448 
FOREST AND__ STREAM. 
it>sc. 8, 1900. 
going to quit shooting." Just then he said, "Mark! 
There's two mallards; go on, shoot them any way," so I 
shot and got one with each barrel. "Now that settles it," 
I said. "Let's start for the dub house as soon as you 
can carry the ducks over to the boat." 
We had left my boat on the south side of the island and 
had walked across 500 feet on the solid ground. I had 
shot fifty-seven mallards, three pintails, one widgeon and 
one spoonbill. My punter had to make five trips to the 
boat to carry the ducks ; then we gathered up the rest 
of the traps and carried them over together. 
This was the finest duck shoot I ever had. The mem- 
bers' bags for the first days were as follows : J. O'Hara 
Denny 103, John J. Flick 62, F. B. Many 62, Col. Smith- 
night 25, Isaac Reynolds 25, Roland White 25, Arthur 
O'Dell 32, Chas. P. Ranney 3; total 337. 
Reynolds was located on a mud flat and he got twenty- 
five jacksnipe also. 
I had to be at home Monday to attend to some busi- 
ness, so I came home Sunday afternoon. The other 
members were to stay until Saturday, Nov. 17. They will 
get a good many ducks. 
While I was shooting on Cherry Island I could hear 
the pheasants, Mongolian, English and golden, cackling in 
the flag all around me. We have been raising them, and 
from about twenty-five to start with, which we liberated 
in l8g6, we now probably have several thousand on our 
marshes, as they are very prolific, having two coveys a 
year of from twelve to eighteen birds. There is a close 
season on these birds until 1903. At that time we shall 
have splendid shooting, and as we shall limit the bags we 
ought to always continue to have good shooting on 
these fine birds. Frank B. Many. 
Talks to Boys.~IV. 
Caffyiog the Gun, Fences, Boats, Removing Cartridges. 
While the practice that you are now having in 
handling a gun is chiefly to enable you to get used to the 
arm, you must remember that at the same time you are 
learning to handle it so that it shall never be dangerous 
to any one. Although there are no loads in the gun 
now and you suppose that it cannot possibly go oflc, 
yet even so, you must form a habit of so carrying the 
weapon that by no chance can the muzzle point at 
any one, or indeed in any direction where, if accidentally 
discharged, it might do harm. The habit must become 
so firmly established with you that you do not have to 
think about it, but without knowing that you are doing 
so you will keep the gun pointed away from all living 
things. 
There are only two directions in which a muzzle of a 
gun can safely be pointed; these are up' or down. A 
shot fired in the air can scarcely injure any one or any- 
thing, and one discharged into the ground is equally 
harmless. Therefore, in all the different positions which 
the gun assumes, see that it is pointed either up or 
down. Sometimes a man will be seen who carries his 
gun reversed, holding it by the muzzle while the fore 
end rests on the shoulder and the stock projects be- 
hind. Happily, this practice is not common, for it is 
extremely dangerous, and many men have been killed 
by carrying their guns in this way. If a man stumbles 
or steps in a hole, or catches his foot on a root and 
falls, his gun may very likely be thrown forward with the 
muzzle directly toward his body, and may easily enough 
be discharged. 
Sometimes one may see a boy, or even a man who 
will carry the gun across the back of the neck, with one 
arm over the stock and the other over the barrels, some- 
times with the hand resting on the muzzle. This is 
certain to give a very uncomfortable feeling to any one 
who happens to be walking by the side of the person 
carrying his gun in this fashion and opposite the muz- 
zle end_. While the danger of a discharge is perhaps not 
great, it is unpleasant to be walking along with a gun 
pointed at your neck or head. 
A friend of mine told me of something that happened 
to him. which I have seen mentioned in Forest and 
Stream or in some book. He was out hunting with an 
Indian, and the two sat down side by side on a hill to 
look over the country. The Indian held his rifle across 
his knees, and as he sat there be fingered the lock., 
raising and lowering the hammer, the muzzle of the gun 
being pointed toward his companion. My friend did 
not like the position which he occuoied, and rising to 
his feet stepoed around behind the Indian to go to the 
other side of him. so as to sit opposite the stock of the 
gun instead of opposite the muzzle, but before he had 
seated himself, the hammer of the rifle sliooed from 
under the Indian's thumb and the arm was discharged. 
If my friend had not changed his oosition he would 
certainlv have been shot, and very likely killed. 
Bearing in mind, then, that the gun is a dangerous 
weapon, and that at any time it mav be discharged 
through carelessness or by unavoidable accident, you 
will see why I have recommended the methods of carry- 
ing the gun already spoken of and those which are to 
come. A very easv position is to carry the gun under 
your arm. the stock Drojectinor backward, the fore end 
resting on your horizontal forearm, the hand of that 
arm being carried on the lower part of the chest. The 
trigger guard resting on the arm keeps the gun from 
slipping forR-ard, Of course in this position the barrels 
are directed downward, so th.^t if the gun were dis- 
charged the shot would enter the .ground a little in ad- 
vance of your feet and slightiv to one side of them The 
onlv possible harm that could re,«nlt with the gun in this 
oosition might be to your dog. if you permit him when 
he is walking at heel to nush too far ahead. But this 
you must not nermit. Make him walk either behind you 
or with his head just even with your knee. In this 
place he is quite safe. You may carn^ your gun in this 
oosition on either arm, with the feeling that it can do 
harm. 
Another position is this: Let the grin of the gun pass 
between the second and third finger? of either hand, the 
oalm of the hand being just below the lock, and let the 
barrels lie in the crook of the arm. so that the muzzle 
^nd passes tip just outside your shoulder. This i? an 
easjr position, and is ffeq^ent^v employed where one 
of the hands is in use, as to help you over a fence or itito 
a wagon. 
Perhaps more gunners liave been killed by taking guns 
out of wagons or out of boats, or while crossmg or 
climbing through fences, than in any other way. You 
have not yet reached the point where you can do any 
harm in this way, because as yet you have received no 
loaded cartridges, but all through this practice of yours 
you must act just as if your gun was loaded with the 
deadliest of charges, and as if there were danger that' it 
fhight go off at any moment. If you will take my advice • 
3^011 will stop when you get to a fence, break down your 
gun and go through the motions of taking out the car- 
tridges, then, carrying the gun in one hand in the posi- 
tion just described, climb over the fence, seeing to it 
that in any motions or bendings of the body that you 
may make j^ou do not point the muzzle of the gun in a 
horizontal directioi.. " '^hancc your foot should slip 
FIG. 4, GOOD rOSITION. 
.Safe and convenient way of curving the gun under cither arm. 
and you should fall, or if an old rotten rail should break 
under your toot, trJ^ less to save yourself from a fall 
than to hold on to your gun and keep its muzzle pointed 
in the air. It is better that you shotild tumble to the 
ground and bump or bruise yourself a little than that 
j'ou should let fall your gun, which in the fall might, if 
it were loaded, be discharged with dangerous results. 
Btit it is far better always to take out the cartridges when 
you cross a fence, The trouble is slight, and the pre- 
caution may save life or limb. 
Many men when crossing a fence hold the gujt 1©-- the 
grip, with the barrels just in front of the breech resting 
on the shoulder, muzzle pointed well upward and the 
trigger guard upward and forward. This gives the 
FIG. 5. GOOD POSITION. 
Convenient as change in carrying. Safe and ready. Good for 
ch'mbing fences. 
holder very good control of his gun, and enables him 
even if he falls, to keep the muzzle pointed skyward. 
The position is also a good one in which to carry the 
gun across the fields when there is a possibility that birds 
may jump up, but your dog is not pointing, and you aje 
not in im.mediate expectation of a shot; it takes a vtery 
small fraction of a second to bring the gun down into 
the palm of the already lifted left hand and to pull the 
stock back against the shoulder. Many good shots 
habitually carry their guns in this position when ex- 
pecting birds to rise. 
No matter what may happen to you, under no circum- 
stances ever creep through a fence and pull your gun 
after you. This is one of the most dangerous things 
that can possibly be done. If you have to creep throul'h 
a fence or a hedge or very dense brush, carry your gun 
much as you usually do; supporting it under the for,g. &a6 
by thf- right lhartd or the left,, ani^ keeping the rm^zlc 
well to the front. Of course in doing this you will never 
creep behind or in front of a companion, and will 
not ex-pose yourself or him to the danger of being shot 
by the other. In a case like this it is always wiser to 
take the cartridges from your gun; in this position you 
are not likely to get a shot, and it is^ better to miss 
the chance of shooting than to' run the' risk of killing 
anything that you do not wish to fire at. 
Under no circumstances pull a gun toward you out of 
a boat; lift it up. In fact never pull a gun toward yo\r 
at all; and above all never pull it toward you by the 
muzzle. I had once a friend, a very learned man, a pro- 
fessor in a great university, who pulled his gun toward 
him by the muzzle after he had stepped out of a boat: 
the hammers caught and the gun was discharged, and 
he was instantly killed. 
I advise you to do what I always do myself, to take 
the cartridges out of the gun when you get into a wagon 
or boat, or have to cross a fence or have to go into a 
house. Then, if through some carelessness the gun is 
dropped, or if the horse should run away and the wagon 
be upset, or if when you set your gun down in the house 
a dog or little child runs against it and knocks it down, 
no harm can be done. A gun without a load in it is a 
most harmless piece of wood and iron; but loaded it 
may cause the greatest sorrow to entirely innocent 
people. 
But I am again getting a little bit ahead of my story, 
for I am telling about how you ought to act after you 
have been provided with cartridges and when your gun 
is loaded; but, as I said before, perhaps this is not so 
very bad, for I .want you always to treat your gUn as if it 
were loaded, and as if there were a possibilit}- that at any 
moment it might be discharged. Perhaps you will think 
that I say too much about this, and may feel sure that 
you would never be so careless as to let your gun go 
oft' when you did not wish it to. A great many people 
have thought this before you were born, and probably 
after you have become a gray-haired old man a great 
many other people will think the same about them- 
selves. At the same time, the fact remains- that guns are 
continually gomg off unexpectedly, and that people who 
believe themselves to be very careful are constantly hav- 
ing accidents with guns. Happily, few of these accidents 
result fatally; yet we know that almost every day some 
one in tlie United States is killed by the discharge of a 
gun, either through ■ his own carelessness or that of 
some other person. It is only a short time ago that a 
man who believed that he was careful and knew how to 
use a gun, because of the long experience that he had 
had, fired a shot at something that he saw in the woods 
that he thought was game, and wounded a man and 
woman, the latter so seriously that her leg had to be 
amputated. We all of us think we are careful, but all 
human beings are likely to make mistakes and blunders, 
and you and I are like other people in this respect. 1 
had the hammer slip from under my thumb once, and 
came very near killing my dearest friend, and the older 
I grow the more I insist on the importance of unceasin.g 
thoughttulness and watchfulness in handling a gun. 
All these things that I am saying to you now I think 
your instructor will also say to you in different words, 
as you walk abroad with him, carrying your gun. If 
he carries one, too. I advise you to keep yoitr eye on 
him and notice the different positions in which he carries 
his weapon. Perhaps you will see him do some things 
that will lead you to ask questions of hitn, and the 
answers to these questions may perhaps teach you a 
great dejil. I am quite sure that as you go along he will 
keep his eye on' you, and whenever he sees you doing 
anything that is not quite right, or sees you careless 
about the way in which you hold your gun, he will 
caution you and put you on the right track, .\fter a 
while it will become a matter of habit with you to carry 
your gun properly, and only under stress of some great 
excitement will you neglect what has been taught j^ou. 
If you have the opportunity to handle your gun and to 
carry it abroad for a few weeks or months, I am con- 
vinced that unless you are much more heedless than 
most boys you will at the end of that time have formed 
habits which will make you a safe companion to those 
with whom you may go shooting in the future, and 
which may save you great trouble and pain in after life. 
W. G. De Groot. 
Quebec Moore. 
Aylmer. Que., Nov. 21— Editor Forest and Stream; 
You will find inclosed herewith a statement of moose 
heads, skins and meat shipped from Kippewa and Tern s- 
kaming stations from Oct. i to Nov. 7. This ii only a 
preliminary statement, but will give you a full statement 
later on. This will give you an idea how much moose we 
have in our country. There are outside of Kippewa ten or 
twelve stations to hear from yet which will open your 
eyes. This statement is official from the C, P. R. agents 
and the. other statements will also be official from the 
C. P. R. N. E. Cormier. 
Shipments of Moose from Kippewa ' Station, from Oct. . 
to Nov. 7, 1900. 
Moose head and hide, spread, 51in., J. D. Miller, of Edinburgh 
Two moose heads. 46in. and S, Geo. G. Cotton, of Sj-racuse, 
One moose head.'36in., E. N, Trump, of Syracuse. 
Two moose heads, 54in., F. N- Ryder and Mr. Smith, oi Isew 
Haven. 
Moose head, oOin., R. B. Treat, of Centreville, R. I. 
Moose head, 51in.. Dr. J. F. Kidd, of Ottawa. 
Two moose heads. Sflin. and S,.F. N. Ryder, of New Haven. 
Moose head. 50in., S. E. . Cobh, of Orange, N. J. 
Moose head. oB'-iin., F. M. Turner, of Pittsburg. 
Two moose heads, 36in., F, M. Turner, of Emsworth, Pa 
Moose head, 40in., J. \V. Jarvis, of Pittsburg, Pa. 
Two deer heads and hides, S, J. E. Buckley, of New York. . 
Two heads and bundle feet, 45in., F. C. Selous, of London, Eng- 
land. 
Moose head, 36in., A. McLaren, of Buckingham. 
Moose hide, A. McLaren, of Buckingham. 
Horns, Se^iin., C. C. Foster, Cambridge, Mass. 
Head, 43in.. J. J. Gill, of Steubenville, O. 
Hide and head, 45in., H, M. Popham. of New \ork. 
Antlers, 40in. and S, J. T. Gardiner, of Boston, Mass. 
Head, 36in. and 46in., G, L. Farnum, of Media, Pa. 
Two antlers, 53in. and 54in., Jas. Seymour, Jr., of Newark, N, J. 
Head, 40in., H. L. Cadmus, of East Orange, N. T. 
Head, 62in., J., C. Bates Dana, of Worcester, Mass. 
Two heads, %(<%in. and 58in., AV. S. Lincoln, of >A^orcestrr, .M^, 
Head, 54in„ R. Millicfaawp, of ToTOnto. 
S tnpans ^00 small for ^e^uremert 
