106 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
iAuc. io, igol. 
Three Rifles and a Shotgun* 
FoiUEST AND Stream is read by so many firearm en- 
thusiasts and experts that I suppose it would not be pos- 
sible to publish m it an article containing a single piece 
of true information that would be new to every reader. 
But I remember well, when I w'as a boy. with what keen 
delight I pored aver descriptions of firearms and their 
performances, and what pleasure and help and knowledge 
I got from articles that I now know contained no facts 
new at that time, but merely old knowledge dressed in new 
words. So it is for the boys and beginners of to-day that 
I write, and not for the experts. For these older and 
knowing gun lovers I merely offer this photograph of four 
of my cherished firearms. 
Let us first take in hand this pretty rifle with the small 
bore, becattse it is .22 caliber, and that is the bays' own 
size. It is rather large and heav}-, isn't it, for so small a 
bore? The barrel is 28 inches long, and the piece weighs 
9 pounds 2 ounces. You see, I am still a boy in spirit, and 
yet I wanted an arm more suited to my size and strength 
than any boy's rifle on the market. So 1 had the Win- 
chester Arms Co. assemble one according to my ideas. No 
doubt there are .22's which would shoot just as well up to 
100 yards, bitt my belief is that this long and heavy barrel 
would shoot more accurately at 200 yards. At any rate, it 
does shoot accurately at long distances, and such other 
.22 calibers as Have shot against it did not eqttal its per- 
formance. It even won a prize at a shooting match away 
from a .30-30, .303, .32-40, .38-55 and other arms of various 
calibers. One reason for having a long and heavj' barrel 
is that the longer the barrel, the truer the alignment of 
the sights with the bullseye. To this reason one of my 
humorous friends replied, "What you want, Sawyer, is a 
barrel that will reach from you to the bullseye." But 
you mustn't mind him — he's a joker. 
In purchasing for j'ourself a .22-caliber rifle for general 
use, you may find some of these suggestions useful. First, 
suit the weight to your strength, and the shape to your 
length of arm and neck and droop of shoulder. Suit the 
exterior finish to your pocketbook. But be sure that the 
inside is all right; it must be clean and bright as polished 
steel can be ; be sure that the polishing of the inside at the 
factory has not worn it out while it is yet new; the grooves 
and lands must be clean cut and sharp edged. The rifle 
had better take the long-rifle cartridge, if it is built for a 
rim-fire action, because if it is made for that cartridge it 
will shoot well at a distance, and allow you a variety of 
ammunition for short range ; while if your rifle is made 
for the short .22-cahber, it will shoot nothing larger. The 
long cartridge (.5-35) is freaky at distances beyond 50 
yards — sometimes it hits where it is pointed, sometimes it 
does not — and, if your barrel is rifled for this cartridge, it 
will not shoot the long-rifle cartridge (.5-40) well, because 
the twist is not rapid enough to keep the long-rifle bullet 
point on. So, the rifle chambered for the long-rifle car- 
tridge is best. And just see what a variety of ammunition 
you can then use in one arm — the long-rifle, long, long 
hollow point, short and short hollow point, all black pow- 
der cartridges. All of these but the first are duplicated 
with smokeless powder charges, making nine different 
cartridges for one rifle. Besides these are the shot car- 
tridge, and the two bullet breech caps. But neither of 
these last three should be used in a good rifle. Twenty- 
two-caliber cartridges are made by difterent great car- 
tridge-making companies, no two similar productions of 
which shoot alike; that is, if your fine new rifle is targeted 
with the long-rifle cartridge, say, of the Union Metallic, 
Winchester and Peters companies, you will find that one 
of these makes of cartridges gives better results in j'our 
particular rifle than the others. No two of these car- 
tridges are alike, though bearing the same designation. 
Also, different makes of rifles are rifled differently, and, 
strangest of all, no two rifles of the same make shoot just 
alike. If yon and your twin brother buy two rifles alike, 
you expect them to shoot alike. They were made by the 
same workmen, of the same kind of materials, on the same 
machines, according to the same formulse, and perhaps on 
the same day. They look alike, yet they do' not shoot 
alike. They have their peculiarities, just as you and your 
brother have yours. So, try different makes of cartridges. 
Another reason for having a long and heavj' barrel is 
that it holds steadier in a wind. Still another reason, is 
the lessened report — it takes up the sound and vibration 
just as a safe does when a burglar cracks it. In this 
rifle a smokeless, short, hollow point makes about as much 
noise as a snap of the fingers — you would not notice it 
50 feet away. Absolute noiselessness of person and the 
least possible noise from your firearm are the greatest aid 
in hunting. It used to seem marvelous to me the way 
squirrels and partridges paid no attention to the report 
of this .little cartridge. An amusing incident of last sum- 
mer will well illustrate how slight is the report. My 
friend and I in the country were lying on the side of a 
knoll one day waiting for Avoodchucks to come out of 
their holes in the field beyond. We fell asleep. I awoke 
first, and. sitting up, saw a 'chuck. Without rising I 
reached for my rifle and took a shot over my friend's 
body. The woodchuck dropped, but kicked vigorously, so 
I took a shot at its head. That quieted it. My friend 
still slept peacefully. That is all I need to sa}"- to illustrate 
that point. 
When you get a new rifle, the first thing to do is to 
target it. Of course you have already practiced at guess- 
ing distances, and verifying your guesses. Find the point 
blank of your rifle, and between that and the practical 
range limit — 200 yards for your .22 caliber — make inter- 
vals of 25 yards. Fire from a rest on the target from each 
distance, and make a note on paper what your sight eleva- 
tion is. Thus: 50 yards, point blank; 75 yards, rear sight 
one notch, front sight against lower edge of bullseye; 
100 yards, rear sight two notches, front sight on top of 
bullseye ; 125 j'ards, rear sight three notches, front sight 
on center of bullseye. and so on. I give these holdings as 
they would be likely to come. The best way to aim. when 
rear sight permits, is to hold the front sight against the 
bottom of the bullseye for any range. Make a note of 
your sight holdings and commit them to memory. Then, 
if you go to a shooting match, where the known range is 
90 yards, and you put up your sight two notches and 
hold front sight one-half inch below bullseye. your bullet 
will not be far off. In other words, know your rifle. 
. A small-bore rifle is the most difficult of all arms to 
keep^in good condition, and it seems as if the smaller the 
bore the greater the difficulty. Remember that if your 
rifle bore becomes rusty or remains leaded, it is no good. 
Therefore, treat it with all the care a mother gives her 
baby if you wish it to keep perfect and serve you well. 
Nev;^er, never, let it be dirty over night, and never let it 
be fired many times without being cleaned. When you 
give it the final cleaning, do not spare time or pains to get 
it clean. One rag will not do it, two rags will not do it, 
three will not do it properly; use half a dozen. The first 
one or two rags can be dipped in soapy water, to clean 
out black powder residue, squeezed prettj^ dry in a cloth 
between the thumb and fingers, and inserted by the ram- 
rod at the breech end. Let me emphasize breech end. 
That is where the greatest diameter of the bore is, and a 
rag inserted at the muzzle is squeezed to the size of the 
bore, and, on reaching the chamber, does not swell enough 
to clean it. The breech end of the barrel is the dirtiest, 
and should receive the clean, wet rag. The breech end 
is subject to the greatest heat and wear, and is more 
liable to rust, therefore, breech end first. Cotton flannel — 
known to women as canton flannel — seems to be the best 
rag. The fuzzy side is the right one. Tow is without 
doubt the best of all cleaning mediums, but ramrods for 
small-bore rifles are seldom made with jagged tips — they 
usuall}'- have slotted tips, suitable only for a rag. Cotton 
flannel is thick, and the fuzz seems to have a bite to it 
which a linen or woolen rag does not have. For con- 
venience it is well to keep a supply of rags all precisely 
alike. The best shape seems to be rectangular, about 
inches by 54 inch; but you need to find the right size for 
your rifle by experiment. It should need a medium pres- 
sure to pass it through the bore. The rag should be split 
from each of the narrow ends toward the center, leaving 
a quarter inch of the center whole. After passing into the 
ramrod slot, open out the four flanges equally. The object 
here is to cover the ramrod equally, and so clean the en- 
tire circumference of the bore. A large darning needle, in- 
serted head first sufficiently to hold it firmly, into the 
woodwork of the room where you clean your weapons, 
makes an admirable impaler for your cleaning rags. You 
can keep fifty or sixty on it at a time. 
When you attempt to clean your .22-caliber rifle after 
using U. M. C. smokeless cartridges, you had better sub- 
stitute ammonia for soap and water, to neutralize any acid 
residue. No matter what the moisture is, soap and 
water, ammonia, alcohol or kerosene, there remains a 
something in the barrel which I can only describe as a 
film. It appears to have a great affinity for moisture, for 
a barrel left with it, ungreased, for a couple of hours on a 
summer day, will show a trace of rust. Left over night 
it would be ruined. Ruined for you or me, that is, be- 
cause the finished surface of the bore would be gone for- 
ever, and no amount of care would prevent the frequent 
recurrence of rust. And when your rifle bore gets rusty 
or pitted, sell it at once, for the most you can get for it, to 
one of those individuals who uses his firearm for a walk- 
ing stick, a lever or a club; who throws it around, lets it 
get wet, gives it never a thought and never cleans it. 
The world is full of those individuals, and your old gun 
is just as good for him as a new one. These U. M. C. 
cartridges just mentioned, in spite of their rust-producing 
quality, are next to ideal. Their slight report I have 
mentioned; their range and accuracy are beyond belief. 
So little is said of them in catalogues that you would be 
likely to regard them as considered inferior to black pow- 
der cartridges by the same makers. My experience has been 
that they are far superior, long-rifle excepted. Con- 
sider, for instance, the short mushroom smokeless. Here 
is a tale that sounds like a story of Oriental jugglery; but 
it is true: One summer afternoon in 1899 a country boy 
and I came in sight around a bend in the road of an 
abandoned farmhouse. There was a sixteen-light window 
of 7 X 9 panes, with the four top panes whole. I fired 
from where I stood, using the short smokeless mushroom, 
and broke all four panes without a miss. We paced to 
the house, and found, to my astonishment, that the dis- 
tance was 224 and a fraction long steps. We then meas- 
ured the panes, and paced again, and came out, I two steps 
more, he three steps less, which means, I think, that the 
range was about 225 yards. The rifle used' had a turn in 
18 inches. The Winchester of this picture has a turn in 16 
inches, which is not so good for the short smokeless mush- 
room, but better for the long-rifle cartridge. You 'must 
not suppose I am in the habit of doing such shooting. I 
am ordinarily but a commonplace rifle shot; this was 
merely one- of those unaccountable runs of luck that hap- 
pen occasionally to every rifleman. The conditions also 
happened to be perfect — light, temperature, moisture and 
calm air. I cite this circumstance merely in illustration of 
what this remarkable little cartridge did once. 
The film that the smokeless leaves can be removed by a 
little putty pomade, or razor sharpener, or jewelers' 
rouge, applied to and by a rag. Then, after wiping again 
with a clean rag, grease thoroughly. Never use a coarse, 
mordant-like sand or emery. If your barrel becomes a 
trifle leaded, the putty pomade will generally remove it. 
If not, use mercury. Either use it on the rag, or let it 
stand a couple of hours in the barrel, plugged, covering 
the leaded place. This treatment I have never known to 
fail. 
But, in spite of all care, patience and skill, a much-used 
.22-caliber barrel has passed its prime in two or three 
years. No amount of knowledge, skill and loving care 
will indefinitely put off the appearance of the dreaded 
rust and pitting. When that happens to this Winchester, 
as the heavy barrel can be rebored, and the action is 
amply strong, I shall have it rebored to the next diameter, 
and then my collection of firearms will have added to it a 
.25-21 and a new .22.- 
One day I was in a gunsmith's shop poking around for 
relics or curiosities. The gunsmith brought me this 
Sharps rifle, saying, "Here is a rifle you want, for it is 
a 'Jim Dandy,' and it's dirt cheap." He was right — I 
wanted it. The story to it, as well as I know it, is this ; 
It was made to order for a member of the Press Rifle 
Club, of Boston. Cataracts came oh his eyes. When he 
found his shooting days were over forever, he sold his 
firearms one by one, until only the favorite Sharps re- 
mained. Finally that, too, was put upon the market. I 
have thanked my lucky star many a time that I happened 
along just then. And perhaps the old gun, too, was 
lucky, for it never had a more ardent admirer. It has, as 
you see, fine lines. They differ but little from the regular 
lines of the Sharps sporting model — just enough, pi'ob- 
ably, to fit the gun to the former owner. The stock is a 
beautiful piece of fancy walnut. The weapon is as bright 
and new looking as when it left the factory. The target 
sights are simply unsurpassed. The front sight is a wind 
guage, with spirit level and interchangeable disks. One of 
the disks holds the finest thread and ball or pinhead sight 
that I have ever seen. The accuracy of the weapon really 
charms one. 
I have three friends who are also firearm enthusiasts. 
The four of us go, as often as possible, for a.n afternoon's 
shoot. A favorite place is a ledge with an open space 
before it, and we shoot against the ledge. We call it 
the Cathedral, and. as a preliminary to the rifle play, we 
decorate it profusely with statuary in the way of tin cans, 
(c)old bottles and brickbats. We shoot from 90 to 200. 
yards, one shot each, in turn. First the Editor, say, theni 
the Sculptor, then the Schoolmaster, then yours truly. 
After the "statuary" is reduced to bits, we shoot at thc' 
bits. When a fragment is so small that it remains after a 
couple of rounds, some one remarks — generally the 
Schoolmaster, for he beats the rest of us, as is proper — 
"Sawyer, let me take the old Sharps." Then there is a 
careful aim from a rest, and the "hand cannon" emits its 
mighty roar. You would be pretty safe to wager your life 
that the fragment has become but a puff of dust. Once 
by agreement we wore old hats to the ledge, each to shoot 
at the other's hat, and each to wear his hat home. We 
took an electric car homeward from that part of the 
country to the railroad station, and the other passengers 
greeted our entrance with smiles and smiles. The victim 
of the bullet from the Sharps was most deserving of 
smiles. When that ponderous bullet passed through the 
hat and smote the granite behind it, such a cloud of 
chips and splinters of rocks rebounded through the hat 
that there was little left but the wire of the brim and a 
few rags that barely held together. The charge for the 
Sharps is nominally. .70-330. Really, the shell holds but 
65 grains of black powder, I presume because the modern 
shell is thicker at the base than the original. If King's 
C. G. semi-smokeless is used, 70 grains can be put in by 
gentle tapping. As we all usually shoot small-bore rifles— 
from ,22-5-40 to 32-40-165 — the recoil and report of the 
.40-70-330 seem tremendous, and the light barrel freely 
gives us all there is of both. 
Tfee third rifle, as you see at a glance, is a muzzle- 
