£22 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. ro, 1904. 
know that after it was finished there was no time left 
to make the trip home. I camped that night, and the next 
morning made a start for home, very much elated over 
the set of moose antlers, the like of which I had not 
seen for size and regularity combined. There are 13 
points on each horn, and scoops nearly the same ; 54-inch 
spread, and, as near as I could estimate weight, 50 pounds, 
which was short of the actual weight about three pounds. 
Other hunts have I taken in that country, alone and 
with companions, and several moose have I taken, but 
none to compare with this one. Dr. J. P. Bush. 
Guns and Gun Feats. 
Nil wood, 111., Aug. 30. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been greatly entertained and interested by the 
"Bark and Anti-Bark" articles in Forest and Stream; 
especially by M. D.'s contribution, as it explains the cause 
of the death of a spruce hen killed by myself in Septem- 
ber, 1893. The hen was sitting on a small branch of a 
scruby tamarack tree, about twenty yards from me. 
Thinking to shoot off its head, I took careful aim, and 
at the report of the gun the bird fell. Upon picking it up, 
I could find no trace of a wound, and was much puzzled 
as to the cause of its death. After examining the tree and 
branch carefully to see if I had barked it, I put the bird 
in my pocket and when I got home told my partner of the 
circumstance. He suggested that the bullet had probably 
just touched the top of the head and not broken the skin. 
We then skinned the bird to see if any bruise was on it, 
and found nothing to indicate that the bullet had touched 
it, and concluded that death was caused by' fright. The 
gun used was a .40-50 Remington, and I am now of the 
opinion that "wind contusion" fixed the bird. 
I have never tri<- barking squirrels. My neighbor, Mr. 
Street, says he did it once, and that in his early days it 
was done very often. He also says they snuffed the can- 
dle, but to do so and not extinguish the light was never 
done while he was around. 
My experience in barking is confined to one shot that 
not only killed, but cleaned. The victim was a grouse sit- 
ting on a limb of a balsam tree, its head showing full 
above the next limb. Here was a chance for a bullseye ! 
Alas ! the bullet hit the limb instead of the head, glanced 
down and hit the bird in the back, and the way it "put 
scatter" to that bird was a caution. I noticed a large piece 
fall about fifteen feet from the tree, and went to see just 
how large a piece was left, and found it was the full 
breast of the bird, with one wing attached. The breast 
was skinned slick and clean, and not a scratch on it. In 
fact, I couldn't have done the job nicer in the regular 
way, and I think this beats killing without breaking the 
skin, as the whole thing is done at once. Of course, the 
legs and back were minus, but they don't amount to much 
anyway. 
I got a large buck by barking his horn about an inch 
above the hair. The shock knocked him down, and from 
the way he was lying he must have lit on his horns. At 
least he was lying on his back, with horns sticking in the 
ground. When I got to him he was apparently dead, and 
I was about to cut his throat when he winked one eye in 
such a natural manner that I became suspicious, and 
shot him again. The first bullet had cut about half its 
thickness through the side of the horn. I had the head 
mounted and presented it to an old hunting and fishing 
companion, with a written statement of the capture. This 
fell into the hands of the editor of our county's leading 
paper, who gave the head a write-up and me some gratis 
sarcasm on my story about the killing. Some time I'll 
tell how this same editor killed a deer when it was not in 
sight of the shooter. J. P. B. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Seldom have 1 read anything with more interest dur- 
ing the quarter of a century and more that I have been a 
squirrel hunter and a member of the Forest and Stream 
family, than the discussion relative to barking squirrels, 
snuffing candles, etc. With your permission, I would 
like to state a few facts obtained from hard and long 
experience. 
I fired my first shot at a chipmunk twenty-eight years 
ago, using a long Kentucky rifle carrying round bullets 
somewhat less than .32 caliber in size. Since then I have 
had a hobby — almost a weakness — for squirrel shooting, 
and although it has been my good fortune to have hunted 
and killed many big-game animals, my preference is for 
squirrel shooting with an accurate rifle. I, too, had the 
idea that I could bark squirrels with a rifle bullet, and 
as my head had early in life been filled with such yarns, 
I tried constantly to do this. Later on, when the Win- 
chester repeating rifle first appeared in small calibers, I 
purchased one of .38-40 caliber, and later one of .32-20, 
and tried again to do the trick. These were followed 
by a still more accurate single-shot rifle of .32-40 caliber, 
with Lyman sights ; then by two others of different make, 
but both .25-20, and latterly several rifles taking various 
.22 and .25 caliber cartridges, the latest being a Win- 
chester automatic rifle taking a high-power special .22 
caliber cartridge and mounted with a telescope sight, as 
were also two of its predecessors. Before I was content 
to use any of these rifles on squirrels, I experimented long 
and carefully with the ammunition and the sights, shoot- 
ing at 25 and 50 yards on a machine or solid bench rest, 
using a sandbag under the forearm. When a rifle was 
ready for the squirrels, it would place every shot in a one- 
inch paster at 25 yards, and do almost as close grouping 
at 50. If not, it was not taken out. In other words, if 
the front sight was held on a squirrel's head and I missed, 
it was my fault and not the rifle's. By this I by no means 
wish or intend to convey the impression that I do not 
miss. Indeed, I miss squirrels very often, for I am not 
a very steady holder offhand, and for that reason, like the 
Indians, prefer to get up close and obtain a rest, if possi- 
ble, in order to be sure of a clean shot, or a clean miss. 
While I do not say that squirrels cannot be barked, I 
will ' say that I do not believe they can save by some 
scratch or fluke. Having tried to do this hundreds of 
times, always to fail, it would be remarkable if I should 
believe a thing that seems impossible with_ the most ac- 
curate rifles obtainable. While I could give dozens of 
similar instances, a. few will suffice. One squirrel, lying 
along a horizontal limb high up in a hickory tree, refused 
to present a fair shot, and going to a tree almost under it, 
I fired at the limb directly under his belly, with the result 
that the limb was cut and broke off, the squirrel coming 
to the ground with the end, then running up another tree, 
from which I dislodged him with a shot through the head. 
In skinning this one, I found the belly bruised for a space 
as big as a silver quarter, yet the squirrel "lit running," 
and only a head shot downed it. Another large gray hid 
on an oak limb less than fifty feet from the ground, ; and 
failing to get a shot, I went up directly under the limb, 
and resting the rifle alongside a tree trunk, fired as be- 
fore. The bullet must have gone far enough through the 
limb to splinter it on top, for the squirrel was hoisted 
fully two feet, and came to the ground within four feet 
of me. As the woods were open there, and the squirrel 
refused to tree, I chased it clear across the bottom land 
and up a hill until it distanced me and evidently gained 
the home tree. Another squirrel was barking at me when 
shot. It was knocked to the ground, but regained the 
tree, and made such a peculiar noise that I bent every 
effort toward bagging it. Examination proved that its 
lower jaw was shot away clean, the second bullet going 
high, through the head. It was resting head down when 
first hit, and the bullet peeled the fur off its belly and 
bruised the flesh badly, yet it was a very lively squirrel 
until it received the second shot. A fox squirrel was 
shot from one side, the bullet taking off the lower jaw 
entirely and part of the upper jaw, but although it was 
knocked to the ground, it first hid in a hole at the base 
of another tree, and being dislodged, ran up to the very 
tip of a tall hickory, and was not finished until the third 
shot, which broke, its neck. A companion crippled a fox 
squirrel, which clung to grapevines. We shot away the 
vine to which it clung, whereupon it went higher up the 
tree, was dislodged again, fell into the vines again, which 
we succeeded in cutting by shooting from rests, only to 
see the squirrel cling in another place, then come down 
after a head shot. We found this one shot in five places, 
any wound seemingly being sufficient to paralyze it. An- 
other time I broke a large gray's hindleg, bringing it to 
the ground, then chased it over a very steep cliff and lost 
it. Next day a companion shot it, plowing a deep furrow 
under its belly, so that it was knocked out of a tree over- 
hanging a cliff, it falling nearly 200 feet, but it ran up a 
big oak tree and was dislodged with a shot which broke 
its left . foreleg, and we finally finished it with a shot 
through the head as it clung to the tree thirty feet above 
the. ground. 
Dozens of times I have placed a bullet directly under 
a squirrel in the bark of various trees, knocking them to 
the ground, but never have I seen one which showed the 
least inclination to lie there. I have asked old backwoods 
hunters to try to bark squirrels with their muzzleloaders, 
but they always failed, and I have yet to hear one say he 
had ever done this or seen it done. Even on young and 
tender squirrels the same applies, so far as I have learned. 
Using a telescope sight, and shooting; at distances ranging 
from forty yards to ten- — more often the latter than the 
former— if I have failed utterly to kill my first squirrel 
without breaking the skin, the person who will make me 
believe barking can be accomplished "has "got to show 
me," as they say in Missouri. 
The nearest approach to this was when, seeing three 
young prairie dogs sitting beside a burrow one day, I 
fired at the loose ground under them with a Sharp's rifle, 
100 grains of powder, and a 550-grain bullet, and knocked 
the little dogs so far away that I caught them all and 
took them home with the intention of making pets of 
them, for they suffered little, apparently, from the shock. 
But they all died eventually, as I believe, from improper 
food. Perhaps, however, they died from being barked, 
• so to speak. 
I was sitting behind a log one day in the Highlands 
of the Hudson, watching for a squirrel that had hidden 
in a hole in a tree, when another one appeared on another 
tree, not forty feet from me. Holding the cross-hairs 
of my telescope directly under the squirrel's heart on the 
bark, I fired, elevating the little fellow a foot, and cutting 
a big chunk of bark off the tree trunk. If he died from 
the shock — which must have been relatively terrific — it 
was not for some time afterward, and judging from his 
speed and agility, so far as I know, he may still be run- 
ning. If a round bullet and a squib of powder will im- 
part more shock than my smokeless load, then it might 
be reasonable to forget common sense and go back to the 
old muzzleloaders. 
Someone has said in this controversy that the old rifles 
would shoot where they were held. This is not in accord 
with the facts as I have found them in days and weeks 
in the backwoods, hunting and shooting at a mark 
with men who used old Kentucky rifles of a superb type. 
I have found that in matches, as well as in hunting, 
these men hold off the mark, not on it, very often. They 
will fire a shot or two at a black spot on a tree trunk, then 
make a cross a little below and to the right or. to the left, 
representing their group center. They then fire three 
shots, or five, aiming at the black, their bullets going into 
a very small bunch at or near their cross. Again common 
sense explains this. The front and rear sights being fixed, 
it is not possible to alter them for drift of the bullet and 
for elevation. But do not attempt to explain these things 
to the backwoodsman, who merely knows his rifle shoots 
a trifle left or right, but cannot explain why. My telescope 
sight is so fixed on the rifle that when sighted to hit cen- 
ter at 25 or 50 yards, allowances must be made for a 
longer shot, but, unlike the old open sights, guesswork is 
reduced greatly, the object being magnified. But squirrels 
are shot under fifty yards with very rare exceptions. 
Regarding snuffing candles, I have seen this tried with 
the finest target rifles of all calibers, at distances ranging 
from thirty feet to as many yards (you cannot see well 
enough to aim at fifty yards). Invariably the light went 
out if the bulet hit the wick or passed too near the flame. 
Recently I have made numerous experiments at driving 
nails. Note this : My rifle, if shot on a bench rest, will 
hit a ten-cent piece every time at 25 yards. At this dis- 
tance I use a black paster cut with a .25 caliber wad- 
cutter. The cross-hairs show clearly on the quarter-inch 
paster. Note this also : The telescope is mounted on the 
left-hand side of the barrel, so that my Lyman sights are 
left in position for use if desired. Both sights are almost 
exactly the same distance above the bore. If the rifle 
were fixed in a vise, both sights would be aligned per- 
fectly on the bullseye. This paster is about the size of a 
nail head. The telescope sight magnifies six times, and 
is remarkably clear and perfect. With it I can see the 
paster well enough to hold on it carefully at 50 yards. 
Turning to the Lyman sights, at that distance it would be 
impossible to hold on the paster, as I have proved time 
and again by trying to do this with the open sights, then 
looking through the telescope, to find an error of an inch 
or more. At 25 yards I can hold on the paster with 
the open sights at times fairly well, but generally the 
error is from a half inch to an inch. By trying again and 
again, I have found that I can hold accurately on the 
paster at 18 yards, but no* further — and the oculists tell 
me that my vision at long range is above normal. These 
Lyman sights are as far superior to the old open sights 
as the telescope is superior to the Lyman, for seeing the 
object clearly. If I cannot see a dead black paster well 
enough to feel sure of hitting it occasionally at 25 yards, 
I respectfully ask to be shown how to hit a nail head at 
50 yards, or even at 20. Now, it happens that my target 
at 25 yards is placed on heavy planking against a board 
fence not yet sufficiently weather-stained to render its 
nails entirely invisible. These nail heads are larger than 
the pasters mentioned, but it is with great difficulty that 
I can hold the cross-hairs of the telescope on them, and 
I cannot locate them at all with the Lyman sights. My 
experience has been that in shooting at a tack head, if hit 
at all, it will be bent out of shape, and either be knocked 
aside or driven partly into the backing. In other words, 
if it is possible to driva a tack into a board as one would 
with a hammer, it must be struck squarely on the head 
every time. Will the old-time tack-drivers tell us that 
we. cannot shoot as well as they, even on a machine rest? 
I would point out that there are now several rifle makers 
who will guarantee their barrels to keep ten shots in a 
circle, less than three inches in diameter at 200 yards, rest. 
Were the old-time rifles better than these? 
Is it not a fact that jockeying and trickery were com- 
monly practiced by riflemen a century ago, and is it not 
probable that this barking and other things were men- 
tioned so often that they came to be taken for truth? 
When a boy I believed the Indians and cow-punchers 
to be superb shots, and it was a hard pill to swallow 
when, in being among them for a long time, I found them 
about the poorest shots of all. Perry D. Frazer. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Here are two opinions I asked for on the subject of 
barking squirrels. Both are old-time hunters, who, like 
myself, began to hunt with muzzleloaders, and have had 
wide experience. The first one was in reply to a question 
put by me to J. H. Rushfon, the well-known canoe 
builder, of Canton, N. Y. He said : 
"I grew up in the backwoods, learned to use the pea- 
shooter, and when at my best delighted in hunting squir- 
rels and 'patridges,' making it heads or nothing. I've 
tried barking, but never succeeded. I either hit the squir- 
rel or missed him. I've thrown a squirrel 20 feet, sure, 
off the side of a tree, but he would always light right side 
up and run like everything. Never got one that way, and 
of course, after a dozen trials, more or less, gave it up. I 
shot at one once upon a time and have not got over laugh- 
ing yet. A big gray ran up a very large hemlock, and 
try as I would, I could not locate him ; but at last I did 
so. There was a dead limb 50 or 60 feet from the 
ground, and I discovered hair on it, but, try as I would, 
all I could see was that — the gray being stretched along 
the top of the limb. The situation was such that I had 
to get almost under him to see where he was. After a 
time I grew tired and decided to play a r trick on him, so 
got under the limb, and, shooting almost straight up, held 
for center, and let go. Up went the squirrel into the air — 
it seemed several feet — and then he came down. Of 
course I expected to see a dead squirrel. Not much. He 
struck the ground within six feet of me with a thud, and 
it seemed a grunt ; gathered his feet under him, looked at 
me with the wildest eyes I ever saw, and left like a 
streak of greased lightning. And I just doubled up and 
laughed until the tears ran. I suppose my bullet tore a 
sliver off the top of the limb, and that hoisted him." 
The other letter is from S. D. Barnes, the .well-known 
writer on outdoor topics, who writes me from his home 
at Bald Knob, Ark., as follows : 
Friend Frazer — Wish you hadn't appealed to me for 
an opinion on this squirrel-barking case. I am a great 
respecter of old traditions, and it looks tough for all the 
boys to be questioning Dan. Boone's record this late in 
the day. Jumping on Rud. Kipling's "raw, rantangled log- 
jam" and "smoky Indians" was all well enough, since Kip 
is only an Britisher, and has no rights that we are bound 
to respect; but it's different with Dan'l. He "b'longs of 
us," and we should stand ready to shed our coats when- 
ever his achievements are called in question. I am posi- 
tively certain that George Washington chopped down ap- 
ple trees as a regular after-dinner diversion; that Israel 
Putnam rode his blind mare down a perpendicular cliff, 
and "legged" that old mother wolf in her den, and that 
Daniel Boone barked everything he shot at — from Indians 
to snowbirds. All this is history, and its truth defies 
refutation. 
I never shot at a Kentucky squirrel. Maybe a suscepti- 
bility to nervous shock Was a peculiarity of the reds and 
grays found in that region a hundred years ago. Maybe 
they are that way yet. Possibly there are atmospheric 
conditions, don't you know, or something else of that 
sort. Anyway, we hear of lots of men who drop dead 
over in Kentucky, and a painstaking investigation of these 
numerous cases might develop proof of barking. I once 
owned a Kentucky foxhound that would bark in his sleep. 
Again, down in Texas. I knew a Kentuckian who liked 
to make positive statements, and each and every one fol- 
lowed by the formula, "An' that's the word with the bark 
on." I often wondered whether his stories would stand 
a little judicious "barking," but his hearers who hailed 
from the Blue Grass State would not undertake the pro : 
cess, and none of the rest of us felt competent. 
It is really unfortunate that you feel impelled to mix 
yourself up in this discussion, for the balance of testi- 
mony is dead sure to go against you. Undoubtedly 
Daniel Boone barked those squirrels. It was ordained by 
Fate that they should die in just that way; but they were 
the last of the lot so foredoomed. If Dan'l could come 
back to earth to-day, he could use the entire output of 
rifle cartridges from our three biggest factories and never 
bag a squirrel that he didn't hit. That's the word with 
the bark on, and I'll stand by it, even if my own personal 
