Hov. 17, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



428 



Loading for Game. 



Raleigh. N. C, Nov. 14. — After many years of prac- 

 tice and considerable experimenting wit'h diffprent ways 

 of loading shotguns, I have come to the conckisiou that 

 the commonly accepted standards of proportion of pow- 

 der and shot is not the best. The most important im- 

 provement in modern gunnery, both in artillery and 

 small arm j)ractice, is in the line of higher velocities of 

 the pro,if ciiles. 



For this reason the governments of Europe have adopted 

 for a standard military rifle, a caliber of .30 or .31 with 

 increased powder charge. All quiiil hunters must have 

 observed that many birds seem hard hit liut succeed in 

 getting away. Let them now increase the powder and 

 diminish the shot and they will be gratified with the 

 result. 



For a 12-gauge gun I use 4drs. black powder, two 

 heavy wads, a scant ounce of shot with a card-board wad 

 over the shot. With this charge the recoil is greatly re- 

 duced, and the velocity and paralyzhig effect of the shot 

 greatly increased. Though the number of pellets in the 

 charge is considerably less than usual, there will be fewer 

 wounded birds to escape. A friend has adopted this idea, 

 reducing the shot to f oz. with 4drs. of powder, with the 

 best results. 



I have lately killed some large black ducks, using No. 5 

 shot. Some idea of the force or velocity of the shot is 

 shown by the fact that every shot passed entirely through, 

 even in the thickest part of the body, at a distance of 

 35yds. The difference in elfect when using one or two 

 wads over the powder is also noticeable, it is decidedly 

 best to use two wads. T. C. H. 



New Jersey Game Notes. 



HOMEESTOWN, N. J., Nov. 5,— Quail and rabbits are 

 more plenty throughout this section than during any 

 past fall for a long time. Since the season for shooting 

 them came in (Nov. 1) scarcely any one who has gunned 

 has not secured a good-sized bag. Pheasants, in the 

 young growth of wood along the edge of the pines, are 

 about as plenty as usual, so far as we can learn. This 

 section is oy all odds the best part of the State for the 

 first two kinds of game, the councry being diversified by 

 many woodlands, belts of timber and bushes, tracts of 

 good farming land and many stubble fields, and the pines 

 but a short distance to the southeast of us, thus making 

 as good a region for gunning in as any sportsman could 

 wish for, 



dray squirrels were so plenty with us this fall that their 

 name vpas legion. In fact they really became a nuisance, 

 so that many of the farmers allowed, and often encour- 

 aged, gunning for them, even before the season was in, 

 as the rodents made such havoc in cornfields adjoining 

 wood lots that the owners were heartily glad to have them 

 thinned out, consequently many sportsmen, taking ad- 

 vantage of the license, secured large numbers of them. 

 Even now they are quite plenty, and should one hunt for 

 the grays he could, in a short time, secure a goodly 

 number. 



It seems almost a mystery where such a host of squir- 

 rels came from this fall ; the like was never known be- 

 fore, even by that often spoken of personage, "the oldest 

 inhabitant." 



So taking it altogether, the season is truly a splendid 

 one for all kinds of game indigenous to this section. 



A. L. L. 



Tesas Game. . 



Ballinoer, Eunnels Co., Tex.— In Concho county, 

 which adjoins this county on the south, the prospects 

 for quail shooting are very good. We have usually 

 very good success with the Bob Whites — and by 

 success I mean that a man, with dog of course, who 

 knows the country can secure from thirty to fifty quail 

 in each day's shooting. Near the towns, of course, the 

 quail supply is very limited. We have also numbers of 

 the crested California quail. These are not satisfactory, 

 as their excellence when on the table does not compensate 

 for their superior ability in running, and their unwilling- 

 ness to remain in the vicinity of one's dog. la fact it is 

 only possible to make a large bag of the Calif ornian quail, 

 at least of those found here, by driving them to an ambush 

 and shooting from the hiding place into the flock. They 

 really go in flocks at this season, when the coveys get 

 together. 



We have a very good crop of acorns this year on the 

 oak ridges in the southern part of Concho county and in 

 consequence one can couut upon getting fairly good deer 

 shooting. Usually both ducks and geese with an occa- 

 sional swan afl:"ord ample remuneration for thft time ex- 

 pended in hunting them, H. L, B. 



Zinc for Gun Bust. 



Lancastek., N. H., Nov. 5. — In looking over an October 

 number of the Iron Age I was struck by an article rela- 

 tive to a rust preventive for guns. The article claims 

 that a ring of zinc soldered around the barrel, or, better, 

 a stri]} soldered along the barrel on the under side and out 

 of sight would efl:eotually prevent rusting. It is claimed 

 that "the galvanic action excited between the zinc and 

 iron effectually prevents oxidation of either metal, and as 

 long as this zinc remains in contact with the iron not a 

 particle of rust will appear on either the inside or outside 

 of the barrel.'' I have seen this principle applied to tin 

 water pails, a narrow strip of zinc being soldered across 

 the bottom of the pail, and it really seemed to fullfil the 

 claims of the manufacturers that the pails would not 

 rust, and I know that a small strip of zinc placed in con- 

 tact with a nail when driven into wood will prevent rust 

 streaks on the wood when exposed to the weather. AVho 

 of the FouEST AND Steeam readers have ever tried the 

 experiment on their guns? Rob. 



Ferrets and Rabbits. 



SotriH Montrose, Pa., Nov. S.— Editor Forest and 

 Stremn: I commenced breeding and selling ferrets some 

 twelve years ago; and from the demand I am quite sure 

 they are used for hunting rabbits. When 1 tii'st com- 

 tnenced to sell them I supposed there wfiuld not be a 

 rabbit left in five yearn, as I Lave seen a large band of 

 hunters go forth with good hounds, guns and ferrets, and 

 when a poor innocent rabbit would run in a woodchuck 

 hole the men would circle around ard tie up the duga 

 as to get a better shot at the rabbit when he runs out. 



Sometimes all hands ^yould miss him. Then the dogs 

 would be turned loose and the rabbit was surely killed. 

 The boys hunt them with dog and bag and they are 

 tracked in the snow to the hole. In fact it does seem 

 that no rabbit could live and that in a short time all must 

 go. But after twelve years of hunting with ferrets I find 

 the rabbits more plenty than before, and I have trifd to 

 find the cause. I find that the male rabbits kill and eat 

 ail the young rabbits he can find; and it is the male rab- 

 bit that holes up and is killed, while the female runs 

 and does not hole up so often, and is saved to rear her 

 young. 



There is a law in Pennsylvania which prohibits the use 

 of ferrets. A few have been prosrcuted, but not con- 

 victed from lack of proof, as you must catch your man 

 in the act. You have a righ to carry a ferret and no one 

 has the right to question what you are going to do with 

 it. So far as I can see the more'we hunt with ferrets the 

 more rabbits thpreare for the "true sportsmen," as they 

 are called in Forest and Stream. The farmers' boys 

 who raise the grain which feeds the rabbits all summer 

 can't get a chance to hunt until the fall work is all done 

 unless thej^ take a rainy day when they can't husk corn. 

 We have some true sportsmen that hunt the woodcock 

 upon our hills as soon as the young ruffed grouse is 

 strong enough to fly, and it is queer how many shots 

 they get at the woodcock up among the map'os and hem- 

 lock trees on the very top of our hUls. Silas Decker. 



Rifles for Deer. 



Ocos, Guatemala, Oct. 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 When "Aztec" orany experienced hunter who has hunted 

 deer over all kinds of ground, recommends a .38cal. rifle 

 as the best hunting rifle, i. e., as an effective deer shooter, 

 it should be encouraging to lovers of the exhilarating and 

 exciting sport of deer hunting, particularly to the skilled 

 marksman. Deer, if they knew it, would also rejoice, 

 for their chances of escape would be greater. 



I have hunted deer for about twenty years and have 

 always had plenty of time to spare, usually hunting three 

 or four times a week— still-hunting or with hounds. A=t 

 nature "abhors a vacuum," I have been compelh d to jack 

 deer for meat to satisfy the "inner man;" this, I'm happy 

 to state, has but rarely occurred. T have tried the small 

 caliber rifles, but out of at least 2,000 deer that I have 

 killed very few indeed fell to guns of that kind. Ex- 

 perience has proved to me that they are of very little use 

 and it i'! my decided opinion that the .45 Express, or .4o- 

 90-300 Winchester is the most useful and deadly for deer 

 hunting. 



Old hunters are well aware that unless a deer is killed 

 by the first shot the chances are nine out of ten that it 

 escapes, and this is what very often happens when hunt- 

 ing with a small caliber rifle, even a .38. It may be eff ec- 

 tive in the hands of a skilled marksman, or even in the 

 hands of an amateur, if the latter conld only carry with 

 him the proverbial "pinch of salt," GtXJATEMALA. 



Losing Wounded Deer, 



Hundreds of deer have been killed through this section 

 this season, and they seem just as plenty as ever. I have 

 seen several parties that have comp down from the east 

 and west branch of the Penobscot River, and they had aH 

 the deer they wanted, and one party told me that some 

 days a single man would jump as many as thirty that 

 they would get sight of, and that they wounded many 

 that they could not get. 



I noticed in Forest and Stream mention of a party in 

 northern Michigan that killed four deer and wounded six, 

 and a reply to it advising that such jjarties should come 

 out of the woods and stay out. I would say that I have 

 had fifty years' experience in hunting deer and other 

 large game, and I know that our best hunters often kill 

 their game and lose it. I have shot deer that did not live 

 twenty seconds, and have had a hard job to find them, 

 and sometimes would lose them. Where deer are plenty 

 their tracks are plenty, and sometimes several deer are 

 together, and if the wounded one does not bleed freely 

 he may run ten or twenty rods and fall dead to one side 

 in the thick brush and never be found, and the hunter 

 may follow on the trail of those not shot at. 



I have sometimes given up looking for my game when 

 I was sure it was dead and not far away, and have gone 

 back the second time and looked until I found it. I be- 

 lieve that more wounded deer get away from some par- 

 ties than they get, J. DAULiNa. 



The Mink as a Dodger. 



Ithaca, N. Y.— In the winter of '91 while hunting 

 along Fall Creek, east of town, I ran across two minks. 

 The first one I had fom* shots at, but at each flash of the 

 gun the velvety-skinned fellow seemed to dodge, "bob- 

 bing up serenely" immediately afterward unharmed, and 

 as mischievous as ever. At the fovn-fch shot he glided to 

 a rocky fastness hard by and disappeared. The second 

 one afforded me two fair shots with the same results as 

 in the first case. Later on in the season a similar and 

 equally unsatisfactory experience was had along Butter- 

 milk Creek. It was a fair shot, as I thought; but at the 

 flash the illusive anatomy of the mink was not where 

 it was when I pulled the trigger. In all three instances I 

 used shells loaded with B-Jdrs, of powder and lioz. of No. 

 6 shot. The distance from the quarry was not in 

 any case over 40yds. In shooting I took particular 

 pains to cover each animal well and close. The query is, 

 therefore, can the mink dodge shot? M. C. H. 



North Carolina Field Notes. 



AvoCA, N. C, Nov. 11, — The weather has been variable 

 since my arrival here on thp 7th, partly rainy, but favor- 

 able for turkey shooting. We flushed four of these, fine 

 birds, on Black Walnut Creek yesterday, within a half 

 mile of the Dukinfield House. There seems to be an 

 abundance of quail, turkeys, deer, rabbits and fquirreis 

 on the plantation (Dr. Capphart's), which comprises 5,500 

 acres. Parties are besinninsc to arrive at the hotel, and 

 there are a number of applications on the books. The 

 Doctor has recently added several thousiud sn es to his 

 already extensive territory, and purchased 1,000 live quail 

 to be turned loose forthwith on the premises ar^jicent to 

 the hotel. The stock of birds is certainly exceptionally 

 lai'ge, and the inducements f"r sportsmen ere-jt Ti'iie 

 from New York bv the Cipe Charles route (N Y P, & N.) 

 to Avoca, N, C, 19 hours. C. Hallock. 



A Successful Maine Trip. 



I HAVE just returned from a short hunting excursion in 

 the State of Maine. Our success was far beyond expecta- 

 tion. We killed one bull moose, three caribou, one very 

 large, and one deer, and came back earlier than we in- 

 tended because we had enough. Mr. Yan Santvoord, 

 whom you know, was my companion. We took each of 

 us a guide from here, making four in the party. 



Charles Fenton. 



Ten Straight on Woodcock. 



Watkreobd, Me., Nov. 7.— Mr. Frank Haskell, of the 

 Westbrook Manufacturing Company, Westbrook, Me., 

 shot 18 woodcork in six hours one day the last of Octo- 

 ber. He shot 10 straight shots without a miss. Who can 

 beat thisV Mr. 



A New-Subscriber Offer. 



A bona fide new subscriber sending us $^ will receive tor that 

 sum the FoasST and Stream one year (price $i) and a set of 

 Z''inmermaii's famous "Ducking Scenes" (advertised on another 

 pafce, price $5)— a ®9 value for $5. 



This offer is to new subscribers only. ' It does not apply to 

 renewals. 



For $3 a bona, fide new subscrlhsr for six months will receive the 

 FoiiBST AND Stkbam during that time and a copy of Dr. Van 



leet's handsome work, "Bird Portraits for the Young" (the 

 price of which is $3). 



ed m(d ^ivtir fishing. 



Hie Fish Laws of the United States and Ca/aada, in the 

 ''fiame Laws in Brief," 33 cents. In the "Booh o+' the 

 name Laws'^ (full text), 50 cents. 



THE PIKE-PERCH, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I should like to know something of the wall-eyed pike. 

 Where is he found? How large does he grow ? Is he 

 thoroughly game ? Can he hold his own against the black 

 bass? For use on the table, how ranks he ? Is he known 

 to exist in any, of the waters of northern New Jersey? 

 And — ^I almost forget — with what kind of bait is the 

 W9ll-eyed fellow generally captured ? Once more, and 

 finally, is there any reason to hope that the pike aforesaid 

 can be made to live, thrive and propagate his kind in a 

 certain New Jersey lake, which is a mile long and in 

 places over one hundred feet deep? I may add that the 

 lake in question has a gravel bottom, although at one end 

 it winds up in a marsh. A small stream runs into it and 

 through it. A. C. P. 



Nkwion, N. J. 



[The wall-eyed pike is more widely known as the pike- 

 perch; it has received also many other common names. 

 In Pennsylvania it has the unsuitable name of Susque- 

 hanna salmon. In some Eastern States it is styled 

 perch-pike and glass-eye. In the Great Lakes it bears 

 the names yellow pike, green pike and grass pike. It is 

 the jack of the Ohio Valley and western North Carolina; 

 the pickerel of Lake Erie and Canada; the white salmon 

 and jack salmon of certain portions of the Ohio Yalley. 

 Among the Cree Indians it is the okow, and the French 

 Canadians call it dore and picarel. The fur traders of 

 British America often style it horn fish. 



The pike perch is native in the Great Lake region and 

 extends northward into British America as far as the 

 fifty-eighth parallel. It ranges southward in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley to Arkansas and in Atlantic streams to 

 Georgia. 



This species is said to reach a weight of 501 bs., but 

 market specimens seldom average olbs, In the Susque- 

 hanna occasional individuals weighing 10 or lllbs. are 

 taken. 



As a game fish the pike-perch has few superiors, and 

 its flesh is highly prized for the table. Anglers prefer 

 live minnows to all other baits for its capture, particu- 

 larly such as are more or less translucent and have sil- 

 very sides, as the dace, or fall fish, corporal, red-fin and 

 gudgeon, The trolling spoon with black bass tackle is a 

 great favorite on some parts of the Susquehanna between 

 Harrisburg and Columbia. The fish is found on the 

 bottom in clear, rapid waters, and lurks under sunken 

 logs and rocks, from which it darts upon its prey. Its 

 food consists chiefly of worms and small fish. It in- 

 habits the same waters as the black basa and wiU hold 

 its own against other predaceous fishes. 



We have no information of the occurrence of pike- 

 perch in northern New Jersey; it has, however, been in- 

 troduced into the Delaware, where it will be protected 

 for some time longer, and we understand it is likely to 

 thrive if unmolested. The lake above described would 

 appear to be admirably adapted for the experiment of 

 planting pike-perch. If the tributary stream is large 

 enough, the fish will probably run up to spawn in April 

 or May, and deposit their eggs on sandy bars in shallow 

 water. The eggs are very small, about 17 to 25 to the 

 inch, strongly adhesive, and subject to gi-eat loss during 

 the hatching period, which lasts from 14 to 30 days, 

 varying with the temperature of the water.] 



Fish Colorings. 



Charlestown, N. H., Nov. 9.— I am very glad to see 

 "E:>b's" notes on the "Trout of Third Connecticut Lake" 

 and fully agree with him in the conclusion that there 

 are two distinct varieties of trout in the Diamond Ponds, 

 So far as my experience goes, the deep-bodied, brown- 

 backed, iight-fleshed variety are predominant in the 

 smaller, or upper, pond, and the slim, blue-backed, red- 

 fleshed variety in the larger, or lower, one. The flesh of 

 the latter is more than a salmon-color, it is a "beefsteak- 

 red," before cooking, and the carmine spots are very 

 small, though very brilliant. I I'emember the first one l 

 ever caught, I doubted it being a li'out till I saw the red 

 sp -ts. 



The heads of the pike family in Foeest and Stream 

 of Nov, B are very good, but the bean-shaped, white spots 

 on the pike proper are not quite clear and prominent 

 enough. The golden green of the email species, the 

 pickerel of the Connecticut, is simply golden brown, in 

 I iron-stained waters, like manV of the New England ponds 

 \ (jr emaller rivers, like the Chicopee, which drain large 

 level districts, more or less impregnated with hog-iron 

 '. sand. Von W. 



