294 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 6, 1894. 
THE ALL-AROUND FALLACY. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
From time to time communications hare appeared in 
your columns advocating all-round arms, but from the 
diversity of opinions expressed it would seem that no ap* 
proximate standard of excellence has yet been reached 
and accepted by the great body of sportsmen. Since gun 
powders and lead have been used under the light of 
modern science it has, I believe, generally been under- 
stood by those who have hunted ajid shot both large and 
small game, that where count is wanted to the exclusion 
of the other essentials of outdoor sport, one must choose 
the arm in proportion to the work to be accomplished. 
There is such a wide difference between hunting bear, 
elk, squirrels and rabbits that to attempt to harmonize 
the sports and class them under one head seems idle folly, 
and to seek for a weapon suited to all is error. True, 
you may kill an elk or a squirrel with the tiny.22cal., 
and you can annihilate both with the .oOcal., but the 
number of times you miss on the large game with the 
small bullet is offset by the mutilation of the lesser game 
by the use of the large bullet. Therefore, when you at- 
tempt to strike a medium of size in caliber for universal 
use you simply reduce the extremes with no desirable 
gain in the results sought to be attained. 
Perhaps to some extent the same rule maybe applied to 
shotguns, although there is this broad distinction between 
the two arms, namely, the rifle carries its entire weight 
and diameter of projectile in one body of lead, while the 
shotgim in different bores may use the same sizes in shot 
in different quantities, bulk ana weight, thereby multiply- 
ing power for distribution over desired area rather than 
concentrating force as exemplified in the rifle. Theoreti- 
cal aberration respecting the power of the shotgun has 
had considerable to do in over- weighting many fair up- 
land shooters; and I believe less is known through prac- 
tical test of the power of the smooth-bores, choked and 
cylinder, by the owners thereof than is understood by 
riflemen of the uses and power of their favorite arm. My 
acquaintance with riflemen inclines me toward the 
opinion that almost invariably they fairly estimate the 
uses of the large and small calibers, but that only a small 
proportion of the advocates of 10-gauge shotguns for gen- 
eral shooting have ever tested the power of the 16-gauge 
or know its capacity in the hands of a decent wing shot. 
For years I have annually spent a large portion of the 
ummer and fall months with gun and rod, and single- 
hander or canoe. I have looked for the all-round rod, all- 
round boat, and gun, and met with undesirable results, 
and I feelingly express my belief that such a factor among 
the impedimenta of sportsmen has not been produced. As 
it seems impossible to build a boat that will successfully 
combine the good qualities of the hunting canoe and the 
yacht, or to interbreed the draft horse with the racer with 
good results, so an unsatisfactory arm must result from a 
combination of extreme qualities in a sportsman's gun. 
Several of your correspondents have suggested the three- 
barrel as embodying the essential qualities sought after, 
but — omitting to point out how this grouping of the two 
arms eliminates the extremes of bore and caliber incident 
to each— combining shotgun and rifle in one arm does 
not solve the problem, unless perhaps you join two rifle 
barrels of different caliber with two shot barrels of extreme 
bores, and then I presume no sportsman will call that 
combination the sine qua non. It is a piece of ordnance 
I do not wish to pack around the country. Choosing the 
arm for the work you desire is probably a safe procedure 
where excellence becomes paramount. 
The advocates of the three-barrel have hit the mark 
very nearly in combining any satisfactory qualities where 
pure sport is sought in a country of miscellaneous game, 
but it is also an undesirable combination where you are 
•in pursuit of any one species of game. In mountain- 
climbing for large game the shot barrels and ammunition 
becomes a serious load to carry, and useless; while in 
marsh or bay shooting the rifle, if of large caliber, is un- 
desirable. But as constituting a very enjoyable weapon 
for a day's hunt when recruiting, and enjoying nature, 
and out after anything upon which to test your skill, and 
to tone up the nerves, a three-barrel in the small gauges 
becomes a very handy and effective piece. 
Last season I used a 71bs. 3oz. gun, 28in. barrels, 16-bore 
shot, .33-20' rifle — combination arm that afforded consid- 
erable pleasure. During a two-months' outing I shot many 
varieties of game with it in a manner quite as satisfactory 
as to be expected within the capacity of one arm. One 
shot barrel was closely choked and a killer at and even 
beyond 65yds., while the other barrel, being a perfect 
cylinder, scattered fine shot just about right for woodcock 
and reed birds; and this barrel not only threw the large 
sizes shot excellently, but it carried an ounce ball with 
fair accuracy up to 1 00yds. , and proved itself on more than 
one occasion a paralyzer to deer. The little .32cal. bullet 
was perhaps equally as effective when nice shooting was 
desired, for you could bring down a squirrel, a shy duck, 
or raise the fur on a cotton-tail. Yet with its many 
useful qualities, this arm is by no means to be called an 
all-round, as one who has hunted bear and elk, as well 
as shore birds and grouse, can readily comprehend. Nor 
will a larger shot bore, united with a .greater caliber of 
rifle, approximate what is required. 
When in good shooting form I can derive greater satis- 
faction with a sixteen-bore gun than with a twelve or ten 
gauge, and for obvious reasons the light caliber bullet is 
desirable for small game. The lighter weight of the 
small gauge and its ammunition becomes a consideration 
at the close of a long day's tramp and the satisfaction of 
bringing to bag by increased exercise of skill in the use 
of a small shot bore is a mental gratification. By these 
paragraphs it will appear that the combination possesses 
merit as a hunting piece for miscellaneous sport in cer- 
tain localities, but for mountain work probably a .40 or 
,45-caliber repeater is preferable, while for wild fowl 
shooting solely, a good twelve or better a ten-bore gun 
with well choked barrels is the proper implement. 
The interchangeable barrel system adverted to by some 
of your correspondents is, I take it, worthy of considera- 
tion from the standpoint of economy, but intrinsically 
the arm must be judged by the sportsman in the field", 
where it is used and wanted at an instant's notice. The 
hunter of big game who combines with his large-caliber 
rifle a 20-bore shot barrel for use upon an occasional 
grouse when the pot needs replenishing, and also to have 
in reserve at short range a ball of tremendous power, can- 
not in reason claim he has an all-round tool, excellent and 
admirable as such a weapon is for its designed purposes, 
to the exclusion of the wants of the hunter of small game 
who takes an occasional shot at deer. Here are the rep- 
resentatives of the two classes of men with requirements 
diametrically opposed and to whom no common rule will 
apply and no intermediate averaging of extremes will sat- 
isfy. Cayuga. 
FOR MINNESOTA GAME PROTECTION. 
St. Paul, Minn. , Sept. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Minnesota gunning season opened on the 1st inst. Re- 
ports from the various sections show game up to a general 
average, and fine sport. Ducks and chickens are plenti- 
ful, and market-hunters are already sending in their con- 
signments to the cities. The dry summer season was of 
especial advantage to the young broods, though the recent 
terrible forest fires in the north destroyed a large amount 
of game in our best game reserves and burned over the 
feeding grounds. 
But there is not in any State east of the Rockies to-day 
better fishing or gunning than in Minnesota. I have 
learned that since the new Board of Fish and Game War- 
dens was formed by legislative enactment in 1893, appro- 
priating $15,000 yearly for their maintenance, a new life 
Uas been given to the better protection of our game, and 
that the laws are being rigidly enforced. But I have 
observed several points in which their efficiency may be 
increased, and through the columns of the local press I 
am advocating the formation of a voluntary auxiliary aid 
to the constituted authorities in the shape of a State Game 
Protective Association, similar to the ones in Delaware 
and elsewhere, in which any citizen of the State may 
join. Possessing as we do a most favored territory for 
the further propagation of game, aided by the large 
natural nucleus which we have, I am very desirous of 
seeing stringent yet beneficial laws for our own protec- 
tion. 
Minnesota is yearly overrun with sportsmen tourists 
from other commonwealths, whose dogs and guns, should 
all the present advantages now accorded them be contin- 
ued, would soon deplete our game, as their effect is begin- 
ning to tell already. Our fast increasing rural population 
has limited our game reserves to more narrow confines, 
and though "we may wish to be hospitable, we cannot be 
expected to furnish game from our own storehouses to all 
the United States gratuitously." 
By the formation of the proposed society and requiring 
a license fee from all non-resident gunners, as in Dela- 
ware, and also by exacting a license fee from all dealers 
and shippers, holding transportation companies amenable 
for violations on their part, the cash receipts from all 
memberships, fines and licenses would be an available 
sum for the purchase of other game to be turned loose in 
the State. 
For all members to possess powers as constables, author- 
izing them to make arrests without warrant for all known 
violations of the game laws, would prevent to even a 
greater extent gunning out of season and other improper 
practices. There is nothing in these suggestions to meet 
the disapproval of any one who has the interests of our 
game supply and laws at heart, and the hearty support 
the Fokest and Stream has always given to game inter- 
ests ia all localities has been, and is, a source of much 
encouragement to workers with this end in view. We 
may, therefore, hope for your indorsement, for you have 
many readers in the Northwest, and your teachings have 
given us a great incentive in this useful work. 
William L. Tucker. 
PIKE COUNTY (PA.) NOTES. 
Milford, Pa., Sept. 28. — Pike county shooting season 
under the special law, applicable only to this county, is 
open for squirrels Sept. 1 to Dec. 15; rabbits; Oct. 15 to 
Dec. 15; quail, Oct. 15 to Dec. 1; ruffed grouse, Sept. 15 
to Dec. 15; deer, Oct. 1 to Dec. 1; woodcock, July 4 to Dec. 
15. By this it will be seen that squirrels, woodcock and 
grouse (or as they are here called pheasants) are the only 
game that may now be killed legitimately. 
Of these, squirrels are exceedingly scarce, usually at- 
tributed to the abundance of beech nuts in the western 
portion of this county, and the adjacent parts of Wayne 
county, which attract the squirrels to that section in quest 
of the more desired food. 
This season has been notoriously poor for woodcock, 
but the sportsmen are looking forward to better bags 
during the flight season. 
A heavy fall of snow during the early part of April 
last is believed to have destroyed a great many nests and 
young, if not in many instances killing the old birds. 
Grouse are quite plentiful on the unburned grounds; 
but taking our woods as a whole, these noble birds are 
rapidly decreasing in numbers. Never in the history of 
the country has such an area of our forests been swept by 
fire as during this spring and summer. Occurring, as it 
did, in the nesting time of the grouse, hundreds of their 
nests and thousands of their eggs were destroyed. The 
old birds from the burned woods have sought the shelter 
and "shack" of adjacent unburned patches, making them 
more plentiful there, and that fact creates the false im- 
pression of a general abundance of grouse. 
Large bevies of quail have been seen at various points, 
and, although never very good in this section for years 
past, the prospects appear to be that they will afford some 
fine sport when their season opens. 
Rabbits, like the grouse, are all driven to the unburned 
grounds and are very plentiful there. Even thus early in 
the season they are a trequent annoyance to the owners of 
young or inexperienced bird dogs. 
The indications for deer are very good. Although 
driven to the unburned grounds for better cover and pro- 
tection, the fire does not destroy them, and the spring- 
burnt woods afford them most excellent pasture and 
browsing. A great many have been seen during the 
summer by berry pickers and others, and from all the 
hunting centers we hear of abundant deer signs. Not 
only is their presence known by signs, but this town 
knows of at least three deer already killed from two to 
four weeks before the open season. This killing was not 
chance work, but the deliberate effort of lawless parties 
that call themselves sportsmen, and seem to find no greater 
pleasure in the capture of game than when taken out of 
season or by foul, unsportsmanlike and illegal means. 
Our people, who do not wish to witness the total ex- 
termination of game, are almost unanimously in favor of 
but one open season for all kinds, so there can be no pre- 
text of gunning for some bird or beast permissible under 
the law, when in fact they are shooting game of all de- 
scriptions that chances to come within range of their guns. 
It is an undoubted fact that the marked scarcity of wood- 
cock this past season, and the consequent small number 
of gunners seeking them, has been a great protection to 
the young grouse. 
Another conceded necessity of our Pennsylvania game 
laws is a provision for game constables. As the law 
stands to-day, it is simply anybody's business to see to its 
enforcement, and as usual, "what is everybody's business 
is nobody's business," and as a consequence, no matter 
how just and proper our laws may be, no private indi- 
vidual cares to take upon himself the responsibility of 
their enforcement. We have already cited three cases of 
killing deer before the season was open, which fact is 
known to a dozen parties; that in two of the cases the 
Sunday law was violated, which is as publicly known, and 
can add that at least one-half of the birds sold in the local 
markets are snared, and that the fact is well known. Still 
an arrest for a violation of the game laws is of rare occur- 
rence. A competent officer, to whom these facts could be 
presented, would do more to preserve our game than a 
volume of laws with no positive duties of enforcement. 
The Shohola Falls property comprising about 8,000 
acres is located in the interior of the county and has 
always been as it still is, the choicest hunting territory 
that we prssess, yielding more and a greater variety of 
game and fish than any other private property of similar 
extent, yet in spite of the liberality of its proprietor, 
Garret W. Hart, in permitting all reasonable and legiti- 
mate sporting in proper season, the beneficiaries of his 
liberality are the first to abuse it; and in spite of his in- 
dividual efforts to preserve his game for legitimate profit 
to the neighborhood guides, they are the lawless ones 
that, for a small consideration, will join their equally un- 
grateful patrons and shoot, snare, trap, fish or hunt, in 
or out of season, and thus "kill the goose that lays the 
golden egg." Personal observation, and all reports, in- 
dicate that this region will afford ample sport for deer, 
grouse, woodcock and ducks, this season, if the poaching 
pot-hunters] do not get in their work ol destruction too 
early and too actively. Piko. 
The Massachusetts Deer Law. 
Whitman, Mass., Sept. 17. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
A recent article in your paper regarding Massachusetts 
deer is entitled to some comment from residents of this 
State. The article spoke of a deer running wild in Massa- 
chusetts, and expressed surprise at it, but if the writer 
were to spend a week in Cape Cod and listen to the bay- 
ing of the dogs as they chase ' 'short-tail foxes," he would 
not be at all surprised that deer are found off the Cape. 
All the game law there amounts to you could put in 
your eye and then could see the reason they go fox hunt- 
ing. If you are on the Cape and hear the dogs running 
toward the ponds, and then hear a gun, the thing to do is 
to get as near the place of shooting as possible, and at 
dark you will see some one carrying home the biggest fox 
you ever saw. I do not mean to say that all fox hunting 
is after deer, but I am willing to say that two-thirds of 
the hunters go out with no idea of bothering after a fox 
at all. They are after deer. I asked a friend who lives 
on the Cape how he liked the deer law, and his answer 
was that the present law is just what the residents wanted. 
They have the hunting all to themselves. They are right 
there all the Lime where the deer are, and the law keeps 
outsiders out of the woods. 
Deer were quite plenty ten years ago. Where have 
they all gone now? Many of the local hunters say they 
have been destroyed by fire, but it was not by forest 
fires. The fire that destroyed the deer had to have buck- 
shot in front of it. A few may have been killed by fire, 
but deer are not fools to stand still and be burned when 
there is plenty of water near at hand, as there is on the 
Cape, where there are 300 lakes and ponds. 
A great friend of mine pointed out to me on the street 
not long ago a man that had killed nine deer in one fall 
on the Cape three years ago. 
You will do me a great favor if you will publish part or 
all of this letter. I am not ashamed to sign it with my 
name. Wm. Weden. 
Mercurial Ointment for Guns. 
Rochester, Sept. 12. — Editor Forest and Streatn: I 
wish through your valuable paper to inform the sporting 
fraternity that if they desire to keep their guns in trim 
and free from rust there is nothing that seems to be such 
a specific and preventive of oxidation on steel and iron as 
mercurial or "blue" ointment (Unguentum hydrargyri), 
applied in small quantity both externally and inside the 
barrel. 
Surgeons have long been in the habit of using it on 
their surgical instruments to avoid rust. It is astonishing 
how small a quantity will answer. 
There is also another benefit to be derived from its use. 
Mercury does not have the least affinity for steel or iron, 
but it does have for lead, and this quality is of great value 
to the rifleman, in case a rifle is leaded, as by amalga- 
mating the lead it causes it to lift from the creases and it 
can easily be wiped out. 
In the old muzzleloader the leading of the barrel did 
not occur to a great extent, as all the balls were sur- 
rounded by a patch of cloth and the lead did not come in 
contact with the barrel. It is different with the modern 
breechloader. It is best to say to those who contemplate 
using this material that after standing a few days with 
the ointment in it, the barrel will appear to be badly 
rusted, owing to the lifting of the lead in the creases. 
Wiping out will dispell all fear. A gentleman who has 
spent some time hunting in the jungles of India stated 
that nothing so effectually prevented rust on his guns 
as this material. The writer has used all kinds of oil 
and grease on his gun, but mercurial ointment is superior 
in his estimation to anything else. 
It is his custom after having cleaned the gun and wiped 
it with the ointment to ram the greased cloth into the 
breach and put another at the muzzle. This, however, is 
not necessary if the arm is kept in a place of ordinary 
dryness. Guns with bras3 trimmings should not be treated 
with it. J. H. B. 
[Mercurial ointment has been used to prevent rust on 
shotguns for many years, and as suggested by our corres- 
pondent, is very effective.] 
Chickens, Ducks and Geese 
are going to be very plentiful along the line of the Northern Pacific 
this season. Make your arrangements to go and get some of them. 
Send Charles 8. Fee, General Passenger Agent, St. Paul, Minn., 4, 
cents in stamps for "Natural Game Preserves of the Northwest."— Adv 
