1^8 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 23, 1898. 



CALIBERS AND CARTRIDGES. 



Ottawa, Kansas, Fel>. Id.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I have read the rarioas articles in your vahiable paper 

 on the spofiiria: rifle, and il, seems that both the laTge and 

 small calil>ers have g-ood advocates, but it appears to me 

 that tlxe probleu i hns not yet been solved. Tiiirty to forty 

 years ago I used a, sportin'};- rifle a great deal. Then it was 

 the muzzleloader —the old-fashioned, long-barrel Kentucky 

 i-ifle— usually of uruform tw ist, loaded with powder and 

 a well patched round ball, and for the i-ange it was cap- 

 able of, no more accurate axm has ever been invented. 

 People in those days were not rich, and a single gun was 

 made to answer almost all purposes, simply varyuig the 

 charge of powder. In this way rifles of quite small bore 

 were often successfully used for quite large game. A 

 rifle taking a ioz. round baU was frequently made use of 

 to kill squirrels and grouse, and for shooting the hogs and 

 beevers in the fall butcherbig, by using a small charge of 

 powder, while for target a larger chai'ge was used, and 

 a stiU larger charge wfis used for deer and wild turlceys. 

 Later, the arm wiis made smaller and handsomer and ^\'Lth 

 a gain twist, and after tlie deer were gone very small 

 bores were used. The modern breechloader has been a 

 great improvement, and yet its users have been somewhat 

 handicapped by being compelled to use the same charge, 

 or nearlv so, for all kinds of game. Irately some of the 

 manufacturers are making rifles that will use two or even 

 three difterent sized cartridges— this is a step in the right 

 direction, but I believe can be still bettered by taking in 

 the cartridge maker as well. I may not be right, but it 

 seems to roe that a breechloader to be first class shotdd be 

 chambered for but one size cartridge or shell, but why 

 not make the same shell answer for different sized loads 

 as is done in the shotgun. A small charge of black pow- 

 der with a round ball for short range and small game. I 

 suppose a wad could be used if it was necessary to fill up 

 the shell. A larger charge with a conical buUet for 

 mediura range, while the same shell with some good 

 smokeless powder and conical bidlet— split if need be— 

 would answer for large game at long range. Some ar- 

 rangement of this kind would make the modern breech- 

 loader a much more valuable arm than it now is, and for 

 most purposes would not need to be either very large 

 b®red or hea^'y — a .28 or .40 caliber of 7.Jdbs. weiglit would 

 be ample, if strongly made. It miglit be that the sharp 

 twist of the modern rifle might not do so well for the 

 quick burning powder, but here a gain twist would answer. 

 If I remember right the new mihtary rifle of Germany 

 and some other countries use the sharii twist but, 1 believe, 

 case their bullets. Now I have no doul)t this may all liavo 

 been thought over by the manufacturers, l)ut I have not 

 noticed their idea in print. I do not see wliy the users of 

 the sliotgun shoifld have so ma,ny advantngc'S over the 

 rifle shooter in using the same weapon for so many dif- 

 ferent charges, smokeless powder, etc., all with the same 

 sized shell. 



NO POETRY IN THIS SOUL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have noticed in your paper from time to time, express- 

 ions "true sportsman," "game hog" and "butcher" and 

 vainly tried to ascertain just what they mean. So far 1 

 have only been able to find that the "true sportsman" is 

 the one who, when he can not get away for a day or a 

 Aveek to do some killing himself, devotes his spare mo- 

 ments, they must necessarily be many, judging from the 

 length and number of hm articles, to stigmatizing his 

 more fortunate fellows as "game hogs," "game butchers" 

 and other fitting titles, and severely arraigning the 

 "farmer" and Ins "hired hand" and insisting that thej^ kiU 

 all the game, especially quail. 



The brush piles, fence corners, huddled quail and farmer 

 are vividly painted by a master hand as the fore ground 

 of a picture in which the deep snow serves to fill in the 

 general surroimdings. 



Armed with ins traditional "musket" or "cheap breech- 

 loader" he is accused of slaughtering the "brown beauties" 

 by the dozen, hut does he? How many of your readers 

 know for a certainty, who has unimpeachable evidence 

 of the fact? 



I have in mind one of these much trodden upon 1 armors, 

 who, duruig the recent heavy snow and terribly cold wca- 

 ther, took liis ax mto the w^oods, cut small pine trees and 

 piled them, together Avitli brush and logs along the fences 

 for the quail to find shelter from the cold, and fed them 

 every day it lasted. He not only did this on his own farm, 

 but going to others told tliem what he had done and as- 

 sisted two of his neighbors to do something for the birds. 

 He hunts, owns a dog, and slioots a W. Eichai-ds gun which 

 he claims he paid|28 for seven years ago, and A\'hic]i, when 

 I saw it last fall, was so loose that he was compelled to 

 put paper under the fore-end to make it tight enough to 

 use. He limits almost every day of the open season, in- 

 vites his best friends to come early and often and killed 

 over 200 quail last season. Wliether he killed them all on 

 the wing or not I cannot say, but I am certain that, during 

 the six days I hunted with him, he killed them all fairly 

 and also killed 11 out of 13 shots one day and 10 straight 

 the next, while I kiUed 7 in the two. 



Is he a true "sportsman" or a "game hog"? 



Who has the better right to kill the game, and why 

 should he be styled a "game hog ' and "butcher" for 

 doing so? , , .„ 



Two or three fair shooters and a good dog kdl more 

 game in one day than all the farmers, hired hands and 

 farm boys in the whole season, don't you agree with me? 

 and that too, whether they be called "true sportsmen," 

 "game hogs" or "butchers." 



Will some of our true sportsmen arise and inform us 

 what they have done, and are doing this winter, to pro- 

 tect the birds? As a general rule they are figuring on 

 where to go next season for good shooting. 



Some of your correspondents try to impress the idea 

 upon us that they do not invest $75 or $100 in a dog and a 

 like amount or more in a gun for the purpose of hunting 

 game to kill it, l^ut do so for the (shrilling sensation" 

 whieli a booming pheasant or buzzing quail is supposed to 

 impart. My thrifl has always been greatest when, as the 

 gun spoke, t could see the bird faUiag. These gentle- 

 men I would like to ask, why the expense of gun and dog, 

 why not do your "hunting without a gun?" 



My observations ha^^e been that men do not go niield 

 simply to muse ou the l)e;uities of nature, oi'to lose tlioni- 

 selves" in silent contemplation of the wonders worked by 

 an niiseen hand, but do so with the "Ioaa^ impulse" and 

 "savage deshe" to kill something. 



Will the brothers of the gun please rise, one at a time, 

 and truthfully state to the readers of Forest and Streajvi, 

 the predominating impulses that controlled them at the 

 beginning of their hunting career. 



How very seldom we hear of men going for the second 

 time to a country in which, no matter how grand, beauti- 

 ful or subline the scenery, they found no game to speak of. 



I for one, and there are prohaljly otherB, ain free to con- 

 fess tliat while 1 enjoy a few days" or a Aveek in the woods 

 as well as any one, I do not try to delude myself with the 

 belief that I am doing so for my health or the pleasure of 

 beiug near to nature, as a first and prime reason. 



Be candid, folks, and say you go hunting because you 

 wisli to kill something. KUSKUSKI. 

 P. S. I am not a farmer, although I may write like one. 

 Ai/LEGHEiSTr, Pa., Feb. 14. 



PATTERN AND PENETRATION AGAIN. 



In your issue of Feb. 9 Mr. Arnim Tenner gives tlie re- 

 sults of some very interestmg experiments made to deter- 

 mine the gas pressure of different powders at different 

 jilaces along the gun barrel, and the efl'ect of same on 

 the pattern and penetration of the charge of shot. Although 

 tlie deductions Mr. Tenner draws from his experiments 

 arc different from the theories advanced by me, I am no 

 less interested in them for tho facts, and facts only were 

 what I was searching for, and I trust that that is just what 

 Mr. Tenner was after too. 



It appears from the sum of Mr. Tenner's tests that the 

 results from black and nitro powders were practically the 

 same except that one gun did better with black and an- 

 other with nitro powder. Suppose we consider only the 

 guns that made the closest pattern with nitro powder: 

 how does Mi-. Tenner account for the closer pattern? Is it 

 not an answer to say it is the way the gun is bored, for 

 we use the same barrel and get different results from the 

 two powders, which shows there must be a different action 

 between the two powders. Just what this difference is 

 and how it produces the difference in the shot pattern is 

 what I want to know and is Avhat I would be glad to hear 

 Mr. Tenner explain. I would also be glad to have Mr. 

 Tenner explain how it is possible for the initial velocities 

 of all his charges to be about the same, when the pressure 

 of the Walsrode powder was less at all tlu-ee of the tested 

 points, than either of the other nitro powders, and the 

 average pressure of the Schultze powder was about 50 per 

 cent, greater than the Walsrode. 



Mr. Tenner says: "The merits of a gunpowder must, to 

 a great extent, be judged from the uniformity of the gas 

 pressure, since evenness of pattern is governed by a regu- 

 larity of gas pressure." It is not clear to me whether he 

 means regularity of pressure and evenness of pattern, 

 comparing one charge with another, or whether he means 

 that a uniform pressure from breech to muzzle wiU si)read 

 the charge more evenly than if the pressure was irregular. 

 If he means the latter I am rmable to see how anything 

 but initial velocity and pressure at the muzzle should af- 

 fect the shot ui any way. In other words it could make 

 no difference at what point in the barrel the initial velocity 

 was obtained. I did not advocate the theory tliat the pel- 

 lets from a chokebored gun cross each other, as Mr. Termer 

 infers, but only asked if it was supposed they crossed. I 

 put a piece of stiff paper in a shell, dividiug it in equal 

 sections, and put No. 6 shot on one side of the paper and 

 No. 8 on the other. The paper was then Avithdrawn and 

 the shot covered with cardboard wad and crimped in the 

 usual way. The target showed both sizes of shot all over 

 it. If they did not cross, how did they get all over the 

 target? That they were found all over the target is ac- 

 counted for by their interference in crossing, so that some 

 of them did not cross. 



Mr. Tenner says that the pellets next to the sides of the 

 barrel are the ones that scatter the widest and show least 

 penetration. Now, as all the charge leaves the gun at the 

 same speed, why should not the outer pellets continue to 

 fly as fast as the others? I think they do, and that the 

 mieven penetration is caused by the rear pellets pressing 

 agamst the forward ones and imparting part of their 

 force to them. I think if IMi'. Tenner will try some 

 charges loaded so they will give a liigh pressm;e at the 

 muzzle, he will find more uneveraiessof penetration than 

 when the muzzle pressure is a low one, unless the muzzle 

 pressure be so low that friction causes the outer pellets to 

 lag before they get out of the barrel. 



I hope Mr. Tenner Avill continue his experiments and 

 favor us with fall reports. O. H. Hampton. 



QUAIL SHOOTING IN FLORIDA. 



Beading an article in the Times-Union last week about 

 the splendid quail shooting at Enterprise, Fla., I was fired 

 by a spirit of emulation and a deshe to enroll my name 

 among the noted nimrods of to-da,y. Why should I not 

 bag sixty-five quail m one day or even more and even 

 equal or excel the now famous record made by Mr. F. H. 

 Cozzens when Avearied; but tiiumphant Avithal he counted 

 out the day's bag upon the Brock House counter under 

 the admiring gaze of the assembled guests. I asked my- 

 self why if Mr. Cozzens got sixty-five and Mr. Cory sixty- 

 three quail in a day, Avliy sliould I not do likewise, and 

 musing thus I then and there decided I Avould make the 

 attempt, so I hied me to a ticket office and the next day 

 foimd me gun in hand, at Enterprise. At first I was 

 airaid I might be too late for the cream of the shooting, 

 as I could not but think that where so much hunting was 

 indulged in, game must perforce eventually become 

 scarce, but my mind was at once put at ease on that 

 score. "You see" remarked F. M. Rogers, the genial pro- 

 prietor of tlie Brock House, "the extent of country is so 

 great that the same grounds may be hunted over day after 

 day with no apparent diminution in the quantity of game 

 killed, and a large portion of our best hunting grounds 

 has not had a gun over it this season." With this lie on 

 his lips and looking seventeen ways at once to see that 

 everything was done properly for the comfort of his 

 guests, Mr. Rogers left me with a hasty apology to greet 

 some people who at that moment entered the hotel office. 



The following morning at daybreak I was up and 

 dressed and found a substantial breakfast awaiting me m 

 the duiing room. Everything had been arranged for me, 

 and I found a horse and wagon at the door containing a 

 num Avho was to act the dual role of driver and guide, 

 and a large and good-looking but somewhat thin bird 

 dog. A drive of a few miles took us to the "flat woods" 

 (why tiiey cmU them flat woods 1 could not imagine at 

 first. The man told me there Avere Florida jays out there. 



too; but I did not see any, and did not grasp his meaning 

 at the time). Hardly had the dog, which rejoiced in the 

 pecuUar name of Violin, been let out of the wagon when 

 he came to a stiff point in some thick grass about 50ydB. 

 from us. "Them's quail," remarked tlie guide, so I 

 climbed down and Avalked toAvard the supposed covey; 

 but before I could get within fair shooting distance Violin 

 concluded I was near enough and sprang merrfly into the 

 middle of a fine covey of birds. I fired both barrels at 

 once in my hurry, and by supreme good luck one of the 

 birds fell and Avas immediately pounced upon by Violin 

 and eaten before I could get near enough to interfere. He 

 then came running to meAvagging his tail so happily that 

 I had not the heart to administer the chastisement which 

 I felt his action Avai'ranted. My driver told me that 

 breaking shot was an old trick Avith VioHn, and that one 

 gentleman who had used him tried to break him of the 

 iiabit by tying a rope around his waist and attaching tlie 

 other end to Violin's collar. This scheme had Avorked 

 well on quail, but one day while shooting snipe Violin 

 made his usual spring forward; the man's feet had got 

 tangled up somehow, so that he feU on his nose in the 

 Avater and buried his gun out of sight in the mud. 



Ten minutes later Viohn made another point and flushed 

 the birds before I coidd get to him, although I ran as fast 

 as I could. Tlris time three of the bhds lighted in the 

 trees and I killed them one after the other Avithout any 

 trouble. When the first one fell to the ground Violin 

 reached him before I did, although I made a tremendous 

 spurt, and he only beat me by a neck. I tried to take the 

 cxuail from him and between us we tore it aU to pieces. 1 

 gave Violin the fragments and did not beat him, as 1 

 made up my mind the poor dog must be hungry. He got 

 the next bird also, and as I could not see another bird any- 

 where we moved on. I made a silent vow that I would 

 have the next bird I killed or die, so when Viohn pointec 

 again I spra,ng from the wagon and by a magnificen 

 burst of speed succeeded in getting Avithin about 20yds. oi 

 him before he made his spring. I killed a bird, and throw 

 ing doAA-n my gun ran for my life. Violet beat me ai 

 usual, but in his haste overran the bird, and the next in 

 stant I threw myself at full length upon the quail and 

 covered it Avith my coat, while Violin bounded about m( 

 barking in a delirium of happiness and excitement 

 Hardly had I deposited my game safely in the wagoi 

 when Viohn made another point. This time it proA^ed t( 

 be a rabbit and aAvay he raced it over the hill. We waite( 

 for nearly an hour, Avhistling and shouting, but as the doj 

 did not return to us I drove back to the Brock House 

 having made up my mind that, under the circumstances 

 I had killed enough quail for that day. At the hotel av« 

 found Violin. The dog seemed very glad to see me, am 

 wagged his tail as though he considered his leaving us am 

 coming home a most stupendous joke. What my opinio; 

 was I kept carefully to myself. That night my quail wa 

 added to the pile of game exhibited on the Brock Hbus 

 counter, but by special request my name and score dv 

 not appear in the "game book." 



The game exhibit that evening Avas really splendid 

 Quail, snipe and various small game in numbers, while i: 

 the center Avas a 9 and lOlbs. bass which had been caugh 

 with othere that day by ex-Alderman Kierran of Nca 

 York. F- T. H. 



FERRETS AND RABBITS. 



Auburn, Susquehanna Co., Pa. , Feb. 11.— Editor Forei 

 and Stream: I would ask, at the risk of becoming tire 

 some, space in your columns to reply briefly to IVIr. Decl 

 er's communication of Feb. 9. 



He refers to me, in parenthesis, as a true sportsman, 

 have never laid claim to so honorable a title. But if b 

 it he means one who has respect for the laws of the con 

 mouAvealth even thoughthey may conflict Avith individuf 

 interest, who is satisfied with an occasional bag of gam 

 taken in a legitimate and sportsmanlike manner, and wh 

 deriA^es as much pleasure from observing and studying tt 

 habits and pecuharities of game as from the act of killinj 

 then I plead guilty to the charge. 



Mr. Decker's mathematics are correct when he says th: 

 if, after killing ten rabbits, I had killed ten more thei 

 would have been tAventy dead rabbits. But no such thm 

 occurred. It might have easily been done. I thmk 

 knoAv when I have kflled enough, and slaughter is m 

 sport by any means. I have never killed fifty rabbits i 

 an entire season, yet I have killed enough. 



Some one has undoubtedly imposed upon Mr. Deck( 

 Avith stories of his preserves. I have made inquiries < 

 the dealers who handle the game killed herealjouts, ar 

 have intervieAved the party named as bringing m the mo 

 rabbits, and he claims less than fifty. He has a first cla 

 dog, is a good shot, and was out nearly every day of tl 

 open season. 



In writing of the habitat of tlie ruffed grouse, I do i 

 not from theory, but from observation in the covers. ( 

 the many nests I have found and the flocks of your 

 chicks I have surprised, not one was on a ridge or i 

 heavy timber. I can at present locate three old nests in 

 single piece of bottom land, Avhere the cover straggl 

 along both sides of a stream. Two of the nests are of r 

 cent date and stiU contam shells. Can Mr. Decker do . 

 weU "in the Avoods on top of our hills"? When de^ 

 hunting on Dutch Mountains, I have tramped day aft 

 day over the ridges of heavy timber without starting 

 single grouse. At the same time I could go into tl 

 numerous old choppings found there and find birds : 

 plenty. I have not "talked with, several gentlemen" 

 know whether I am riglit. I simply exjiress my hone 

 convictions, arrived at from observations extending ov 

 a period of twenty yeai-s. I would quote from one autho 

 ity m support of my observations. A. H. Bogardus, auth 

 of "Field, Cover and Trap Shooting": "A Avell waten 

 timber country, Avith plenty of tliick underbrush amoi 

 rifts and gullies, is the place to look for them as a commc 

 rule, though they are also foimd in the gi-eat woods 

 heavy-timbered bottom lands." 



Mr. Decker complains that I doubt his assei-tions, 

 claim the right to call in question unsupported assertioi 

 coming from one who advocates an utter disregard for 

 law of the commonwealth made for the good of all wht 

 it seems to conflict with his individual interest. 



A petition is being circulated asking the Legislature 

 so amend the present law as to make it easy to suppre 

 the use of ferrets. 



Mr. Decker, ia one of his advertising cu-culars, say 

 "The fen-et is a splendid animal for hunting rats ar 

 rabbits. It is their natm-o, like the .weasel, to hunt ai 



