26 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 1891. 



but killed nothing. I could see up the river a sufficient 

 distance to see the game approaching in season. They 

 all flew about the same height above the ground. 



I finally adopted the plan, when I saw the birds ap- 

 proaching, of aiming about the line of flight, keeping 

 both eyes ojpen; and when the birds were within about 

 15ft. of the line of aim, fired. By tha,t method I obtained 

 about three birds at five shots. 



My friends returned to camp, but had killed nothing. 

 One of them came out where I was shooting and com- 

 menced firing. He was as good a shot as myself, but 

 killed nothing. Finally he inquired how I managed to 

 hit the birds. I informed him. He tried the experiment 

 and succeeded as well as I did. 



That friend said that when he and the other two friends 

 were up the river in that boat, distant about a mile, they 

 would shoot, and then it would seem that about as soon 

 as their gun was discharged they would hear the report 

 of my gun, the flight of the birds was so rajjid. H. S. 



THE DOG FOR GROUSE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In yours of the 8 th Mr. Gordon wants to know what 

 kind of a dog to get for hunting "partridges," which 

 scare him "out of his boots" when they get up all of a 

 sudden. Though this is doubtless a figger o' speech, the 

 first requisite in the business is for Mr. G. to conquer the 

 tendency to get panicky, for unless he does, dog or no 

 dog, he will get very few birds. And I would advise him 

 to persist in shooting on the wing whether he gets any 

 game for a while or not. He don't want to pot-shoot 

 birds. I know he don't. He says so. If he did he'd get 

 a little whilfet of a dog that would scare a bird up into a 

 tree and then stand and bark until his master sneaked up 

 and murdered it. I'm very glad he is above such 

 practices. Let him persevere until he shoots his iirst bird 

 artistically, when he will find that he hasn't anywhere 

 near arms enough with which to hug himself. 



He wants to "know somewhere near where a bird is." 

 That's laudable, I don't blame him. It is one of the 

 first things to know when he is afield, and as he can 

 know much better with the assistance of a good dog, that 

 is what he ought to have. But wliat breed? That opens 

 up considerable of a subject as regai-ds grouse shooting, 

 I have hunted "partridges" a few, in widely difl'erent 

 sections of our country, under many varying conditions, 

 with setter, spaniel and mongrel, and although I know 

 that I shall be tabooed by a large class of spaniel men I 

 advise Mi-. G. to get a setter, I do this not because I own 

 one and can't see any good in any other dog, nor because 

 I own a cocker and can't see anything admirable in him. 

 Oh no! Far from it. Money could scarcely buy him. If 

 ever the hackneyed appellation "merry little cocker" 

 fitted like a "duck's foot in the mud," it does in Tobe's 

 case. He is the jolliest, good natiu'edest, indefatigablest, 

 perse ver ingest, untiringest, little black ubiquity on legs 

 there ever was. As a house dog he is a treasure, when 

 he does'nt get suddenly sick, as he does sometimes before 

 you can open the door. Even then he does his best to get 

 out in time. He is wonderfully intelligent and sensitive, 

 and a good watch dog. He is the terror of stray cats, 

 though with our white Malt-abby he is on the veiy best 

 of terms, and has heaps of fun. He is several years her 

 senior, and of com-se as becomes a well-bred dog submits 

 to many indignities complacently, though he knows very 

 well wiien he has just about rations enough for his own 

 use, and she suggests a division thereof. It is very 

 amusing to see her, as he is soberly jogging along think- 

 ing of something important, make a sidewise spring or 

 two and land on his bacU, where she goes through the 

 motions of using teeth and claws with a great show of 

 business, and when he rolls her over and over on the 

 floor, his is only show as much as was hers. But his fun- 

 niest caper is with stray curs. He knows that I have a 

 great aversion to such wnd if he sees one on the premises, 

 from the window, sounds the alarm forthwith, but if he 

 is outside when one arrives, and I am not around, the 

 way he hobnobs with that dog, and puts in the time for 

 all it is worth is funny to see, but let me appear suddenly 

 on the scene, and trouble begins. With snarl and spring 

 and back up Tobe attacks the nuisance with all the fury 

 his little skin will hold, working himself up to a desperate 

 pitch, whicii has a surprising effect on the interloper, 

 which is unable; at once to determine whether it is for fun 

 or keeps, or to account for this sudden change in the 

 weather. A small dog is generally panic-stricken at once 

 and makes for neutral ground, but a larger one hesitates 

 to show the white feather, seemingly saying, "You 

 little whiffet, what do you mean? If it was'nt for your 

 master I'd twist your neck for you," and then trots off 

 stiff-tailed, unless demoralized by a whizzing stone or 

 stick. Tobe follows to a judicious distance, though never 

 80 far as to be beyond reach of the reserves, and then 

 trots pi'oudly back saying by aU his demeanor, "I'm the 

 boy that can clean 'em out." 



He has been taught a number of cute tricks, but I think 

 his specialty is the tea-party j)erformance, in which my 

 little daughter also appears. A little table is set and 

 loaded with various goodies. Tea or coffee is poured. 

 Tobe hojis into a little chair at one aide, and is fitted with 

 a napkin underneath his chin. He has a little plate and 

 saucer, from which he takes the solids and liquids, but 

 never presumes to touch anything until helped. He pre- 

 fers tea or coffee well sweetened. As he sits there with 

 head slightly dropped watching his mistress from under 

 his eyebrows, his attitude and expression are very comi- 

 cal, which, of course, provoke laughter from the audience. 

 Then the bud of a tail wags good-naturedly, and Tobe 

 says evidently, "That's all right. As long as I'm having 

 a good time and feed, you're welcome to all the amuse- 

 ment you can get out of the performance," But when he 

 wants something very badly indeed, and can't ask for it 

 in English, comes and aits down by me, resting his chops 

 on my leg, and steadfastly gazes at me with his beautiful 

 hazel eyes, I capitulate then and there, and am ready 

 each time to make afiidavit that a good dog is one of 

 Heaven's best gifts to man. 



Tobe is a working cocker and came from J, Otis Pel- 

 lows'd kennels over four years ago. There is no mink- 

 weasel-otter type about him. He is a business chunk. 

 He stands something over a few inches at the shoulder,, 

 more than that from occiput to caudal, which latter is 

 just half long, is jet black with exception of star in breast, 

 is finely feathered, has wavy coat, weighs as much as he 

 ought, and is as plucky a little treasure in bush, windfall, 



briers or brambles as ever stood on legs. He had a pedi- 

 gree and has it yet, I guess, though I have lost it. 



So much for a cocker. Would I swap him for a setter? 

 Ask my youngest olive-branch, if you want to get into 

 difficulty. Yet I do not hesitate to aver my belief that I 

 can get more grouse with a well-broken setter than with 

 a cocker. Briefly these are my reasons: With either dog, 

 close in-working is necessary. A cocker flushes the bird, 

 you know not when nor where. Be you never so watch- 

 ful, it will too often take you unawares, and generally at 

 great disadvantage, as regard cover of bush or tree. As 

 to this point of flushing, whether the bird goes away or 

 into a tree, honors are even betvs'een the dogs. A keen 

 cocker will too often get just a little too far away before 

 you are aware of it, and then, of course, is just when he 

 flushes the bu-d. A well-broken stanch setter is just one 

 point ahead on a point. He shows just as surely as the 

 cocker when scent is hot, and if he flushes, you have equal 

 chances as with the little dog; if he points, you choose 

 your own position. Of course a grouse will not always 

 lie to the dog, but there is always the possibility of its 

 doing so, and this makes the setter, in my estimation, 

 much more desirable, I am considering the" grouse only. 

 If quail are about, that is additional reason why a setter 

 is preferable. I would choose a rather small-sized dog, 

 for then they would be not much more objectionable as 

 house companions than the spaniel, and other things 

 being equal, they are just as good hunters. Let Mr, G. 

 get a well-bred setter puppy not over two or three months 

 old, and with all the jiatience he can beg, borroAv ®r steal, 

 train him by Hammond's method, and he will in all 

 probability have a dog that will be a constant delight. 

 Verbum saj:). 



I notice Mr. Bishop's correction anent the groxxse- 

 goshawk incident and criticism by me, I am glad to be 

 corrected, and am glad Mr. B. is with me. We always 

 hkeio be in good company, you know. We'll shift the 

 responsibility where it belongs and try and read the lines 

 more correctly next time. O, O, S. 



A LETTER FROM GERMANY. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I read with much interest your editorial in the issue of 

 Dec. 18 and headed "Shot Count and Weight," 



German gunners have been endeavoring for several 

 years to establish a standard set of gauges for both soft 

 and chilled— here called hard— shot, but have so far only 

 partly accomplished the desired results. The initial 

 steps were taken by the most prominent sporting club in 

 the country, the Allgemeine Deutsche Jagdschutz Verein 

 (General German Game Protective Association), and 

 several shot manufacturing concerns have since adopted 

 the standard fixed by the club. Of course this standard 

 only refers to and covers the 

 question of the size, not the 

 weight of shot. I annex a very 

 simple and cheap shot measure 

 (price five cents) as used in this 

 country. This measure has on 

 the left near the larger figures a 

 narrow groove, in which ten 

 pellets of shot are placed in a 

 row. The number of the shot 

 thus measured is now visible on 

 the right, the diameter on the 

 left side of the measure. For 

 instance, by placing ten pellets 

 of standard shot No. 5 in the 

 groove the line touched by the 

 last (tenth) pellet will point to 

 No. 5 on the right and figure 3 

 on the left side of the measure, 

 the last figure showing that the 

 diameter of each pellet is three 

 millimetres. Each additional 

 size either reduces or increases 

 the diameter by just one-fourth 

 of a millimetre. As will be seen 

 shot No. 5 is 3, shot No. 1 4 

 millemitres in diameter. 



This simple measure is a never 

 failing gauge for fixing the size 

 of shot, but as to securing a uni- 

 formity for weight does not 

 cover the object sought for by 

 ^- ' gunners. In cases where also a 



uniformity by weight is desired gunners here rssort to 

 the shot counter, an apparatus nearly as simple in con- 

 struction and handling as the shot measure, and no 

 doubt known also in America. 



By changing the milhmetres into fractions of inches 

 the same can easily be converted into a measurere suited 

 for America and American shot. 



In the same number of your paper referred to before 

 appears an article headed "The Ohio Season." I must 

 confess that to one living in a country where the laws 

 are enforced regardless of person or standing the account 

 rendered by the Dayton gentleman in relation to the vio- 

 lation of the game laws in that State are an extreme sur- 

 prise. When the game season closes here it is closed, 

 and neither the gunners nor farmers, boys, pot or market 

 hunters will dare to violate or defy the law. Market and 

 pot-hunters are fortunately unknown in this country, 

 and farmers are not permitted to hunt on their own 

 grounds unless these grounds cover 300 acres in an un- 

 broken or undivided piece; thus only a comparatively 

 small number of farmers enjoy the privilege of their 

 American brothers, and these few do and must respect the 

 game laws the same as the rest of the hunters who have 

 rented. their hunting grounds. 



It is true we have some game poachers in Germany, 

 but the mischief done by them is comjiaratively small, 



A violation of the game laws is punished here by a 

 fine, imprisonment, and if it is a bad case, by a with- 

 drawal of the hunting permit for a time of tvvo to five 

 years. Every one carrying a gun is obliged to take out 

 a hunting permit or license, and these are only granted 

 to men whq have never been convicted of any criminal 

 offense. 



Game dealers are not allowed to place on sale any kind 

 of game for which the season is closed. Dogging or 

 chasing game on horseback is ijrobibited by law. 



Our game laws are a blessing for all true sportsmen, 

 and through them Germany still offers great sport to 

 gunners. Armin Tenner. 



Bbrlen, Germany, Jan. 8. 



A WORD FOR LIGHT GUNS. 



AFTER all the best gun for this country is the one 

 that is the easiest to carry." So spoke my hunt- 

 ing companion as we toiled somewhat slowly after our 

 dogs up a rather steep side hill one day iff October several 

 years ago. 



We had experienced one of those xxnsuccessful days 

 that sometimes fall to the lot of the shooter in Connecti- 

 cut, at least, and now near its end, after having looked 

 everywhere we could think of in vain, we were making 

 toward our team and for want of better occupation for 

 the mind were discussing the relative merits of the dif- 

 ferent styles and weights of guns. 



My shoulders were aching somewhat from the steady 

 all-day pressure of an S^lbs, 12-bore Bonehill at the time 

 and the remark set me to thinking. For that day, at 

 least, a two-pound gun would have killed as much game 

 as either of us had in our pockets; taking the days as 

 they ran would not several pounds less than I was then 

 carrying furnish me much more comfort and perhaps 

 almost as many birds, 



For twenty-five years I had carried as heavy a gun as I 

 could tramp under and loaded it with as much powder as 

 I could stand back of, and at no time had I ever done anv 

 very remarkable execution among the birds. 



The "bird hunters" of my boyhood days, before the era 

 of breechloaders, all carried 'ligbt guns, 14, 16, 18 and 

 even 20-bores, as I remember them, and yet their game 

 bags (pockets were not bo plenty then as now) were 

 always well filled, and if such guns would kill game then 

 why not at the present time. 



My early instructors were fox and squirrel hunters, 

 and troubled not the whistling woodcock (which whistle 

 aforesaid is certainly made with his wings) nor the whir- 

 ring quail (which does not whirr with his beak any more 

 than the woodcock vvhistles with his), and no giin was 

 worth the room it occupied in the house unless it shot 

 double Bs well. So 30 inches of barrel. No, 9-gauge and 

 about lOlbs. in weight made up my first shooting piece, 

 and the black and blue marks on my growing ehoxdders 

 at the end of a day's hunt did not at that time lessen my 

 admiration for that terrible engine of destruction, 



A few years later, after my earliest canine friend had 

 gone, not without deep regret on my part, to the place 

 where all good dogs go, even if they are of unknown ped- 

 igree and hunt "varmounta" alone, I obtained a setter 

 pup, and finding that my 30in. barrel struck too many 

 trees when tryuig to point it in the direction of the July 

 cock, I cut off 4in, ; but still it was a solid arm, and 1 had 

 quite come to believe that the occasional long shots 

 which I made with it could be duplicated by nothing 

 lighter. So the breechloaders which succeeded it pat- 

 terned after it much in weight, if not in other respects. 



As I shoved the one I first mentioned into its case and 

 then into the wagon a half hour after the "above remark 

 of my friend, I wondered still more as my shoulders felt 

 the relief from the strain, whether or not he was not 

 right. "The bulk of our birds fall dead, if they fall at 

 all, insiside of SOyds, Five times as many are missed 

 clean at 80yds, as are killed at 40, Why will not a light 

 gun kill at those distances? It will. I will buy one," So 

 T reasoned and resolved, and resolving so I did. First I 

 bought, still a little fearful of the result of the experi- 

 ment, a cheap 16-bore, marked J, Manton, weighing 

 about 61bs, I shot it two years, and although I felt that 

 I must load it so heavy that the recoil war very unpleas- 

 ant and kept alive the physical dread of a ^ , . hich had 

 stayed by me for twenty years, and caus 3 to miss 

 more birds than all other causes put together, still I killed 

 more birds in proportion to the number of shots with 

 it, than with anything that I had owned up to that 

 time. 



The experiment working so well, I gave that gun away 

 and bought a 16-bore ToUey hammerless, which, after I 

 had cut it off to 36in,, weighed 6^1bs, About this time I 

 became a convert to wood powder, and my shooting at 

 once improved 50 per cent. , part of it due to the fact that 

 the new gun fitted fairly well, and quite a good share of 

 it to the fact that I could now pull the trigger without at 

 the same time pulling as though I wanted to run away 

 from the gun; for now, for the first time in my life, I was 

 shooting a gun that did not "kick." 



For two years I carried it and was fairly well satisfied. 

 With IJoz. of shot and SJ^drs, Schultze powder it gave as 

 good pattern as any 12-bore gun that I had ever seen, and 

 the penetration was always sufficient for all ordinary dis- 

 tances, with no recoil. A year ago last fall, however, I 

 chanced to step into Von' Lengerke & Detmold's, on 

 Murray street, and there for the first time saw a Fran- 

 cotte featherweight 12-bore hammerless, 36in. barrel, olbs. 

 14oz, I heard their story about the performances of the 

 gun, handled it, and said get me a 16-bore, olbs, weight, 

 and I think I shall have the best gun in the country for 

 upland shooting. One of the members of the firm said 

 he thought such a piece would certainly be there before 

 the next season, but the months rolled by and it came 

 not. 



The mischief had been done as far as I was concerned, 

 how^ever; a 51b. gun I must have, if not in 16 then 30- 

 bore, I tried our American makers, but could get noth- 

 ing better promised than 5|^lbs,, but on the 20tli of Sep- 

 tember, fi ?e days before the season opened, Squires, on 

 Broadway, received a shipment of Greeners among which 

 was a 30-bore, 26in, barrel, 41bs. 15oz. gun. I had no 

 special predilection for the Greener, but w^inted a gun of 

 that weight, so I bought it and found both barrels full 

 choke; for what purpose they were so made I can't con- 

 ceive. However, that didn't trouble me much, for I soon 

 took practically all of the choke out of the right barrel 

 and modified the left somewhat, and then started to shoot 

 the gun. Before going to the fields I targeted it care- 

 fully and worked at the bore until, loaded with 2drs. 

 of Schultze powder and loz. of No, 8 shot, the right bar- 

 rel distributed 130 pellets evenly over a SOin. circle at 

 40yd8,, and the left barrel 250 and 260 on the same circle 

 at the same distance. 



I tried no sheets of paper for penetration, but after 

 studying the face of the board fence upon which my 

 papers were placed for a m'nute, and finding that the 

 shot were driven into the pine boards out of sight, I said 

 "this will kill birds," and spent no more time on that 

 branch of the subject. The result of the season's shoot- 

 ing fully justifies the prophecy then made. With no 

 gun that I have ever had in my hands have I ever made 

 so good an average on quail, woodcock and partridge. 

 Nor have I ever killed birds further than with this toy. 

 During a week's hxmt in Vii-ginia I met many shooters 



