Sept. 4, 1897.J 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
18B 
of feathers at the first shot from a "Winchester .23 and kill- 
ing it with the second. And this was done left-handed, a 
way I sometimes shoot on account of neuralgia in the right 
eye,. but not the natural way for me. I have also hunted 
and shot with many crack shots in various places and com- 
pared notes with many more. 
My experience, and that of all others whom I have had a 
chance to pin down to cross-examination, has taught me that 
the hitting of running, flying, jumping, sailing, or even 
swimming game at the distances at which shots at it 
generally occur is more a matter , of good luck than of good 
management. T don't believe the man lives who can hit 
forty running deer or antelope out of a hundred, taking all 
fairly good chances as they come and under the varying con- 
ditions of the field. And I don't believe anyone can kill 
half that many of any kind of birds, unless they be young 
pinnated grouse— which I have never tried — or something of 
that sort. It does not take very long to put ten out of fif- 
teen shots from a repeater into a Sin. circle at iSyds. as fast 
as one can work the lever without lowering from the shoul- 
der. And the other five will not be far out of the way. 
This becomes, with practice, almost pure snap-shooting, the 
sights being barely seen, and often not at all that one is con- 
scious of. Sometimes you will get a whole magazinef ul into 
the ring, but you cannot rely on it. By shooting in this way 
I have no doubt a fair score could be made on pigeons from 
a trap at 15yds. 
I never tried it on pigeons, but have tried enough of that 
kind of shooting to say with certainty that it is of no use for 
game-shooting, as game is generally found, but will injure 
rather than improve your chances of making a clean shot at 
anything moving beyond 15 or SOyds. It Is also almost cer- 
tain ruin to that fineness of sight — that careful discrimina- 
tion between a fine view of the front sight and a coarse one 
— together with t^hat perfect coolness, steadiness and delicate 
touch of the trigger finger so absolutely essential to center- 
shots on game at rest over the average distance, or when in 
bad lights, bad positions, or when only a small spot of it is 
seen and the shot must be very fine. Never practice that 
kind of shooting if you want to do first-rate work on game 
unless you accompany it with a great deal of very careful 
off-hand work at fine targets with open sights. Even then 
you had better do little of it. 
I have met my share of the big talkers with the rifle, and 
have never yet failed to make the best of them back down 
on the following proposition: 
I will give you a dollar every time you hit the crown of 
your hat up to 150yds or the whole hat up to 300yds. if you 
,"will give me a dollar every time you miss it. Shooting to 
be with open sights, but no adjustment before shooting as 
there would be no time for it with running game.' Tto have 
the privilege of changing distance and position of hat at 
every shot if I wish, and the match to be shot on ground 
where it can be through brush or timber or over it, across 
ravines and In different lights; that is rough and tumble 
country work such as you have in shooting game. When 
they consider the changes that may be made they always 
back out. Yet the hat is larger than the spot that should 
be hit by the man who talks of "placing the ball in the right 
place.' 
This can be done up to 160yds. witli the old-fashioned 
su^ar loaf bullet or cone loaded from the muzzle with the 
I weight of the powder at least half the weight of the ball. It 
can also be done with a rifle of .16 shotgun caliber and 
round ball loaded from the muzzle up to 140yds. if 300grs. 
of powder be used. But with small round balls or long 
bullets and light charges of powder, that is such loads as 
ordinary hunting rifles are reasonably accurate under, it can 
not be safely attempted by the best judges of distance and 
light. Nothing but a trajectory that requires no change of 
sighting combined with a degree of accuracy which can not 
be had from rifles heavily loaded with the ball in the shell, 
will sufiice. 
Here is another proposition. Suppose you can group any 
number of bullets off hand in the 4.in. ring at 100yds. Now, 
take the finest of globe and peep sights if you wish and 
make me a decent group that shall be 5ft. to the right or left 
of the bullseye. Or make one at 50yds., 2l(t. on either side. 
And remember that you must do this in the field with no 
shifting of sights and with a blank to aim at that is practi- 
cally the same as a pure white wall. How much of a group 
will you guarantee to make at those distances off the center? 
Or try it even at 35yds. and see if you can make a group 
I5in. or 1ft. on one side that would hit the size of a quail 
half the time, or the body of a sparrow once in five times. 
Be careful of course not to shoot at your first bullet hole but 
have the place blank as it would be In shooting at game. 
Now what proportion do we have of straight-away shots 
in the field? A long experience on all kinds of moving 
marks with close observation on this point convinces me 
that they are very rare. There is not one shot in twenty in 
the long run that you can make by holding the sights on the 
game. You must not only guess at the distance necessary 
to hold off of it, but also guess whether you are holding that 
distance— a double guess where either one is bad enough. 
Add the guessing on the trajectory of the rifle, which is 
almost certain to carry the ball a little too high or too low un- 
less you have the distance measured and the sights adjusted 
to it as in target shooting, and we have an ever-changing 
problem that must be solved in very short.time. 
In addition to the above trouble all running game is rising 
and falling enough to make great uncertainty about reaching 
vital parts. The mule deer bounds high enough at almost 
every jump, especially in the brush where he is usually 
found, to leave a baU below or above him. Many of his 
jumps are certain to do this at the distance at which he is 
likely to be shot at. The Virginia deer, though apparently 
hot as high a jumper as the mule deer, is still a good one, 
and as a rule his up and down motion cannot be ignored 
where it is possible to consider it. Even the antelope, that 
glides along with a grace so spirituelle that you cannot con- 
sider his rise and fall, has still enough of it to make you miss 
his vitals often, and the whole body occasionally, even when 
you have held the sights upon exactly the right point to 
catch the center if it were moving on a straight line. If you 
doubt this, fire a few hundred shots at jack rabbits skimming 
the plain or hillside in the dry countries, where the dust wiU 
show you where every ball strikes. When he is under such 
full speed that he pulls himself out like a telescope and seems 
to skim the ground like a fi^ duck flying close to the water, 
vou will be amazed at the balls that strike just over or imder, 
long after you have mastered as well as you ever will master 
it, the secret of holding far enough ahead. 
Next comes the shifting play of light upon the sights. 
Take your lifle out in the sun, hold it at arm's length, run 
your eye along the sights, and turn slowly around in a 
fpcle. Or put four targets in the sun at the four points ol 
the compass and make four snap shots at them as rapidly as 
you would shoot at game that was fast getting away. You 
will find it quite different from shooting at a target where 
you pick the light, or soon get used to it, or have time to 
find the center of light on the sights. The change in the 
center of light is largely obviated by taking the notch en- 
tirely out of the backsight, rusting it with iodine or blood, 
and blacking with ink or powder. Also by moving it much 
further up the barrel than it is usually placed. Don't worry 
about the center, for if you knock the back sight entirely 
off you can hit a telegraph pole at 100yds. as well as ever, 
and just as quickly. And don't worry about the range of 
sights being too short, for 15in, between them is enough, 
and even a foot does fine work. What is lost in range by 
the shorter distance between them is more than made up by 
the greater clearness of the back sight, and for running 
shooting by the greater quickness with which the eye takes 
the proper amount of front sight over it. Ivory for the 
front sight is indispensable to avoid the shifting of the cen- 
ter of brightness upon it. Lyman's sights are specially de- 
signed to avoid this trouble, and do it wonderfully well. 
The only difference is that the back sight being so near, the 
eye is not as quick for a very quick shot as the straight bar 
set far up the barrel, while the latter is also quicker in the 
gray of morning or late in the evening. The principle is 
the same in each, and is correct, for about nine people out of 
ten — that the eye will find the center all right if you will 
just be kind enough to let it alone. For all-around work a 
rifle should have hoth these sights. If one is not a fine shot 
or is much out of practice, he should use Lyman's sights ex- 
clusively and let notches in the back sight entirely alone, 
especially if his eyes are so old that he has to wear glasses to 
read. Still neither of these entirely obviate the effect of 
changing light. 
All these difliculties are bad enough in the open country. 
They are increased in the woods by trees that stop the ball, 
by twigs that will set it wobbling or turn it at once, and by 
the change from light to heavy shade which i • almost con- 
stant. The difficulty of judging distance is also much in- 
creased, and when you have tried it long enough you are 
sure to quit it and hold the same sight on about everything 
in motion. 
I know how the fine shooting is done. It is so natural to 
forget how you unloaded the whole magazine of the repeater 
at some deer plunging along a brushy hillside. How awfully 
that one day would reduce your average for the whole hunt 
if you should be weak enough to include it in your figures! 
It seems now, by memory's eye, that you saw the whole 
body of the game at each shot. But you saw nothing of the 
sort. Here it was a shoulder, there a rump, now shining 
above the brush for a second, then lost, but small enough to 
take the best of shooting to hit it had it been at rest. What 
your memory now sees is a composite of several motions and 
appearances that look so easy to hit. If the gentleman who 
thinks it easy to hit when in motion the thickness of the 
body of a deer at any distance at which the rifle is accurate, 
will pick up his empty shells and count them against the 
game after firing 500 or 1,000 shots he may think otherwise. 
For my part, the principal pleasure I have found in the rifle 
is the fact that you may play with it so much on almost any 
kind of small game in motion, yet keen your conscience 
comfortably clear of the charge of murder. 
T. S. Yajs Dyke. 
Los Ahseles, Cal. 
A DAY WITH THE PARTRIDGE AT 
WHITE LAKE. 
It was with a feeling of sadness that I boarded the Mon- 
day morning train on the Erie for White Lake, New York, 
having received intelligence of my cousin's serious illness 
there, but I found him much improved, and in reply to his 
first question as to where Dixie and my gun were (Dixie 
being my English setter), it was with much regret I had to 
announce that I had left them behind, as I did not expect to 
do any shooting on this trip, 
"Well, never mind, old boy," said he, "I can fix you out. 
There is my Francotte rusting for want of use, and my coat 
and shells in my trunk, so to-morrow morning >ou can have 
a good day's sport. The law is up to-day, and Tacey will 
go with you. Do you know Tacey? No! well, let me in- 
troduce you to the proprietor of Sportsmen's Home. In the 
first place, he loves his dogs and guns; that should be enough 
to recommend him to any one. But he has other qualities, 
good-natured to a fault, willing, obliging and not a game 
hog. He knows when he has enough, and believes in leav- 
ing a bird or two for seed, and is a capital dog handler." 
1 had an interview with Tacey and he said he would so 
with me in the afternoon, if I could amuse myself until 
then. I could not restrain myself that long, but I started to 
look through a swale just below the house, thinking I might 
run across a bird or two before dinner. I had hardly gone a 
rod when Tacey's old dog Dash was upon me; he smelt 
trouble and was going to have some of it. Now, Dash has 
his own ideas of right and wrong, only laying claim to one 
master and refusing to mind any one but him. I attribute it 
to the fact that one eye is blue and the other brown. But he 
is a good one, as I learned later in the day. I took him along 
and ran the chances, but after we got in the cover all that I 
saw of him was an inquiring look once in a while to see if I 
had gone home yet; then he would go off and amuse himself. 
Not a bird did I find. I returned to the house and told 
Tacey I did not believe there were any birds in Sullivan 
county. "Well," said he, "if I don't show you birds this 
afternoon I will leave the county to-moiTOw." 
It was along about 3:30 when we were on our way across 
the fields. There might be woodcock in that cover yonder, 
the ground was quite soft. "Hey! Dash! this way ; careful 
now." But it drew blank, so we crossed to a swale just 
below. ' 'You take along that side and keep your eyes peeled, 
and I will go through and see if I can put some out. Mark 
them well, and watch the trees, for this time of year par- 
tridge are apt to do most anything," and in he started. 
Tacey evidently thought I was a novice at the business, 
and wantedjhim to put them out over my head, so that I could 
shoot them without getting my feet wet; but I think I was 
not long proving the contrary to him. 
Whoa, Dash! Bang! Mark! and I had just time to see a 
fine partridge cross over ahead into a piece of cover beyond. 
"One down. Careful, Dash! Dead birdl Look out there", 
Walt 1" About eight birds flushed wild ahead. 
"Stay where you are until I come out." In a few minutes 
out he came with a fine bird, the first of the season. "Where 
did that one go you saw come out?" 
' 'Across there 1" 
"Well, we will look him up, and turn those others back 
before they get in that swamp beyond!" 
"Now, look here, Tacey," said I, "this is all very nice; 
but I want some of th's fun myself, and am going right in 
there with you to follow the dog!" 
"That is the kind of a man I like. Pitch right in, and we 
will see what we can do." 
After a brief search for the one I had seen cross, but with- 
out result, we started around to turn the others. It was very 
thick cover; the laurels were hard to get through, to say 
nothing of the high grass and water; but my blood was up, 
and in we sailed. Hark! the bell had stopped, and Dash 
was on point just to Tacey's left. "Look sharp now, Walt; 
here they are." Bur-r-r, bang! Whoa, Dash! Dead bird. 
Two for Tacey, and I had empty pockets. This won't do. 
Tacey never moved, neither did Dash, when there was a 
bur-r-r to my left; around I swung, bang! and down I slid 
off the log I had been standing on. "G-uess I missed !'' 
"Well, you got feathers all right," answered Tacey; ' Vait 
until I get my bird and we will see." 
I looked while he got his bird, but could not locate the 
bird until Dash came along, stopped in the high gra.?s, and 
there it was sure enough, my first of the season, and a fine 
one, which I proudly deposited in my pocket. 
"Now, look sharp; there are more here." 
Hardly had he spoken when a fast one crossed me, which 
I tried for, but neatly missed, and I heard Tacey say, 
"There are others. Whoa! Look sharp!" Up got another 
to Tacey's right and placed a big chestnut tree between 
him and Tacey. I waited for him to swing around, then 
brought him down, "Good shot, Walt, old boy; the chest- 
nut saved his life a few seconds only. Now we are even; 
one dollar on the next bird " 
"Done," said I; and we swung around to the right. 
"Careful, Da^h! Steady point I Eabbit," remarked Tacey. 
But Dasb thought otherwise, as he stood with his nose close 
to the root of a big tree. "Come on. Dash." But there 
i^vaa no move. "Send him on, Tacey." "Go on. Dash." 
?Jur r-r through the top hole he came and circled to my 
left. I thought he was gone, but stepped back a pace, let 
go and down he came. "One dollar or one day," sang I to 
Tacey. 
"Right, my boy; you earned it on that shot fair enough, 
and you lead me one bird. Now we will take a look at an- 
other piece, where we are sure to find woodcock. I guess 
you have handled a scatter gun before from the way you 
walked into those birds; five out of six not so bad, eh?" 
We crossed to the opposite, picking blackl3erries as we 
went, and deciding that one woodcock apiece would about 
fill the bill. 
"Now we are here," said Tacey, "keep a careful watch 
on the dog, for among these pine trees they are apt to fool 
you." 
Along we walked. I was thinking more of my three birds 
than of those to come, when Tacey shouted, "Look out!" 
and as I turned I saw a woodcock taking his leave around the 
top of a pine tree. I made a quick shift and fired, but was 
too late. 
"What's the matter. Walt?" 
"Not ready," said I. 
There was a report from another gun above us, and an^ 
other from Tacej's. "If I had only been quicker," said he. 
"Well, you take along this lower edge and I will send that 
fellow that I missed back to you. He did not go far." So 
off I started, kicking through the fern and huckleberry 
bushes, when a bti'd rose right from under my nose. I shot 
twice and missed. A shot from Tacey corraled him. 
"One more, and then for supper. Here, Dash, take a look 
in there. Whoa!" 
And Tacey had him. Our score was full. It was half-past 
6, and this wound up one of the most pleasant of afternoon 
sports. We returned home much pleased with our seven 
birds. I had been convinced ; had turned a disagreeable start 
into a pleasant finish, and went home next day with a bag 
full of birds. We were late for supper, to be sure, but that 
good little wilte of his had it nice and warm for us; and after 
indulging in plenty of good things, we wound up with the 
pipe of peace, 1 cannot speak too highly of the treatment 
given me at the Sportsmen's Home, and should any of my 
brother sportsmen want a few days' good sport within five 
hours of New York, they cannot do better than try this 
place. A. H. M. 
MORE MARYLAND PHEASANTS 
POISONED. 
After spending thousands of dollars in securing the con- 
viction of .James Butler, who was sentenced to the peniten- 
tiary for three years on the charge of poisoning 3,000 pheas- 
ants in August and September of last year, the Bowley's 
Quarter Ducking Club members are disheartened to find 
that some one is poisoning the birds again this year. The 
crime of last year undid the work of four years' patient toil 
in a pioneer effort in this country to breed the English 
pheasant. This second attempt to destroy the birds may re- 
sult in the club's abandoning further efforts to raise these 
birds. 
About a month ago Mr. Joseph Davison, keeper of the 
recently installed breeding pens of Mr. Henry A. Brehm, 
located in Bacfi: River Neck, on Middle River, opposite 
Bowley's Quarter, noticed that many of the birds were dying 
mysteriously. He took several carcasses of the pheasants to 
Prof. Wilson, of Baltimore, and had the contents of their 
crops analyzed. The professor found a quantity of new 
wheat so heavily coated with arsenic that his experienced 
eye told him without a microscopic examination what poison 
had been used. 
In spite of Mr. Davison's vigUant night watching, the 
birds continued- to die and the poisoners, in some mysterious 
way, managed to continue their foul work until this entire 
flock was destroyed. Davison took Mr. Mc Vicar, keeper of 
Bowley's Quarter game preserves, into his confidence, and 
the latter took precautions to guard his big flock, numbering 
upward of 1,500 pheasants, in the Fox Den pen, on Briar 
Point, just across the river from Davison's Quarters. Mr. 
McVicar's vigilance, however, was of no avail, and a week 
later his birds, too, began to die, and the same dreaded arsen- 
ical wheat was found to be the cause. 
All of the club members were away from their home, in 
Philadelphia, at the seashore or abroad, except Dr. George 
W . Massamore, the assistant State game warden, who lives 
in this city. Mr. Davison and Dr, Massamore resolved to 
remove the birds remaining in the Fox Den pen and take 
them to Seneea farm, where they could be guarded better. 
Before this could be done, however, the pheasants died so 
fast that the attempt was abandoned, and now not a single 
bird of the 1,500 that were in Fox Den pen survive. 
The president of the club, Mr. Nathaniel E. Janney, and 
Mi. Horace Magee, a member who has taken special interest 
