, de- 

 termined to reach the hunting grounds if possible that 

 day. At noon a hasty lunch was prepared while the ponies 

 rested and ate a little bunch of grass, after which we re- 

 sumed our journey, shooting an occasional grouse by 

 the trail. Just at sundown and as we were about to go 

 into camp, a large brown bear was sighted about 300yds. 

 from the trail. As it was getting late no time was lost 

 in bagging Mr. Bruin; but as his fur was of little or no 

 value his circass was left for the other bear to take care 

 of, while we went on and into camp, and after a hasty 

 meal stretched ourselves out for a good night's rest 

 before commencing the hunt, for we were now in a 

 game country and must make the best of our time, which 

 was limited to a very few days. 



Aug. 19, while getting up our horses for an early start 

 (for I always hunt on horseback), I saw several coveys of 

 grouse, some of which I shot, taking their heads off: and 

 before getting back to camp I shot a fine buck, thus get- 

 ting a bag of game before breakfast that would do credit 

 to a full day's hunt in some countries. After breakfast 

 we started out all together, expecting to separate before 

 long. Each man no doubt expected to excel all others 

 in shooting, for there was more shooting than hunting- 

 but we had not gone far when Ave discovered fresh bear 

 signs, and upon looking around in weeds and brush for a 

 few moments, we discovered a fine black bear feeding 

 with her cubs close by her side. The old bear was soon 

 dispatched, but the young ones ran into the weeds and 

 would not show enough of themselves to give us any- 

 thing but a snap shot, so two of us turned our attention 

 to "pealing the old bear, while the other two lay for the 

 cubs; and as the little fellows would show themselves 

 once m a while it proved great spcrt for the young nim- 

 rods who had never killed anv bear. They were gather- 

 ing material for a "bt ar fight" on paper or in town. We 

 all surrounded the little chaps, closed in on them and 

 soon h id them on the string with their mother. A part 

 of their meat was saved and cooked, and finer, sweeter 

 meat could not be asked for by the most fastidious 

 epicure. By the time the three pelts were properly cared 

 for it was time to return to camp. 



On the following day, Aug. 20, large bands of elk were 

 eeen and four fine bulls were our reward for the morning's 

 hunt. The remainder of the day was taken up in caring 

 for the meat and horns. 



Aug. 21, after leaving camp about a mile, all going 

 Indian file, a good-sized grizzly was seen on the side of a 

 mountain some distance away, and the necessary pre- 

 cautions were made to surround his bearship and give 

 each one a chance to havo his share of the fun. How- 

 ever, he proved an easy victim and was taken in without 

 any incident very exciting. A porcupine and a few 

 grouse were all we got that day after fleshing the bear 

 skin. 



Aug. 22 was the only time in fifteen years as a hunter 

 that your humble servant "took water" from bear. It 

 happened after the following: Three of us were traveling 

 along the brow of a mountain, when Ave saw three 

 grizzlies feeding on Aveeds and digging roots about a mile 

 below us. Our plan to kill all three of them was for me 

 to go below them, and for the other two to go above 

 and drive them to me or kill them themselves. After I had 

 reached my station, my young hunters proceeded cau- 

 tiously down upon the trio of bear, until they were 

 Winded and started nearly toward me. In the meantime 

 I had examined my repeater .40 90 (which, by the way, 

 was always broken) and found that I was unable to move 

 the lever, so when the bears came my way I instinctively 

 moved back and gave them plenty of room to pass, firing 

 a parting salute when I was sure tbeyAvere out of danger 

 of being hit. We Avere not long going to camp, and I'll 

 promise all my readers that I never Avill go into the 

 brush after bear again with a repeater of that make. 



The next day, Aug. 25, the party got two more elk and 

 three deer. This being quite enough, we gathered up 

 our game and bear skins, which required the remainder 

 of the twelve days to do and get back to town. In the 

 above stated time four of us traveled sixty miles and 

 back, killed five bear ( saw fourteen in all), six elk, which 

 produced some fine specimens, four deer, a dozen grouse 

 and twenty-three fine trout. This is not the best hunt 

 and the most game I ever had a hand in, but it was all 

 we could take care of, and every one was highly pleased 

 with the trip. Should any Eastern sportsman come to 

 Montana I can give them the same trip at a very nominal 

 expense. Bear Hunter. 



Bozeman, Mon tana. 



SAVE ADIRONDACK DOES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



You have now struck the key note which I have 

 sounded constantly in the ears of sportsmen and guides 

 during the three seasons I have spent in touring through- 

 out the gran I old Adirondack region. It has been my 

 practice — and I have "preached what I practiced" — under 

 no consideration to kill a doe, but preserve them that the 

 supply may not so rapidly decrease. Inquiry among old 

 hunters, both sportsmen and guides, leads rue to the con- 

 clusion that three does will average five fawns per annum, 

 and nearly one-half of such increase are bucks. One 

 buck AviU answer for a large number of does. Hence the 

 kidiug of does is unnecessary and tends greatly to 

 decrease the numbers of this species of game. 



In the floating season it would be difficult to determine 

 does from bucks under the j icklight. In the hounding 

 season, as practiced in the Adirondacks, with but few ex- 

 ceptions, the deer are driven into watched lakes and 

 ponds, and there would be no excuse for killing a doe did 

 the law protect, as it certainly ought. The true sports 

 man, Avho seeks only open daylight shots either in the 

 woods or upon the shores of the lakes or ponds, can almost 

 always determine the sex and reserve his fire for bucks 

 alone, but would merit exemption from penalty should 

 he fire upon a doe whose htad Avas concealed, provided 

 affidavit was made to that state of facts. 



By all means let us have protection for the does. While 

 not in favor of and taking no delight in killing a deer 

 before a jacklight or driven by hounds (unless* from a 

 stand on a runway) there are those Avho enjoy those 

 methods, but the number is in the minority to those who 

 prefer the "give the game a chance" style of hunting, 

 and the minority are more favored by the present laws 

 than are the majority. My opinion is that the deer hunt- 

 ing season might reasonably open Aug. 1 (provided that 

 sufficient game wardens could be deputed to prevent 

 the slaughter that otherwise would occur prior to the open 

 season). Permit hounding not to exceed fifteen days, 

 say from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1, and extend the season "to 

 Nov. 15, or even to Dec. 1, that the still-hunter may 

 have at least one or two falls of snow, upon which to 

 track the wary game. Comparatively few sportsmen 

 remain or come into the woods after Nov. 1 ; but there 

 are those who would delight to do so were there a show 

 for still-hunting in that month, and permit to carry out 

 each a deer at a season when it would keep frozen until 

 used. But whatever changes are made, the does should 

 be protected. e. S. W. 



Garrettsville,^ 



Colorado Large Game.— Berthoud, Col., Nov. 12.— 

 Mr. L. E. Franck's article, in Forest a sib Stream of 

 Nov. IS, gave me "the fever," coming just as it has on 

 the very eve of my departure for the Snowy Range for a 

 chase after the blacktail deer. "Old Grey," as he calls 

 himself (a Mr. Smith, some 73 years of age, but spry as a 

 young buck Avhen we talk of hunting), and I have our 

 mess box and wagon all packed for an early start in the 

 morning. Our destination is the Barnes Camp country, 

 on South Powder River, at the foot of the SnowT Range, 

 some two days' drive. A number of deer and some 

 elk have been killed in there this fall. I will try and 

 save some camp notes for Forest and Stream. Our old 

 inend, Uncle DickHubbell, and party, have just returned 

 from a Aveek's hunt in Estes Park,' with one fine large 

 buck. They said they saw more deer, but "he guessed 

 they didn't shoot attheright time and not straightenough, 

 or they would have had more than one old buck to show " 

 Duck shooting has been good here this fall, and geese 

 have been more plentiful than for a long time, but the 

 A A & K ° losiris now ' an(i taey have about a11 gone.— 



Hutchinson, Kas., Nov. 19. — I returned from a two 

 days hunt on the Arkansas River last Saturday. I never 

 got a shot at a duck or goose, but on the road home I 

 killed a few quail. Will. Chamberlin was out one after- 

 noon last Aveek and killed 59 quail over his dog, all flvin°- 

 shots, too.— Will Allen. & 



ELK HUNTING ETHICS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



My first impulse on reading the villainous screed of a 

 correspondent in your issue of Nov. 15, under the above 

 heading, was to treat it with the silent contempt that its 

 author deserves, but when I reflected that it might come 

 under the notice of some one as ignorant as himself, and 

 in such a ease create a false impression, I deemed it best 

 to reply. No reading or thinking sportsman would re- 

 quire a word from me in lesponse to such a cowaraly 

 attack. 



Your correspondent says I recorded the> fact that after 

 shooting a cow and calf' elk, which it would be fair to 

 presume would be game enough of that kind at one time 

 for one small hunting party, I had a long chase after and 

 finally "brutally shot" a large bull. I recorded no such 

 fact. In the article referred to I said "we" had killed a 

 cow and calf. I did not deem it necessary to state how 

 many there were of us, and our situation, in order to avoid 

 being accused of "ruthle-sly slaughtering" game. Sports- 

 men in general know me too well to render any such 

 precaution necessary. But for the enlightenment of any 

 of your young readers who, like your correspondent, are 

 ignorant as to my record, I will state that there were 

 seven of us in the party; that we had a team and several 

 pack animals, and that each member of the party was 

 anxious to take home a carcass of elk or other large 

 game for Avinter meat. 



I have been a close student of the ethics of field sports 

 for twenty years, and so far as I have been able to 

 learn it has never been considered "ruthless slaughter" 

 for a hunting party to kill as many elk or other large 

 animals as there were members of the party, if they had 

 the means of getting them out and taking them home, as 

 Ave had in this case. We could have killed tAventy to 

 thirty elk cn that trip if Ave had been disposed to 

 "slaughter," but only killed the few we needed and 

 could take care of. 



If this kicker had been an habitual reader of Harpers' 

 Magazine, Harpers' Weekly, Forest and .Stream, Outing, 

 the American Magazine and other first -ekuss periodicals, 

 he would have known that I signed my "genuine" name 

 to the article he mentions; that I was not hiding behind 

 a nom de plume as he implies (and then hides behind one 

 himself); that for fifteen years my pen had been busy in 

 advocating the passage and enforcement of game laws 

 and in denouncing violators of them; that in many cases 

 I had been within easy shooting range of large bands of 

 buffalo, elk, antelope and deer that I had not shot at at 

 all because I did not need them. 



Although I have killed a good deal of game, both large 

 and small, I have never wasted a pound of good meat in 

 my life, and in all these twenty years of hunting, fishing 

 and of writing on field sports, I have never before, to my 

 knowledge, been accused of "ruthlessly slaughtering 

 game." It remained for a man Avho apparently has just 

 commenced to read of field sports to take up the pen 

 against me and so to expose his ignorance. 



G. O. Shields. 



A HUNT IN "FOREST AND STREAM."- 



MY friend Quilp and T, in the long ago, used to indulge 

 our sporting instincts quite extensively, and many 

 a pleasant day did we enjoy at Conesus Lake and on the 

 wooded hills about our native town. We never secured 

 any great quantity of game, but ive were of that class of 

 sportsmen who by long experience have learned not to 

 gauge the fun by the Avoight of the ba^; so we invariably 

 had a good time. It AA*as in my early matrimonial days 

 and Avhen Quilp and I had decided on a hunt I would get 

 up at 4:il0 A. M., set the coffee going and giub out an 

 humble lunch; then Quilp avouIcI drive up and partake 

 with me, and off we would go before the first crack of 

 light. 



But my friend got the Western fever and one day he 

 baue me "good-by" and was off for California. Eleven 

 years rolled away, filled Avith their usual accompaniments 

 of joy and sorrow, and save for an occasional indirect 

 hint I almost lost sight of my old shooting companion. 

 But one day not long ago a bronzed and bearded gentle- 

 man entered my store and in a round Pacific slope tone 

 demanded "a quire of piper, and that mighty quick, and 

 mind stranger none of your two-bit stun but something 

 good." Tremblingly I glanced into the stianger's eyes 

 with the mute appeal "don't shoot," when twinkling from 

 those gleaming orbs I saw "the light of other days." and 

 "Quilp — H." was the double ciy, and as we struck hands 

 across the counter the gap of years was bridged and we 

 were boys again. Andf then wo sat down in the office 

 and talked, and talked, and talked, and learned all about 

 one another. He had become a ranchman near Los 

 Angeles, Cal., was prosperous and happy, Avas home to 

 visit his aged mother and to- take her back with him to 

 that sunny land. As Ave talked old memories came flood- 

 ing over us, memories of the dead and of the changes 

 time had wrought in men and things since last we met. 

 But Quilp had come for a good long visit; and before 

 many days the scroll of years had been roiled back and 

 Ave found ourselves discussing our old shooting scrapes 

 with all the gusto of old times, and it was finally decided 

 that we should take a regular old-fashioned hunt just ex- 

 actly as we used to, without one solitary concomitant 

 left out. I Avas to arrange for guns and breakfast and 

 Quilp was to furnish the conveyances. 



The weather for two days had been incomparable. 

 After a tedious rainstorm, or succession of- rainstorms, 

 everything had cleared out beautifully, and November 

 seemed to have given place to May, so mild was the air 

 and so sweet and pure the sunshine. We were in high 

 glee until the night before the day appointed, when un- 

 folding the evening paper Ave read under the head of 

 "Probabilities," "Tomorrow for western New York a 

 slight fall in temperature with rain." But Ave scoffed at 

 the idea. "Wasn't the moon shining? and besides," we 

 argued, "the-e weather report fellows never strike it 

 right." So I bade Quilp good-night, went home, set the 

 alarm for five o'clocir, laid the kindling in the range, 

 mixed the coffee, got my suspenders changed on to my 

 knickerbockers, took a final look at the weather and 

 turned in. The first whin- of the alarm landed me on the 

 Axminster; and a sleepy peep through the shutters re- 

 vealing nothing but "thick blackness," I put on my togs, 

 and carefully shutting off all communication between the 

 culinary department and the rest of the house, I went to 

 work, and soon the kettle was steaming and the simple 

 lunch laid out. 



