66 
FOREST AND bTREAM. 
Brunswick contributions have been a joy and a delight to 
us all for years. Now Peepsight wrote a truly ill- 
natured and also, if any one was cruel enough to say it, 
a truly foolish and ill-informed thing, when he said 
Frank H. R. had probably only a superficial knowledge of 
rifles. Mr. Risteen. modest man that he is, has won 
more medals at Canadian rifle shoots from Halifax to 
Ottawa than would fill a cigar box, and he has one of the 
finest collections of rifieS; large and small calibers, hard- 
nose and soft-nose, that exists anywhere. And for Mr. 
Peepsight's four miserable moose, which took nearly 
thirty shots to kill, if I read his story aright, Mr, Ris- 
teen could tell him of at least ten times that many in- 
timate experiences, where there was no necessity to 
make hash of his animals. A moose shot with a proper 
bullet will not run; he will lie down right there, and rise 
uot till the heavens be no more. As for "three or four 
pounds unnecessary weight," I can show Peepsight a cer- 
tain single-shot express, London make, taking I35grs. 
of powder and 440gr. bullet, .socal, 28-inch barrel, that 
weighs just 7 pounds and 6 ounces, and no finer rifle can 
be made. No American firm can equal the workmanship. 
Who in this country will make a rifle to order or in any 
way accommodate the taste of the individual customer? 
"Too busy on army contracts!" The fine rifles of the 
world, light, handy,' certain, powerful beyond conception 
of those who have not seen them, are made by half a 
dozen firms in England. 
It is not a thing to be cross about, except wEen one 
thinks of the poor animals that run away from the small- 
bore rifles and die alone in wasted misery. But there is 
no convincing the other fellow in a gun dispute. When 
a man writes of the "obsolete" express rifle — ^we never 
had one at all made in America — one can only say in 
reply, in the good old slang of ancient Job, "No doubt, 
but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." 
Perhaps! Frederic Irland. 
Rifles for Big Game. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In the article entitled "Mr. Foster's Moose," pub- 
lished in your issue of Jan. 13, I recognize the fine Fred- 
ericton hand of Mr. Frank H. Risteen, for all that this 
manumission is dated "Riverside, Cal.," and signed only 
with his initials. 
Now, I never have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. 
Risteen, but his name, nevertheless, is as familiar to me 
as the north wind that roars along the slopes of Bajc 
Mountain. For instance, I have sat hour after hour lis- 
tening to the animated Ad Moore, of Scotch Lake, and 
Nictait, saw the air over Mr. Risteen's school of philos- 
ophy relating to the small-bore, moose, cannon and the 
relative value of stuf?cd clubs. I did this day after day 
for three weeks, and then I got up and slew Ad Moore 
in cold blood and foreclosed the mortgage on his widow'.s 
farm — that is, figuratively. 
In a sense, Ad was an exponent of the big-bore theory, 
but when one had reduced all his expressions to a mean 
idea, it appeared that he was a sort of a middle-of-the- 
road .enthusiast. He thought big bores just the thing for 
some sort of shots, and the .30 tiptop for others. In other 
words, he would have liked to tramp the woods with a 
caddy bag full of small bores and double-barreled Eng- 
lish express siege guns. What he told me of Mr. Risteen 
developed the opinion in my mind that Mr. Risteen could 
not be happy unless peppering moose with a caliber 
somewhat less than a water main, and a little larger than 
a field mortar. 
But, seriously, I think Mr. Risteen takes too much for 
granted. I have tried exerything from a .44-40 up to a 
.50-110-300 — that is, in the way of large calibers. In many 
instances they have done well, but I do say, and am con- 
vinced in the statement, that the .30cal., with a sufificient 
backing of powder, is the best all-round gun in the world. 
I know of course that this idea will be combatted, and 
I will wait with bated breath for the three-several argu- 
ments that no doubt will exercise against nje, namely, 
(a) Pish, (b) Tush, (c) Bosh. 
By a sufficient backing of powder, I mean a charge at 
least as large as that in the .30-40. The .30-30, in my 
opinion, is a fair gun for moose, but not always reliable. 
The .30-40 never fails. Had I been shooting a big bore 
at the moose I killed this year on the Tobique, that moose 
would still be at large, instead of reposing in stuflfed ele- 
gance here in Manhattan. The reason for this is obvious; 
The moose jumped in a thicket of heavy birch poles, so 
dense that it was only with difficulty that he could be 
_,seen, The .30cal, bullets, instead of deflecting on these 
aforesaid poles, cut through them, undeviating and unim- 
peded. One bullet cut through a sapling as thick as my 
wrist, mushroomed against tlie wood and then drove a 
hole in the bull's ribs as big as my two fists. What would 
a .45-110 have done under the circumstances? In my 
opinion, it either would have dissolved upon the frozen 
wood or wandered elsewhere than the destined destina- 
tion. 
Again: In 1895 I fired nine shots from a .4Scal. 
Winchester at a deer running across an open flat. I hit 
him six times, cutting his center body into the semblance 
of a seive. In the end, he ran against a tree, and I still 
believe it was the tree that knocked him down. I know 
he was still kicking vigorously when I got up to him. 
Two years ago, I slung a .30-40 bullet after a caribou 
that was licking it over a bog 270 yards away — not guess 
yards, but paced distance. He kicked once, and I don't 
blame him. The bullet caught him under the butt of the 
jaw, and he did "drop_ in his tracks." Two years before 
I shot a deer in precisely the same place, and he kept 
on running until three other .45cal. bullets were banged 
into him. 
Col. Hunt, who was with me on the Little Tobiqu^ one 
year, hit a caribou at 60 yards through the right ham. 
It broke the hindquarter, smashed all the rack on one 
side, fractured the foreshoulder, and emerged. It is 
still going. I think. That was a .303cal. Long ago, I 
shot a bull moose through the ribs with a .4Scal. bullet. 
He is still going also. So is the moose that Mr. P, 
Chauncey Anderson knocked down three times with a 
,45-90 this year on the Tobique. 
'Of course, if I had hit that bull this year with a stuffed 
club worked by a trip-hammer, he would have dropped 
at once. But the fact that this big bull didn't drop when 
he was hit so often is not an argument against the .30cal., 
but instead an argument in favor of the stamina of bull 
moose. However, he ran only 100 yards or so after the 
first shot, which, in the end, was satisfactory to me and 
just the same no doubt to the moose. 
But I will acknowledge to Mr. Risteen that the English 
express does beat the American rifle in balance and 
"feel." If the native gunmakers would supply an arm 
embodying these same principles and carrying the .30cal, 
bullet, I think it would beat the big bores all hollow. 
Maximilian Foster. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I notice that the old argument regarding the best rifle 
for big game has again broken out. It is epidemic and 
cannot be suppressed. 
Now, I don't for a moment suppose that the following 
remarks will influence any one in the choice of a rifle, 
but then I shall have had the satisfaction of giving a 
portion of my experience. It is undoubtedly the priv- 
ilege of every man to own the best rifle and the best 
watch. There may be a few who don't own the best rifle, 
but in the Rocky Mountain States nearly every man 
who hunts will upon very slight provocation make you 
acquainted with the superiority of the weapon he carries. 
When some of the old boys acquire possession of modern 
arms they will not hesitate to inform any one who will 
listen that their rifle shoots point-blank at 300 or 400 
yards. Now point blank in that country doesn't mean 
sufficiently flat to hit a man, but sufficiently accurate 
to decapitate a grouse at 30 or 40 yards, or to notch his 
stern if he is wild and won't let you approach within 
so or 60 yards. Don't try to argue with such a man, 
but ask him where you can buy a gun like his; then 
borrow 25 cents and a chew of tobacco. 
There were days when I hunted deer with a .38-55 
Marlin, and for accuracy, penetration and killing power 
that rifle was all that could be desired. If I remember 
correctly, that gun had either seven or nine deer to its 
credit, all killed where they stood at distances between 
50 and 100 yards, except one at over 400 yards, which 
rolled about 50 feet down the side of a mountain. 
Several men — good target shots — thought a ,38-55 just 
the gun for deer, but I could never estimate distances 
'sufficiently well to be reasonably certain of making a 
good shot with a .38-55 at 300 yards or over. Then I 
tried a .40-90 Winchester single shot (loaded with 88grs. 
powder and 383grs. grooved bullet, with a I3gr. cavity 
in the point, bringing the weight down to 37ogrs.), and 
was so well pleased with it that I took it to Alaska in the 
spring of '96. That gun was so accurate that I repeatedly 
killed ducks and geese at 100 to 200 yards, and once I 
fired at the heads of some geese that were standing in 
a perfectly uniform line at 268 yards (paced). One fell, 
and to my surprise I found that the back of its head 
was cut away as neatly as could be done with an axe. 
The first big game that I tried it on was a brown bear. 
The bullet passed through him sideways just above the 
heart. He ran 100 yards, caught between two saplings 
and died standing. The next game of any size was a 
moose that stood 6 feet 7 inches high at the shoulders. 
I won't attempt to say how much he weighed. He took 
about four shots through the head while swimming, and 
one through the lungs, as he emerged from the water, 
but the shots in the head were badly placed, three being 
at the back of the lower jaw and one through the nose. 
The next moose killed with the .40-90 was a small one, 
5 feet 6 inches high. It was trotting along the side of a 
mountain between 250 and 300 yards distant. The first 
shot missed, and the next two passed through the lungs, 
tearing the flesh for a space the size of a silver dollar 
and stopping the game within SO yards. 
Next on the list was a moose swimming and drifting 
down stream toward me. I opened fire at 400 yards, and 
at the third or fourth shot broke its jaw. It then raised 
its head high out of water, and some Indians who were 
with me poured in a fusillade of .44-40S and .45-70S at 
250 yards. Several took eft'ect, and then I succeeded in 
Ijlacing one through the neck. This last is no test of the 
stopping power of the .40-90, but is given to show its 
accuracy and reliability. 
Altogether it proved to be the best black powder 
weapon I ever handled, and for combined accuracy at 
long range, penetration, low trajectory and killing power 
I doubt if any black powder rifle on the American market 
is its equal when loaded with the 37ogr. hollow-point 
bullet. 
My next investment was a '95 model Winchester, tak- 
ing the .30 Government cartridge, for which (with eighty 
cartridges) I paid $77 in Dawson in the fall of '97. 
One day in the spring of '98 I was climbing a steep 
mountain with a pack of about 25 pounds on im- back 
and the rifle in my hands. I was quite winded and was 
about to take a rest when not 50 yards away a large 
black bear disappeared over a I'idgo. Without waiting 
to remove my pack, I hurried to the spot where I had last 
seen him, and thtre he was going over the next ridge 
ahead. I took a quick shot at his flank and heard the 
dull "thuck" of the bullet — so different from the sound 
made by striking earth. The bear flinched very percep- 
tibly, and walked leisurely into the timber I could find 
no blood where he stood and no trail, so lost him. 
The first large game that I killed with the .30-40 was a 
moose calf walking straight away. The bullet struck the 
point of the hip, and very nearly severed the leg from 
the body. 
Now, sportsmen (I won't say brother sportsmen, for 
I know I am not eligible to the brotherhood), don't 
criticize the writer too keenly for killing a calf. Re- 
member we had no four-horse wagon or six or eight 
horse pack train to carry tents, blankets, Dutch ovens 
i and perhaps folding cots with mattresses and pillows. 
In summer we had no bedding, tents, etc., while travel- 
ing across country. A small piece of canvas for a "lean- 
to," an axe, a few pounds of grub on our backs and a 
rifle might have to last for two or three weeks, so all was 
fish that came to our net, from berries and ptarmigan's 
eggs to moose calf. It is quite right to look out for pos- 
terity, but in those days we had a pretty good contract 
on hand to look out for ourselves. 
In shooting qualities the .30-40 was far superior to 
the .40-90, and after_ seeing its terrible ef¥ect on the calf 
I was satisfied that it was all right as a killer. I would 
be in possession of that same rifle to-day if it had not 
become rusty — then, too, a "cheecharco" wished to ex- 
change nice crisp green paper for a rusty rifle and I 
hadn't the heart to refuse. 
My next experience with a high-power rifle was in 
Colorado, where I saw a very large blacktail buck 
stopped by a shot in the thigh from a .30-30 Winches- 
ter. A shot in the same place from any black powder 
rifle with which I am familiar would simply have ac- 
celerated his movements. 
From what little experience I have had in hunting big 
game, and what I have learned from professional guides 
and hunters, the size and caliber of a rifle should be gov- 
erned by the character of the man who is to use it._ 
Some men are accustomed to quick, snap-shooting in 
heavy timber or thickets, and seldom try fine shots at 
200 to 400 yards. Such men would be suited with an 
English express rifle of .4Scal., with a light bullet and a 
heavy powder charge, of say, I25grs. or more. Such 
a rifle could not be considered accurate at 300 yards 
and over, and if weighing not more than 8 pounds the 
recoil would be very liable to induce flinching. 
Comparatively few men can stand the recoil of several 
shots from a rifle using a heavier charge than .45-70-500, 
and do really fine work unless the rifle is so heavy as to 
make it clumsy to handle — at least this is the result of 
nearly two year's experience in a Colorado rifle club 
composed of men accustomed from boyhood to rifle 
shooting. 
Medium-weight, large-bore rifles, shooting heavy 
charges require to be supported against recoil at the 
shoulder with the same resistance at every shot in order 
to obtain uniform results. Such a rifle, if sighted cor- 
rectly for the off-hand position, will shoot high, if fired 
from the prone p,osition, pointing straight ahead of the 
shooter. By lying on the back, feet toward the object to 
be hit, the gun will shoot about the same as in the off- 
hand position. 
For these reasons rifles having an excessive recoil are 
undesirable for long range work unless provided with 
extra heavy barrels and an extra heavy rifle is certainly 
not a desirable hunting arm. Another class of men are 
those who live in close proximity to big game country- — 
good hunters and more than average shots. Such men 
for years have shown a partiality for .4S-70S and .45-903, 
with a fair number inclining to .38-553. This class is 
now inclining strongly toward the modern high-power 
rifles of .30 and .25cal. 
Still another class are those who are indifferent hunt- 
ers, but good shots, and who, finding it difficult to ap- 
proach within close range, do a portion of their shooting 
at 200 to 400 yards. For such men the modern high- 
power small-bore rifle is undoubtedly the correct arm. 
There are exceptional cases where animals will run a 
considerable distance after receiving frightful wounds, 
even from large caliber rifles. I once heard of a fawn 
which ran an eighth of a mile after being struck with a 
. socal. explosive bullet- — its abdomen blown open and the 
entrails dragging on the ground. 
I would esteem it a great favor if those who have 
tested the Savage rifle would state through these 
umns the correct elevation of the Lyman rear sight for 
100 to 500 yards — also what style of front sight was used 
and what cartridges. Would also like to hear from users 
of the i7ogr. bullet No. 308206, and what charge of 
Du Pont No. i rifle powder gives best results with 
same. Edward F. Bali.. 
Buffalo, N. Y, 
Guides Killing Game, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I see that our game papers are just becoming aware 
of the fact that all the game carried out of the State 
is not shot by the hunters who claim to have killed 
it, and just now these is a demand that guides shall not 
carry guns. Now, who is to blame for guides and others 
shooting the game that would-be hunters carry home? 
Certainly not the guides. No guide would every carry 
a gun if his employer did not wish him to do so. In 
most cases the guide is hired because of his ability to kill 
game. And many cases I know where the guide has not 
carried a gun his employer has asked him to take his 
and kill the game. A few years ago one of our best 
known guides told me that he had been guiding a 
"sport" for nearly a month, trying to shoot a moose, but 
without success. Finally, when within a few miles 01 
Northeast Carry, which was to be the end of the trip, they 
saw an old bull swimming the river. The "sport" fired 
twice; his first shot striking about half-way between the 
canoe and the moose, the second striking many rods be- 
yond. Realizing that he could not shoot at all, he passed 
the rifle back to the guide, saying, "Shoot him." By this 
time the moose touched bottom, and was leaping into the 
brush as the guide, by a quick shot, gave him a mortal 
wound. He went but a few rods and fell. Then the 
"sport" shot him as he was dying, and made a great 
deal of talk about the moose he had killed. Now, who 
was to blame for the guide's shooting? The man who 
hired him put the gun into his hand and told him to 
shoot, or the guide who by so doing lost his own chance 
to kill a moose that season? 
I think that if the truth could be known that fully half 
of all the game brought in by visiting "sports" and those 
of our own State who emplay guides, is either shot by 
guides or bought of others who have shot it. Hun- 
dreds of men, who represent all the professions, go into 
the woods to hunt. They are gentlemen, skilled in their 
various professions, but that does not make them woodsmen 
or hunters. Many of them are skillful with a rifle, while 
scores cannot, as the guides say, "hit a barn if they are in- 
side with the doors shut"; and very few can go a mile in the 
woods without a guide, and have any reasonable chance 
of getting back within a mile of where they started. Yet 
all these men will bring home their game and many will 
write articles and tell all the particulars of how they 
went out alone and shot it, and often have photographs 
to prove it by. 
These photographs prove about as much as Frank 
Stockton's negro proved, who burned the church. He 
said that as he was going to the spring for water he saw 
the devil, who told him all about how he set fire to the 
church himself to stop the quarreling, and if they did 
not believe tbe deyil told him so, he could show the very 
gourd shell he had when he met him. T have seen 
