6 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
showing til em to full view, although they looked no 
larger than jack rabbi .s. But the performance of those 
guns is marvelous. A well-directed shot at the deer's 
head caught him through the heart. Of course it was 
an accident, but you cannot have those accidents with 
an ordinary gun. This buck, when dressed, weighed 
205 pounds. We got him down to a log road, hung 
him up, and not wishing to overdo ourselves the first 
day, returned to camp. 
Perry had a box 01 good cigars for after supper, and 
a fund of reminiscenece where this or that deer had 
fallen, either before his gun or that of some companion. 
The crackling fire, the smell of burning pine and cold 
weather made me think of the old days in the Northern 
woods. ^ 
The following day we did not start so early, Chapman 
taking one ridge and I the other. He jumped a bunch 
of four, killing three. I saw one lone deer, and got it. 
We had enough, and were sure of not having to eat crow 
for Thanksgiving. We borroAved Perry's horse and "go- 
devil" to bring our game in. and it being still light we 
got a picture of them. The next morning wp. got a picture 
of them hung up, and feeling a little proud of our catch 
we could not refrain from getting in, Perry doing the 
peek-a-boo act. Perry took us down to the switch, 
where we got a parting picture of the grounds we had 
hunted over, wishing there would come a day when we 
could hunt those woods and hills again. 
Bert Stevens. 
Talks to Boys* — VII. 
By this time I fancy that you must be tired of carrying 
iibout an unloaded gun, and as j^ou seem to have formed 
pretty good habits and to have become reasonably careful, 
we may as well now take some loaded shells and have a 
little target practice. 
By this time you have used your gun so much that 
breaking it down and opening the breech does not trouble 
you at all, but has become a perfectly natural and com- 
monplace operation. You are also so familiar with the 
safety calch that you involuntarily push it back, if for any 
reason it has slipped forward, and without being con- 
scious that you do so, you watch this catch and always 
know just what its position is. • - 
I do not care to have you fire too many shots at a 
time, but you may order from the gunsmith 100 shells 
loaded with 2><^ drams of powder and ^ ounce of No. 8 
shot, and these will last us for some little time. When 
writing for the shells, ask the gunsmith to mark on the 
top wads of the shells the charge which they contain. 
Probably the shells will come to you with the wads 
marked in tliis forM j^'"*^; It is well that you should begin 
to shoot with a light charge, first, because your gun is 
light, and, second, because I do not wish to have the dis- 
charge of the gun jar you or startle you; and, indeed, for 
a gun of small caliber such as you are using, the charge 
that 1 have named is effective at any reasonable distance 
on any bird that you are likely to meet with. 
You had better put thirty of these cartridges in your 
pocket, and we will go out into the lot behind the house 
and see how the gun shoots. Very likely before this your- 
instructor sent to the city and purchased a dozen large 
shotgun targets. These are made of white or brown 
paper, on which is printed a bullseye 3 or 4 inches in diam- 
eter, and about this a circle 30 inches in diameter. Make 
two frames for backing for your targets. For one of these 
an old door will do, if there is one anywhere about the 
place; for the other, nail three or four short boards to- 
gether to make a square frame about 4 feet each way. 
Carry these out to where you are to target your gun, and 
set them up on the ground in a position nearly vertical, 
supporting them from behind by long sticks for props. 
Fasten one of the targets flat against each, with a tack 
or a piri in each corner of the paper, and then retiring to a 
distance of about 30 yards, take up your gun and face one 
of the targets. Standing there in an easy position and 
with your eye fixed on the bullseye, throw up the gun to 
your shoulder three or four times and take sight at the 
bullseye. Very likely you will find that the gun comes 
up so that the sight is nearly or quite on the bullseye and 
only needs a little movement to cover it. After you have 
done this a few times break down your gun, load both 
barrels, throw the gun up to your shoulder and fire the 
right hand one at the target you were facing the instant 
that you catch sight on the black. Then instantly turn 
ai-d fire the left barrel at the black of the second target, 
being sure that you have caught the sight before you 
pull the trigger. Now go to the target and see what sort 
of shots you have made. If you pulled at precisely the 
right moment, the pe-llets of shot in each target ought to 
be thicker in and about the bullseye than anywhere else. 
At a little distance from this center, the intervals be- 
tween the pellets will grow wider, until at the edge of 
the paper there may be quite a little space about each. 
It will iDe well for you to take a soft lead pencil and draw a 
line through each shot hole in the paper. After you have 
done this, go back to your stand and again shoot at the 
bullseye, taking as little time as possible, and pulling just 
as soon as the sight is seen against the black. Another 
examination of the target will show you where you shot. 
When you break down your gun to remove the dis- 
charged shells and replace them by others, see that the 
muzzle of the broken down gun points downward and that 
the barrels are. neither horizontal nor directed upward. 
The reason for this is obvious. If the muzzle of the gun 
points downward, the loaded cartridges being heavy will 
slip readily into place, and if only one barrel has been 
discharged, the loaded cartridge in the other barrel will 
remain in place; while, if you have the barrels directed 
upward, the loaded cartridge is likely to slip out of the 
ghamber and fall to the ground, or if it does not do this 
it may slip part way out and prevent closing the gun. 
I have more than once seen this very thing happen, when 
men who were duck shooting were trying to reload their 
guns in great haste. 
I do not advise you to target your gUn by shooting from 
a fixed rest, because to-day all guns are targeted by their 
makers, and usually have attached to them a certificate 
of .their performance at 40 3'ards with certain specified 
charges of powder and shot; therefore you know before- 
hand what your gun has done, and so what it ought to do. 
Jt does not seem necessary, therefore, that you should 
waste time and ammunition in doing what has already 
been done by men very much more experienced and skill- 
ful than you are. What you are doing now is merely 
continuing and advancing in the work that you have been 
doing from the day you got your gun. You are learning 
to shoot quickly and to have the gttn .'directly in your line 
of sight when it reaches j'our shoulder. It is to acquire 
this skill with arms, hands and head — to make all these 
organs work together— that you have been aiming with 
your empty gun at all sorts of things during the past few 
weeks, and for this that you have been snapping primers 
at a candle flame. This is merely carrying the practice 
a little further. 
After you have fired the two barrels at the target, you 
may either change the target or pin over it a sheet of 
newspaper, tearing away the part which covers the bulls- 
eye and thus exposing the black for a point at which 
to aim. I should like to have you fire at least ten shots 
in this way, but about one thing I wish to caution you 
especially — see that when you throw up the gun to your 
shoulder the stock is pressed tight against it. but not so 
tight that your muscles are strained, or your freedom of 
movement in any way hampered. If it should not be 
held firmly, there' will be a little recoil and jar which may 
affect you unpleasantly. I should be very sorry to have 
this happen early in your shooting, because if it did it 
might have a tendency to make you flinch when pulling 
the trigger, and this would be bad for your shooting and a 
very hard matter to overcome. It is unfortunate for a 
man to be afraid of his gun. However, in these days of 
nitro powdei' with perfectly loaded cartridges, there is 
not very much recoil to the gun and far less danger than 
formerly that a shooter will be punished by his gun 
"kicking." In old times, with black powder and heavy 
charges, it was quite different. I ha've sometimes had my 
shoulder black and blue after a day's duck shooting, and 
a friend who, in muzzleloading days, was shooting a 
heavy duck gun with a large charge of powder, stood up 
in the bow of the skiff to fire at a bird that had just 
sprung, and when he pulled the trigger and leaned for- 
ward to meet the expected recoil, the cap snapped, the 
gun failed to explode and he went head foremost over- 
board, in a most ungraceful dive. 
After you have fired your ten shots I am going to ask 
you to fire ten more, standing with your back to the target 
and wheeling at the word given by your instructor, and 
then putting up your gun as quickly as possible and firing 
at the black spot. Do not fire until you have caught sight, 
and if for any reason you should fail to catch sight with- 
in a reasonable time, do not pull the trigger then, but 
again turn your back on the target, again face about and 
try to catch sight again. Alt this is intended to teach 
you to aim quickly, not necessarily because I want you 
always to shoot quickly, but because you should be able 
to shoot at an iinstant's warning, whenever it may be neces- 
sary for you to do so. 
After you have fired the second ten shots I shall ask 
your instructor to give you a little wing practice. To 
do this he must have collected five or ten old tin cans, or 
as many potatoes or apples. Let him stand nearby at your 
left side and toss one of these objects up in the air so that 
it will move away from you at an angle of 45 degrees. Do 
you sight at it with your gun and see if you think you 
can hit it. After you have several times caught sight on 
this moving object, put two cartridges into your gun, and 
, when the can is next thrown, if you catch sight properly, 
fire. Very likely you may not hit the can — or the apple 
or potato, whichever it may be— and if you do not do so, I 
think I can tell you why. You probably just caught sight 
on the can over the top of the muzzle, and when you 
pulled the trigger, checked the movement of the gun for 
the slightest fraction of time, and so shot over the can. 
You will have to try it again and again, and your in- 
structor will no doubt have an idea, after you have fired 
two or three shots, where you are shooting, and will try 
to explain to you where you should hold your gun. The 
cans move slowly, but still they keep moving all the time, 
and in sighting at them it will be better for you to see the 
whole can over the sight; then when you pull the trigger 
the falling can will tumble into the midst of the load. 
I should much prefer, however, to have you. shoot at the 
object before it has reached its highest point; in other 
words, as quickly as you can, but by no means puU off 
your gun until you have taken sight at the object, and feel 
a reasonable confidence that you are to hit it. When you 
catch the sight, follow the object for a little distance and 
then raise your gun slightly so that you lose sight of the 
mark, and pull the trigger. If you keep this in mind, I am 
sure that you will in a short time find that tbere is no 
difficulty in hitting these easily tossed marks. 
A few days' practice of this kind ought to help you 
along very rapidly in your ideas of shooting. 
Now that you have gotten along as far as this. I think 
that if I were you I would try to get hold of Mr. Ham- 
mond's most excellent little boook called "Hitting vs. 
Missing." This is a story of a boy, who, a great many 
years ago, while he was out squirrel shooting with his 
old musket, saw a man shoot a grouse on the wing — the 
first bird that he had ever seen killed while flying. He 
was seized with an ambition to learn how to do what the 
man had done, and he patiently worked out for himself, 
without instruction and without help, the lesson of wing 
shooting, until he became one of the best shots in all New 
England. He tells yon in this little book how he learned 
to shoot at crossing birds by firing his gun at stones 
skipped across the mill pond by boys, and how, in other 
ways, he succeeded in overcoming many of the difficulties 
that greatly puzzle the young shooter. When you_ read 
his experience, the matter of your instruction will be 
greatly amplified, provided you try to remember all that 
he says and to profit by the story of his discouragements 
and failures. 
Now that you have begun to use ammunition, you must 
be more than ever careful about carrying your gun. You 
must go back now several weeks, to the time when you 
first began to walk about with your gun, and when you 
were constantly trying to remember not to point it in the 
direction of any living creature, and to keep its muzzle 
directed either up in the air or down to the ground. You 
must again begin to watch yourself, and to think always 
about how your gun is pointed. 
By this time I think you have had practice enough in 
aiming your gun, so that it comes up with the sight firetty 
nearly on the object at which you are looking, _and now, if 
you have been in the habit in the past of closing one eye 
when you looked along the barrel to catch sight, I recom- 
mend you to cease that practice and to depend on throw- 
ing the gun up into the line of sight, more than on catch- 
ing the sight on the object at which you aim. Try this at 
first at the target. Load your gun, face the target, and 
remembering to keep both eyes open, throw up the gun 
and shoot. Probably you will find the center of your 
charge somewhere near the bullseye, and after shooting 
a few times, each time striving to correct the mistakes 
of the previous shots, you will see that with both eyes 
open you do about as well as if you used only one. A 
carpenter who is driving a nail, or a chopper whose axe. 
falls in the same place every time as he chops a log, does 
not close one eye to take aim. He is so familiar with his 
tool and with the way in which it should be handled, that 
he strikes his mark unerringlJ^ He has had so much 
practice in performing this operation that body and 
arms and eyes work together exactly as they should. 
With practice you can do the same with the shot- 
gun, and shooting in this way you will be more 
quick and ready than if you closed one eye and 
felt about with the muzzle of the gun to get your 
sight just in the right place. If you inquire, you vidll 
find that most good shots to-day keep both eyes open 
when they fire the gun, and if they do so, it is good policy 
for you to follow their example. 
The expert shot of the present day when about to fire 
throws his gun to his shoulder, looks at the bird well 
above the rib so as to see its direction and calculate 
its speed and the angle at which it is flying, and then 
dropping his head a little, looks along the barrel and 
moves its extremity so as to either cover the bird or to 
allow so much for its speed as his experience tells him 
is necessary. For the practiced shot, this, of course, takes 
but a very small space of time, and being k practiced 
shot and thoroughly familiar with his gun, he understands 
precisely how to hold it and how to move head, arms and 
hands so as to bring about the result which he desires, 
W. G. De Grqot. 
A Bear Hunt on Leopard Bayou. 
BY H. M. MAYO, 
It was a beautiful morning in late October, beautiful 
even for southern Louisiana where October days are 
the most beautiful of the long fall, winter being a brief 
period marked by few leaden skies and rainy intervals, 
with a delightful preponderance of summer like winds 
and blue, cloud flecked heavens. 
The fifty-mile voyage from Morgan City to the woods 
of Leopard Bayou, the latter stream being but a few 
miles from where the mighty Atchafalaya pours into 
the Mexican Gulf, had been made the afternoon previous. 
The night had fallen suddenly and the top of the tent 
had been lost against the gray mosses which hung 
solemnly frorn the oaks at the camping place, and only 
the embers of the fire of dry wax'."Ood broke the gloom 
of the thicket with a ruddy sparkle, which occasionally 
flashed into flame. 
The winds had hushed and the dry crackle of the sway- 
ing roseau canes ceased almost as night's curtain fell 
upon the earth. No sound broke the silence save the 
low tones of our conversation and, now and then, the 
guttural croak of a heron in the marsh behind the fringe 
of palmettos and other growth along the bayou, and the 
faint splash made by a predatory otter or mink as either 
plunged into the dark waters where they disappeared 
amid the dense shadows of the other bank. 
The Nimrod and I were out on one of our occasional 
hunts. This time we were out for bear, and after a hard 
day's work, having tugged at the oars for the fifty miles 
of the journey and completed camp, we were soon be- 
tween comfortable blankets spread on palmetto leaves 
and softened with the curling Spanish moss. The glow 
of the fire had lapsed into grayness; the silence had be- 
come more intense, and tired bodies had induced sweet 
slumber, from which I was awakened by a gentle nudge 
and a whispered admonition to "get up." 
Even a gilt edge sportsman will heave a deep sigh of 
regret because confronted with the inevitable withdraw- 
ing from a warm nest and a sudden immersion in an 
atmosphere but few degrees removed from frost. I con- 
fess to a preference for my bed under such circumstances, 
but as I caught the invigorating odor of newly made 
coffee and a glimpse of a brightly burning camp-fire, I 
hustled into my boots 'and was soon in the open, only 
to find a blue-black sky with a thousand and one stars 
blinking in the impenetrable pall, and the air damp and 
cold from the dew, which had bathed the leaves and 
canes. There was, too, a sharp scent of foliage, rank and 
vigorous — the pungent resin of the wax myrtle. 
"Great Scott! Fred," I remonstrated, "it's yet night. 
What in the deuce do you mean by getting a fellow out 
of his blankets at this ungodly hour?" I felt imposed 
upon. 
"There you go," came back the reply, disgustedly; 
'lihat baritone of yours will scare every bear this side 
of Hades into the marsh for good. It's four o'clock, you 
tenderfoot, and the bear family in this neck of the woods 
get up ahead of the proverbial lark. The 'critters' feed 
early, and the blamed things are too wary and the labor 
too arduous to risk an error. So shut up your noddle 
and have a cup of coffee." 
I quieted my objections with the steaming cup of 
beverage, such as only the Nimrod can conjure from the 
delectable bean, and after a snack of cold meat and toast 
I felt a greater appreciation of what sport really wasi and 
congratulated myself that I really had the instincts of a 
full blooded hunter. I was then ready for the next chap- 
ter; a chapter I expected to complete with a full grown 
specimen of Ursus americanus. The snack over, we 
buckled on ©ur armor — that is the Nimrod did, taking his 
Winchester from its case and slipping a supply of car- 
tridges into the chamber — and were then ready for the 
fray. It was to be a stillhunt, and on water. 
Stepping carefully to the soft edge of the bayou, we, 
pulled in the nose of the Joan, as the swift skiff of the ' 
Nimrod was called, and with extraordinary caution 
boarded the craft and with muffled oars felt our way into 
mid-stream and went slowly with the up-tide. The ex- 
