April 6, 1893. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



29B 



markably, "even." ^ The same comparative regularity lias 

 been remarked at trials made at the E. C. Powder Co. 

 and also in England. Tins completely disproves the 

 assertion of the makers of a leading American gun, tha,t 

 the unevenness of the U. M. C. No. 3 primers has been the 

 cause of trouble with their make of guns. 



I would consider a primer with a force of about .090 to 

 .095 crushing power as near perfection for general nitro 

 f)0wder use as can be made, and tliink that the IJ. M. C. 

 Co. will adopt such a standard. 



There may be slight comparative vaxiations of effects on 

 nitro gun powders between the actual explosive energy, 

 the crushing force of a primer and the heat or flame it 

 generates. To test this, I had an arrangement made by 

 which a single layer of powder grains were exposed in a 

 tube through which the whole heat and flash of the 

 primer was forced. By gradually removing this powder 

 further from the primer, the actual igniting power was 

 found. My past experiments have, however, not satisfied 

 me that the comparative and actual igniting power of 

 caps differs much from their compar.ative general force as 

 per above tables, though I think some slight differences 

 are noticeahle. Justus von Lengeeke. 



FATHERS AND SONS. 



Hastlnqs, Mich. , March 23. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 It has been my misfortune to have been confined to the 

 house by a long sickness since last November, and never 

 before have I so looked forward to the days when "our" 

 FOKEST AND STREAM was expected to come to hand, giving 

 a sick man untold pleasure. 



Now, I would lik:e to say a word about boys, the sports- 

 ' men of the future. I began to teach my boy the use and 

 care of the gun at 10 years of age, first the air rifle, then 

 the .22cal. Eeraington, after which I bought a 20-gauge 

 single-barreled Remington. Now he can use a .88cal. 

 Winchester repeater safely and accurately. 



Of course I have had to cultivate patience and some 

 little sacrifice at times, by giving Mm the best opportuni- 

 ties of shots at game. To his often repeated, "You shoot, 

 pa, for I don't believe I can hit it," as the dog pointed or 

 the beagle hound ran a rabbit to us, I would say, "Now, 

 go ahead, son, I'll take my chances." But I confess there 

 were often times when I was tempted to shoot flr.'^t instead 

 of to instruct, and the tears would come in his eyes as at 

 first he missed a bh-d on the wing or a rabbit on the jump. 

 For it was often the case that the second opportunity, that 

 was my share, was a miss also. But I had set out to train 

 the boy to be cool, true of eye and quick of hand. And 

 now it is done. Two years have done it. Last fall and 

 winter, while I was on my back tu bed, he brought to me 

 many a rabbit shot fairly before the little beagle, while in 

 season I often dined on quaU on toast. And as he sat on 

 the foot of the bed he hunted and shot them all over again 

 for my benefit. Then I forgot about the shots lost while 

 prompting him in the days gone and the time spent in 

 teaching how to handle the gun with care and fore- 

 thought; how so called accidents came to pass, and in 

 fact hundreds of items of advice, some of wtiich came to 

 me second-handed, while others were gained by experi- 

 ence. 



Folly with Firearms. 



One day last fall two young men were gunning. A 

 squirrel had been killed and hung in the limbs of a tree. 

 One held his loaded gun, butt against the ti-ee, muzzles 

 pressed against the pit of his stomach, wliile the other 

 climbed on the gun and stood on it. Result: A terrible 

 death for one, untold soi'row for the widow and children, 

 and grief and remorse for the comrade. 



Once in days gone by I saw a sportsman blow the top 

 of his companion's head off, the head being taken for 

 game in a large marsh. Two men have I seen dead in 

 one fall in Roscommon county, tliis State, killed by mis- 

 take for deer. Once in my boj'hood days a visiting 

 cousia and myself were sitting in the kitchen wiping the 

 rain from our muzzleloaders, having just come in. tlj 

 gun was lying on my knees pointing right at him, both 

 hammers full cocked. Without a thought of him I raised 

 the gun, muzzle to ceiling, and in letting down the right 

 hammer luilled the left trigger. A stunning report was 

 the result, also a hole size of silver dollar through ceiling, 

 floor and roof. Again, while hunting one cold winter 

 day with mittens on I attempted to uncock my gun. My 

 thumb slipped off and a load of No. (5 tunneled a hole in 

 the air. This was the last so-called accident with me. 

 Although I was only a boy of 15 it set me to thinking, 

 and ever since I have held fii-earms in the deepest respect. 

 Several times I have had narrow escapes from careless 

 companions. The closest call was when a .45ca L rifle ball 

 went through my soft liat and cut a slight furrow in my 

 scalp. It came from the gun of a badly rattled deer 

 hunter— a safe fellow enough when he was ten miles 

 distant from you. ilnother time I had the drum of one 

 of my ears almost bursted by a dude from Detroit City, 

 who could not wait for me to get out of his vs^ay, he was 

 so anxious to shoot some ducks while I was in the bow of 

 the boat. I could see people open and shut their mouths, 

 but could hear nothing for several days. Ouce a rifle ball 

 hit a ti-ee 18in. from my chest as I stood against it. It 

 was tired by a careless hunter and ^vns intended for a 

 deer which I was still-hunting. The pajiers are full eveiy 

 himting season of accidental shooting. Now, to my mind, 

 we should (as one of the brotherhood lias written) tell of 

 errors nnd accidents of our hunting e.\i;)erience. This 

 would open a train of thought ou carelessness that would 

 be of great gain to many. 



Teach the Boys. 



■ Above all we shoifld give the advantage of our experi- 

 ence to tlie buys who will be with us, and remain to take 

 our places in tlio future. Some will think as I once did of 

 the bother. As a class we are in the habit of hunting with 

 our equals in age, "don't want to be bothered witli boys 

 or tenderfeet." The result is tliat .your boy (if he has any 

 taste that way) wfll go off on a hunt with some friend of 

 equal age, sometimes several of them, with no knowledge 

 , or experience whatever of a gim, and of the great danger 

 by caxeless handling. Even if he is a careful lad the risk 

 is great from others, or if he is alone it is as bad if not 

 worse, for in case of serious results of carelcssn.ess he 

 would be alone in his trouble. No one to run for iielp. 

 Now, from my own experience, a well ti-ained lad is no 

 hindrance witliyoursell' or yunr mni-n n^atnro companions. 

 Of coui-se, some boys are aimcsta ruii^snce; then again, so 

 are many ujen of forty or fifty years, 



I mean this for your sons and younger brothers. Take 

 them into your confidence, advance them to yom- own 

 sphere. Make boy -men of them in the field and forest, 

 on the water, in the camp. If necessary for you to leave 

 home, you who live in the country will feel better if the 

 son or sons you leave behind are familiar with the rifle, 

 shotgun or revolver. On your return the boy or boys 

 from 12 to 16 may tell you with pride of the hawk, owl 

 or foru'-footed vermin that was shot in the attempt on 

 your hen yard. The mother and sister will feel protected 

 from the tramp or night robber if they know that Tom or 

 Jack is quick and sure with g-un or revolver. 



The boy wiU learn more readily to rely on himself, feel 

 that he must act in a more manly way if he knows that 

 his father feels toward him as an equal and confldential 

 friend. _ This companionship, if the parent is of the right' 

 sort, mil prove of great benefit to the younger, while it 

 gives youth to the elder in living over agaui, as it were, 

 the days gone by. And I also know from the written state- 

 ment of others in Forest and Stream and my own feel- 

 ings that if the wife, mother, sister and children were 

 more frequently in our camps by forest and stream, so 

 mtich more joys would be added to our vacation pleasures. 



Brtan the Still-Hunter, 



NOTABLE SHOTS.— VI. 



Pathfinder and the Culls. 

 Chicago, Ul., March 23.— Speaking of kiUing two wood- 

 cock at one shot, I have a cousin down in Mauie who 

 killed two deer at one shot— a doe and a fawn. The doe 

 only was exposed. The ball passed through her and 

 struck the fawn, killing both in their tracks. And that's 

 the truth. 



I was once an ardent admirer of Cooper, and in due 

 time I read "The Pathfinder." Pathfinder was a good 

 shot; above the average you might say. He was on the 

 shore of a lake one day, watching the flight of guUs as 

 they skimmed over the water. He observed two which 

 were contiaually passing one another. To show his com- 

 panions his skill with the rifle, he waited until the flight 

 of the guUs again crossed, and bored them both through 

 and through with a single bullet. Cooper's reputation is 

 established, and no one doubts or takes exceptions to any 

 of his statements. It was a good shot, and that's a fact. 



Old Avalanche. 



A Queer Combination. 



Washington, D. C, March IS. — Observing the interest 

 shown in the accounts of "Notable Shots" published in 

 Forest and Stream encom'ages me to make brief mention 

 of a ijeculiar incident ui my own experience. A friend 

 and I started half a dozen ruffed grouse ("pheasants" in 

 the vernacular of our dark hifls) in a buckwheat field, 

 four or five of which took refuge in a neighboring woods. 

 We followed them \xp and soon my peerless pointer Rover 

 was standing, solid as one of the famous lions of St. 

 Mark's, in front of a big iridescent cock. Taking position, 

 I gave the word "go in," when he sprang forward, 

 flnshed the bird, and dropped like a stone. To avoid the 

 dense undei-brush my bird fluttered upward, and as he 

 took a horizontal position I cut him down. I sent Rover 

 to retrieve him, and the proud dog came back bringing 

 two warm dead birds. The exi^lanation was disclosed 

 when I met my friend. He had been watching a grouse 

 on the limb of a tree, and seeing it fall on the discharge of 

 my gun, he loaded uj) with ugly adjectives to flre into me 

 for indulging in barnyard sport. On learning that I had 

 kflled the bird I saw and one I did not see, amicable rela- 

 tions were restored, and he produced something from his 

 pocket. Jbre. Williams. 



How Many Were Killed? 



Philadelphia, March 29.— While out with a friend a 

 few days ago after snipe, we were hunting over a marshy 

 piece of ground when two snipe got up about 2.5yds. ahead 

 of me and 6ft. apart. One flew after the other and I 

 killed them both at one shot. How many have done that? 

 Mv friend said that it was not a true sportsman's act, as I 

 left him no shot. I think they were mates, for when 

 dressed one showed signs of laying soon, while the other 

 did not. C. F. S. 



[Two birds shot in the spring, one of them with devel- 

 oped eggs, may not be computed by the numeral 2.] 



Duck and Sucker. 



Lexington, 111. , IMarch 27. — Om- local paper this week 

 records a notable shot: ".lohn Moon was in town yester- 

 day with a fish Avhich he had removed from a wild mal- 

 lard duck which he had killed the day before on the 

 Mackinaw above Selrna. The duck was a large-sized one 

 and in beheading it Mr. Moon noticed something sticking 

 out of its neck, and pidling the object out discovered a 

 "sucker" fish Sin. long which weighed lOoz. Two other 

 smaller fish were found in the duck's craw. It's a rare 

 chance a hunter gets a fish and a duck at one shot." 



W. W. G. 



Upland Plover and Cottontails. 



Belfast. Me. — One afternoon in the fall of '91 I had 

 been out in company with a prominent physician of 

 Augusta, for a tiy at the grouse. When on the way home 

 we espied a couple of upland plover in a field to our right, 

 300yds. distant. It f eU to my lot to try them, so alighting 

 from the buggy I walked cautiously toward them, but 

 they appeared very shy, and when I was within about 

 100yds. of them they got up, circled acoui^lo of times and 

 lit again 200yds. or so further on and close to a large pile 

 of compost. I saw an advantage in this, so walking back 

 to tlie road and up until I had the pfle between myself 

 and the birds I crawled toward the pile as rapidly as pos- 

 sible, and reaching it without the birds arising I quickly 

 stood upright; the birds saw me and took wing, both be- 

 ing du-ectly in line, but all of lOyds. apart, the nearest 

 bti-d to me' being all of 20yds. distant. I tired, and they 

 both dropped dead liirds. As tlie upland is a very shy bird 

 in tliis ptirt of tlie rounti'v. tliis shot was very satisfactory, 

 to say the least. The birds haunt open fields, consequently 

 are very difficult to approach, and lucky indeed is the 

 shooter who gets one at a shot. 



On another occasion I made a very queer shot. It was 

 while on a collecting tilp in the Mt, Diablo country, Cali- 



fornia, in the spring of '85. I had gone out along toward 

 evening in quest of a couple of cottontails for supper, as 

 the camp larder was getting low, and had made my way 

 toward a chapparal cover not far from camp, which I 

 knew to be a favorite haunt of the rabbit. On reaching 

 the edge of the brush I saw a cottontail run directly across 

 me along a sheep trail, and about 25yds. up a small hill, 

 but before I could shoot I saw that the rabbit would be 

 behind a clump of sage brush. Noticing at the same time 

 that the top of this clump was rather thin and scraggly, I 

 thought I might be able to get him by shooting through 

 the brush, so I fired just as the rabbit passed out of my 

 sight and was somewha.t surprised to find, on moving up 

 a few steps, that I had bagged my game, as I had not seen 

 the rabbit when I fired. You can imagine my astonish- 

 ment when, as I stopped a moment to throw another shell 

 into my grm, there came tumbling down to my feet a 

 large jack rahbit which had been fatafly hit by the same 

 charge, so there were two rabbits of different species 

 killed by the same shot, and at the moment of firing 

 neither were in sight. The jack must have been sitting 

 just above the trail and in a line with the cottontail when 

 I fired. 0. M. H. 



An Old-Time Pigeon Shot. 



Oil City, Pa. — Some of your correspondents are telling 

 of two woodcock at a shot. My way is generaUy to get 

 the shock of two barrels and no woodcock. But I have 

 kiUed 61 pigeons with both barrels of a 7-pound muzzle- 

 loading gun in the night. Now, some one yell "pot- 

 hunter!" But not so; they were not for market, and were 

 not wasted. This was done years ago. Baenet. 



THE MARYLAND TAG SYSTEM. 



The Wheatlands, Md., March 2^.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I read with much interest your editorial in 

 Forest and Stream of March 23 entitled "Tags Are Un- 

 American." 



Entertaining the views you do. what, let me ask you, do 

 you think of our local laws (so-caUed game laws) in Mary- 

 land, where nearly every county has a law compeUing 

 not alone non-residents from States, but non-residents 

 from other counties in this State, to take out a license to 

 enable them to shoot in the different counties of the 

 State, some of them to such an amount as to be entirely 

 prohibitory. 



For instance, Charles county has a local law by which 

 non-residents of the county are required to take out a 

 Hcense of $25 annuaUy before they can shoot partridges 

 (quail) and .|20 additional before they can shoot wild fowl 

 in the "waters of Charles county." Talbot county and 

 Caroline county have each a non-county resident law. 

 Tliese counties are separated by a narrow creek in part 

 and it is quite possible for a resident of either county to 

 shoot across this stream in places. Now, is he violating 

 this law if he stands on the shore of his own county and 

 kills a duck on the other side? Or, take the reverse of 

 this proposition, suppose a Carohne man sees a bunch of 

 ducks on the Talbot side of the channel, shoots and kiUs 

 one or more, has he violated any so-caUed law? The case 

 is still more absurd in regard to upland game, where the 

 boundary tine are merely imaginay one. 



It cannot be claimed that these laws are in any sense for 

 the protection of game, since they only designate the 

 class who shall kiU the game and are gotten up by resi- 

 dent shooters to keep the shooting in their own hands. Of 

 course after the first ones were passed the lever used at ■ 

 Annapolis was: "If a county keeps us out we will keep 

 her out," and so these absurd laws are in the code for 

 nearly every county in the State. 



While the non-resident State laws may possibly stand 

 the test of constitutionaHty (which I doubt), it is very- 

 certain that these cotmty laws are not in accordance with n 

 the Constitution and BiU of Rights of the State of Mary- 

 land, in so much as they are class legislation, gTanting 

 the property of the State free to one class of citizens and 

 taxing others for the use of it. Wlnle this is bad enough 

 as regards upland game, it is still worse in regard to wild 

 fowl, claiming to apportion the waters of the State, and 

 in many cases the waters of the United States, to the 

 different counties for the purposes of these ridiculous 

 so-called laws. There is of course no doubt that the 

 State could say that no one should shoot any game at any 

 time. That puts aU classes on an equal footing. But to 

 say that Mr. A. , who lives just across an imaginary line 

 from Charles county, cannot shoot ducks in the Wicomico 

 River, imless he pays $20 annually to the clerk of the 

 court for Charles county, while his neighbor adjoining 

 has the same shooting for nothing, is to me the height of 

 absurdity, and in no sense protective. 



The evil result of aU these so-called laws is to bring into 

 contempt all game law^s. The laws are a dead letter tmtil 

 some one who has a spite against his neighbor in an ad- 

 joirung county, catches him across the line, or if the 

 neighbor shorfld have a friend visiting him, when it gives 

 a chance to "get even" for some giaidge. 



Now you will natiu-ally ask why are such absurd laws 

 allowed to remain on the statute book? or why does not 

 some one take an appeal to the Court of Appeals of Mary- 

 land? Try to repeal them . If you are from Charles, St. 

 Mary's, Talbot, Carohne, or any of the other counties, you 

 will be met with county jealousy at once, "the other 

 counties all have these laws and they can't shoot in our 

 county." 



Now take the Court of Appeals issue. Gentlemen who 

 go from home to shoot, go for pleasure. To test any of 

 these laws we would first be arrested by a constable and 

 caiTied b'^fore a magistrate; from his decision he would 

 have to take an appeal to the county court, and thence 

 carry the matter to the Court of Appeals, as our circuit 

 courts, wifl avoid a decision on any point of constitution- 

 ality if possible; and in the event of its decision either 

 way by the cormty court, it would have to go to the 

 Court of Appeals to decide the matter. To engage in a 

 series of law suits is not what we go on a shooting trip 

 for. 



My object in writing this article is, if I can, to caU for 

 an exjDression of opinion from the gentlemen sportsmen 

 of Maryland (who go from then- own coimties to others to 

 shoot, or who live in Baltimore and other cities of the 

 State), as to then- views on these local laws. As I think 

 you know, I am heartily in favor of all laws for the pro- 

 tection of game and fish, and have been an amateur 

 sportsman all my fife, and I will add an inveterate and 

 ' enthusia-stic one," giNK Boat, 



