Feb. 22, 1896^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
IBS 
and Crockett Club and big- game hunters generally the 
importance of putting down their experiences of game, 
of noting the changes which take place in the habits of 
animals, the causes tending to their decrease and other 
matters of interest. Almost any hunter can pick up in 
conversation with persons who have resided long in the 
country where he may be information of real value, and 
these matters, if recorded, are often of very great interest 
to students of science. 
Mr. Roger D. Willia'ms, who is well known as an old- 
time follower of the sport of wolf coursing, gives in this 
volume a long paper on the subject, which will still 
further recommend the volume to lovers of the grey- 
hound. There is a great deal that is interesting in his 
account of wolf chasing, and he gives a detailed descrip- 
tion of the iirst trial of barzoi— the Russian wolf hound- 
in this country. 
Mr. Charles E. Whitehead's paper on game laws is in a 
measure historical and is full of useful suggestions look- 
ing toward the protection of game. His long experience 
in connection with the New York Association makes him 
speak with authority on this subject. 
The last of the signed articles in the volume is by Capt. 
George S. Anderson, the superintendent of the Yellow- 
stone National Park, and is entitled "Protection of the 
Yellowstone National Park." It briefly sketches the his- 
tory of the Park from 1871, when the Barlow and Hayden 
expeditions entered it, up to the present time, but, of 
course, the greatest space is given to what has occurred 
there since he took charge of the Park. He describes the 
capture of some of the poachers and makes recommenda- 
tion looking toward the preservation of game and the 
punishment of those who offend against the regulations. 
One of the most interesting papers in the book is the 
unsigned contribution entitled "The Yellowstone National 
Park Protection Act," which gives in small compass the 
history of Park legislation, and tells of the good results of 
protection, and of the manifest comprehension by the 
wild animals within the Park of the fact that they need 
not fear man. Examples are cited of the absolute tame- 
ness of bears, and on the whole a paper is made up which 
is of the greatest interest. 
Tip to a year ago there had never been any authentic 
measurement of horns of American game in this country; 
but, at the Exposition held in the Madison Square Garden 
in May last, a committee of tbe Boone and Crockett Club 
measured the few heads exhibited, and the measurements 
are published in this volume. There are only one or two 
especially large heads among them, but the measurements 
give us a starting point; and it is to be hoped that from 
this time forward heads will be measured, so that after a 
while we shall have a series of records which will be of 
value. 
This is the last general article in the book. It is fol- 
lowed by the text of the Yellowstone Park Protective Act, 
by the constitution of the Boone and Crockett Club and a 
list of its officers and members. The whole makes a vol- 
ume of 447 pages. It is handsomely illustrated by half 
tones and sketches, all of them of much interest. Among 
these we may mention especially two pictures of Chief 
Mountain, picture of a mountain ram from life, a com- 
parison of the heads of the Rocky Mountain and Polo's 
sheep, drawn to the same scale, so as to show the differ- 
ence in the spread of the horns; two or three pictures of 
Tibetan animals, a number of pictures of game in the 
Yellowstone Park, and two or three bearing on wolf 
coursing. 
The make-up of the book is handsome, the typography 
well done. It has a rubricated title-page with a vignette, 
and a dark red cloth binding is ornamented with a silver 
stamp of the fine mountain sheep head killed by Mr. Gould 
in Lower California. 
On the whole, the volume may be said to reflect great 
credit on the club. Messrs. Theodore Roosevelt and 
George Bird Grinnell were the editorial committee under 
whose charge the work was prepared. 
CALIBERS FOR GAME. 
Feedeeicton, N. B.— Editor Forest and Stream: I was 
pleased to see in your issue of Feb. 8 that Col. Cecil Clay 
took the part of Tiam. I always thought that Tiam was 
used pretty badly by some of the writers in our paper, and 
some of them, according to their own story, had never 
been in Tiam's position, and could not tell whether he had 
acted in a sportsmanlike manner or not. I know Tiam 
by reputation and I think he knows more about moose- 
hunting than some of his critics. 
I would like to say to Cecil Clay that I enjoyed his let- 
ter very much, and I agree with him that the killing of 
the animal is the least enjoyable part of a hunting trip, but 
still I think he is a little hard on Mr. Irland. Mr. Irland 
did not say that a man was insane who went after moose 
with anything less than lOOgrs. and an ounce ball. What 
he did say was that he expected to hear of some one going 
after a moose with one of these new crochet needle guns, 
meaning one of the new .30cal. rifles. 
Brother Clay has been very fortunate in his moose 
hunting; remarkably so, I should say, and I think others 
will agree with me. 
He has had success with his .44-40 and is satisfied; so 
would any one be under the same conditions, Still I do 
not think that he will get many big-game hunters to 
recommend the .44-40 for moose. Moose and also bears 
have been killed with .22s, but such arms are not usually 
taken for that game. 
He also spoke of his '73 model .44-40 as a light gun. I 
think it weighs about 91bs., which is as heavy as a .45-90; 
and many will agree with me that the .45-90 is the better 
gun. He has used the .44 with success and likes it; that 
is all right; but our friend A. H. asked for opinions on the 
best gun for moose. And [ think I will have more agree 
with me than with friend Clay. 
Another writer in a late paper advises A. H. to get a 
shotgun. Now that is very good for the brush, but what 
about the long shot out on the barren or on the lake in 
winter ? The shotgun would be useless there. All the 
English gun makers have guns double-barrel top-snap 
action, which do as good shooting as a rifle up to 150yds. , 
and make a good pattern with shot at 40yds. They can 
be had in any bore from 20 to 4. One of these would be 
far superior to a shotgun for big game— a 16 or la-gauge 
being as nice a size to take to Maine as a man could have; 
a good grouse or duck gun, as well as a first-class moose 
gun for close range, they use both round and conical bul- 
ets, solid and express. 
Brother Clay js also a little astray when he says that he 
w.ould only tak.<? a .50-110 or a ,45-90 to a 500 or 600yds, 
target match. Perhaps he judges these guns by the old 
1,000yds. sight on the old .40-60 and .40-65 Winchester. 
The .50-110 is intended for 200yds. work or less; the .45-90 
is good on a pinch up to 300yds., nothing more. If he 
wants to get a gun to do good work up to 500 or 1,000yds. 
he will have to look elsewhere than to either of the above 
named. This I have from the Winchester people them- 
selves. 
I had the same ideas about my old .40-60 Winchester; it 
was fitted with a 1,000yds. sight, taken to the range, tried, 
and found wanting. I wrote to the makers and they in- 
formed me that the last 800yds. on that sight were for looks 
— not U86. 
As for shooting grouse on the head, as doubted by Dick, 
it can be done as well with a .45-90 as with a .44. Last 
fall I saw five shot with a .45-85, and only six cartridges 
used; all shot in the head. How is that, brother Dick? 
To the rest of friend Clay's letter I agree. 
Don't have your moose called. Still-hunt him fair and 
square; and when you shoot him do it with a gun so big 
that he will not run a quarter of a mile, or 300yds. or 
less; drop him where he stands; if possible, do this part 
of your hunting as humanely as possible, and you will do 
about right. 
A friend of mine over north met a hunting chum on 
the caribou barrens fall before laat; the chum had a .44; 
he said he had seen a good many caribou that fall; had 
shot at a good many, in fact, but had only got three. My 
friend was over that ground all winter and spring. He 
came across eleven dead caribou which his chum had shot, 
and which of course were useless and made food for 
foxes. I don't think that would have happened if his 
chum had used a bigger gun. Certainly not so many 
would have been lost, 
Cecil Clay can stick to the .44. Blue Nose. 
In Foeest and Steeam of date Jan. 11 1 notice A. H. 
asks what caliber rifle he should obtain for shooting 
large game. The selection of a gun for this purpose will 
depend to some extent upon the kind of game he expects 
to shoot and the nature of the country in which he will 
hunt for it. If his hunting should be done in the dense 
forests and thick undergrowth of the North or South, par- 
ticularly the latter, it is essential that a rifle of large cal- 
iber be selected, and as but one shot will generally be had 
at game before it is out of view — and that a necessarily 
quick one — there will be ro time for adjustment of sights, 
hence the value of flat trajectory, soft bullet and large 
caliber, that the shock or "stopping power" may be great, 
and the game if wounded may not escape from the hunt- 
er to die a lingering death. For this kind of shooting 
accuracy in a rifle can be dispensed with to a great extent 
so as to gain other features of greater value. 
* If, however, hunting is done on the plains, plateaus or 
in forests which may be considered as comparatively open 
so that a view of the game may be had for some distance, 
then it is essential that the rifle be caliber sufficiently 
large to kill at a distance, with as flat trajectory as can be 
obtained with a reasonable amount of accuracy, for shots 
may be taken at 200 and even 300yds., although the vast 
majority will be at much less distance, and one would be 
foolish to try a shot at such long range unless it be impos- 
sible to get nearer. 
For deer and antelope hunting in fairly open country 
I should not use a smaller caliber than ,4'J, and for elk, 
moose and bear .45 or .50 would be the proper arm, and 
also serve for the former animals as well. The .45 and .50 
should also be effective in very thick cover. 
If a repeating rifle is chosen, a cartridge will have to 
be selected which is adapted to it, but there are a number 
of good cartridges and loads for hunting large game that 
can only be used in a single-shot rifle. However, the 
former is considered by the majority of hunters of experi- 
ence to be the best of the two for hunting, as several shots 
quickly taken gives one more chances of bringing down 
his game. Almost everyone has his individual taste 
in such matters, and some hunters have a horror of the 
clumsy repeater, preferring a single shot shooting a large 
load, and they say they either kill their game clean or 
kill it dead, all of which is true. The owners of a repeat- 
ing rifle generally have a tendency to shoot recklessly at 
game, at least not as carefully as the users of the single 
shot, who know what a miss generally means to them. 
Let A. H. decide on this matter for himself. 
Of the. 40 calibers, the .40-65 and .70 Remington, Marlin, 
Winchester and Sharp are good; have excellent accuracy, 
but rather high trajectory for a rifle used exclusively in 
hunting. The .40-82 Winchester has flat trajectory, is 
powerful enough for deer, etc., but the accuracy is not so 
great as the others named, though sufficient for hunting 
purposes. 
Of the 453 the .45-90-300 and .45-70-330, 350 and 405 grain 
bullets are good hunting charges for most any large game 
to be found in America. The former has very flat trajec- 
tory, good accuracy and very powerful, though it has 
rather a light bullet for hunting our largest game. Still 
it is one of the most popular among sportsmen. The 
.45-70-330 (Gould) has moderate trajectory, very good ac- 
curacy, the 350 nearly the same, and the 405 bullet, which 
can be used in the same rifle, should be available for the 
largest game and at the longest range at which it can be 
killed. The Winchester .50-100-450 is of course a very 
powerful gun and may be used for hunting the grizzly 
bear and such dangerous animals, but even for this it has 
very little superiority to the .45-70 and is inferior in many 
other wayB. 
Of the modern small caliber rifles shooting high velocity 
ammunition I have little to say under this head, as I do 
not consider such an arm practicable for hunting, one 
reason being that such rifles and ammunition were de- 
signed to serve a different purpose than that of a gun for 
game shooting. 
If A. H. should select a single-shot rifle, I would advise 
that he select the .40-90-370 Sharps straight of tbe .40 cali- 
bers, and of the .45s a gun chambered for shooting the 
Sharps .45-100 grains powder and from 350 to 500 grains 
lead. This rifle should have a shotgun butt and check- 
ered rubber butt-plate, pistol grip, not over 30in. barrel 
(round), and may have a matted rib and checkered trigger; 
fitted with Lyman's sights. 
If he should select a repeating rifla, this is about what 
I would order: Round barrel, 24 or 26 in,, + magazine, 
shotgun butt and rubber butt-plate, fitted with Lyman's 
sights, caliber .45-70, taking the IT. S, Government car- 
tridge, but would u§9 the 330 (Gould) or 350 grain bullet for 
minting, and hp. o? r nuae the 409 grain bullet; when required, 
Reload the shells with some good strong powder, and I 
think he will have all he desires. This is undoubtedly 
an ideal gun for large game and has many advantages 
which I have not space to describe, but which A. H. will 
no doubt, in time, discover for himself. 
W. H. Davenpobt. 
Chicago. 
[The Sharps rifle is no longer on the market.] 
ABOUT SOME SITTING SHOTS. 
I have read with interest the various opinions expressed 
by your correspondents as to what constitutes a true 
sportsman, and see no reason to modify the opinion I gave 
in your columns last fall, namely, that the true test of sports- 
manship lies in the motive which prompts the act. For 
about half a century I have practiced wing shooting, and 
have been called a good shot. During that period I have 
fired at game comparatively few sitting shots, yet it is a 
fact that among these were some of which I felt particu- 
larly proud. 
On one occasion, late in the season, when the birds were 
scarce, wild and strong of wing, I was seeking for game 
upon an Illinois prairie with which I was totally unac- 
quainted. I had no dog, had fired no shot for months, 
and was about to leave the grouse country. I needed a 
few birds. I say "needed," but this does not necessarily 
imply that I should have suffered for the want of food 
had my expedition been unsuccessful. The gun I carried 
was a very strong-shooting muzzleloader. 
After an unsuccessful travel of some miles, I saw a little 
grove of large Cottonwood trees, perhaps half a dozen in 
number, among which were a few patches of low brush- 
wood. Toward this spot I bent my steps, thinking to find 
a rabbit or a bevy of quail, but none of these rewarded 
my efforts. While standing near the trees a few prairie 
chickens came sailing past, intending to alight upon the 
branches. Two of these fell to my double shot as they 
passed my stand, and I dropped the butt to load; but as I 
did so, I saw another grouse coming from the same 
direction as had the last. 
This bird alighted on a tree at very long range, and was 
hidden from view by numerous twigs. Certain of its posi- 
tion, I kept my eye upon the spot, lest it might change its 
place unawares, and "felt" a charge into my left-hand 
barrel. The old gun cracked, and the bird came down 
— dead. I am sorry that I did not pace the distance. 
I now had all the game I needed, and sought no more. 
Had I moved two steps in the direction of that grouse, 
it would have flown instanter, in which case I might have 
stung it with a stray shot, but the chances against killing 
it would have been as a thousand to one. 
About five years ago I shot my last partridge (grouse). 
There were few of these left, but I heard the bird start 
from the ground in spite of a high wind which was blow- 
ing at the time, and followed the sound some thirty rods, 
when, looking across an open glade in the forest, I saw 
for the first time the bird near the top of a tall hemlock 
some thirty odd yards away, and ready to fly. Now, there 
may be one among those who read Foeest and Steeam 
who would have felt that there was a chance of getting 
that bird in some other way than by shooting it where it 
sat. I did not so feel, and I wanted that bird, for there 
was no chance of getting another. I shot it. 
Perhaps these things were unsportsmanlike, but I will 
tell you what did make me feel decidedly mean, and I 
have not forgiven myself for the shooting of my last duck. 
This, too, happened some four or five years ago. I Was 
paddling down a river, hardly thinking of game (for it 
was then nearly as scarce as now), when a duck arose well 
in advance of the boat and flew across the marsh. I dropped 
my paddle, caught up my gun, and cut down the bird 
by a snap shot at very long range. It was a shot which 
would perhaps have rejoiced almost any of your high £63- 
thetic sportsmen law-givers, but to me it was most unsat- 
isfactory, and the only excuse I could offer to myself for 
having killed that bird was that there was little time for 
thought of consequences. I ought to have held my fire 
as often before under like circumstances, for the poor bird 
fell into a cat-tail swamp, where mortal man could never 
find it without a retriever. I had no dog, and — that's 
all. Kelpie. 
The Buck that Got Away. 
An old abandoned logging road, moss grown, rotting 
and silent. 
A hurrying brook, icy cold, clear and swift, singing a 
forest chant as it turns and twists, gurgling as it disappears 
under a rotting log carpeted with moss, silent where it 
bubbles up again. 
.A long vista of forest isle, cool, damp, moss-hung and 
silent save for the mystic sighing that comes from the un- 
moved pineB, the waiting silence of the unblown forest. 
Tree trunks, more beyond them and still more until there 
is nothing but tree trunks to see and the eye is lost. 
A figure, silent, watchful and careful, treading, slowly 
walking on and on, further up the log way, further up 
the stream. 
A gleam of steel that glints in the spaces where the 
light struggles down through the moss-hung tangle of the 
cedars and the pineB. 
A muffled roar of wings in rapid flight, a swift-moving 
brown ball of feathered lightning, then a roaring, echoless 
boom, the sound of exploding powder and — a dead pheas- 
ant smoothed, admired and laid away in the coat pocket. 
A silent, watchful figure strolling on. 
A crackle in the thickness of the mossy cedars. 
A halt, a cautious, silent peering, a searching, careful 
look. 
The car ven image of a lordly buck graven 'mid the green . 
A silent, quick exchange of shells, a quick but steady 
aim, the booming roar of a "scattergun." 
A crash among the cedars, a waving branch or two. 
Chug, chug, chug, fainter and fainter to the figure stand- 
ing under the smoke wreath, the bounding thump of the 
retreating buck. 
A study of a deep fresh trail, a look of disappointment 
and a set of unstrung nerves. 
A silent figure strolling back again, listening to the sing- 
ing of the glad brook. 
A resolve to go again and a buck that got away. 
El Comancho. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday 
Correspondence intended for publication, should reach ua at thq 
atest py Msn %ay <?ftjg m mi&h earltef <*f practicable. 
