664 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, ms 
Sound country. He stated then that he 
would istimate the number of swan with- 
in range of the naked eye and what we 
i-ould pick out beyond with the aid of 
binoculars as many thousand. 
The birds are in bad repute among 
the natives for like a drove of veritable 
water-pigs a flock of swan roots up and 
destroys a dozen times the amount of 
good duck food it consumes. In the old 
market hunting days they were never 
:nuch harried by the professionals since 
a swan only brought $1.00 to $2.00 while 
red-head and canvasback, much easier 
to shoot both as to number and species, 
sold $3.00 to $5.00 the pair. A swan 
was only shot if he happened to come 
along or when one was perhaps wanted 
for the holidays or the women folks 
desired a new feather tick from a few 
of them. 
Anent the discussion regarding long 
and short barrels your humble servant 
rises for a few remarks. 
After 30 years of play with the gun 
I recently had my flrst experience with 
a length of barrel deviating from the 
orthodox length of 30 inches. 
By a strange mischance my favorite 
weapon became lost and 1 found myself 
gunless in the game country and the 
season but just begun. 
A visit to the nearest city of size dis- 
closed in the window display of a dealer 
an exact duplicate, as luck would have 
it, of my former arm as to make, grade, 
engraving and .stock measurements. On 
picking the gun up I became aware at 
once that the barrels were somewhat 
shorter than the conventional 30-iuch. 
The dealer informed me theye were of 28- 
Inch length which he no doubt believed 
at the time they were, as did I myself. 
This gun possessed a right half choke 
and a left full choke barrel; a combina- 
tion excellent for use upon wild fowl 
and I so used it heavily during the re- 
mainder of the season. As my former 
arm had been equipped by the manufac- 
turer with a one trigger system, at the 
close of the season I sent in the new 
acquisition to be so altered and learned 
for the fir.st time that the gun possessed 
barrels of but 2C-inch length. 
Now T\'. A. B. in the June number 
comes out to champion strongly the 
shorter length of barrels and from my 
own experience I must approve his judg- 
ment. While admitting my score with 
the 26-inch was not what it would have 
been had I been swinging my old 30-inch, 
the length of barrel did not enter into 
the case, but from the fact that after 15 
years use of a one-trigger gun I was sud- 
denly essaying to manipulate two trig- 
gers again and tw.. stock lengths, vary- 
ing an inch in the same arm, with the 
re.s'jlt that things got somewhat tangled 
at times. 
Jfy norm.'il stock length is 1?AA inches. 
By installifig a single-trigger mechan- 
ism in this 2n-inch gun the st.ock length 
v,ns redimed to 13-lneh fiat, which of 
course better balaiucs with the sliorfer 
length of b;irrel and I may say that a 
better shooting and handling little arm 
1 have never possessed In the past and 
scarcely hope to in the future. 
To sum up, given like chokes, penetra- 
tion or pattern does not suffer one wit 
because of the few inches lopped off, 
smokeless powder being used. That one 
gets on his bird quicker by reason of a 
lighter muzzle is not to be doubted, in 
fact I often found I was on my bird 
and leading almost before I realized it, 
which, when one considers the universal 
tendency of shooting behind, is a good 
fault to err in. 
Since having the 26-inch refitted with 
single trigger I have made equally as 
long and I do not know but longer, shots, 
and fully as intricate ones at black duck 
as were ever executed by my former 
30-inch. 
We may state that the 30-inch swings 
a little steadier and smoother in wild- 
fov,T work, perhaps, which is more strictly 
within its province than in the covers. 
And in the longer lengths of stock a 
more elegantly proportioned, appearing 
and balanced arm results from their use, 
but right here permit me to state that 
Mr. C. P. Schafer in your September 
issue is jolly well right when he says 
“thousands of gunner's are tramping 
afield with gun stocks an inch or more 
too long for them.” 
If the average man would seek a gun, 
at once beautiful in its symmetry and 
marvelously quick in action I could do 
no better than commend him to arms 
fitted with the shorter length of barrels 
and stocks. 
Chakles B. Morss, Mass. 
LOST!— ONE PERFECTLY GOOD BASS! 
To the Editor of Forest axd Stream: 
W HILE the incident is fresh in my 
mind, I would like to put on rec- 
ord an experience that I had re- 
cently which has left me in a distinctly 
unnerved state of mind from which I 
fear I will never recover. It was this 
way: A tentative “strike” of an hour be- 
fore, left me with the impression that I 
had mis.sed a big fish. As is customary 
in the ethics of a bass fisherman, I 
deemed it wise to drop the matter then 
and there and wait an hour before at- 
tempting to offer my bait to this par- 
ticular bass. I waited anxiously for the 
sixty minutes to drag away and then got 
into position for another try. Carefully 
rewinding my reel, that my cast might be 
a perfect one, I selected the spot where I 
thought my bass might be biding — a 
bunch of underwater weeds — and let’er 
go. Bang! Smash! I hooked him first 
essay. My! how that bass performed. 
As the water was shallow, he didn’t at- 
tempt to break water, but cut circles 
around my boat. Fearing that he might 
get entangled in my anchor rope — for I 
had dropped the “killick” so I wouldn’t 
drift, I kept a taut line, wilh thumb on 
the reel. 
I edged up the weight, taking in slack 
with iny foot find then paid attention 
to my prospective victim. Just then Mr. 
Bass choso to dive bend down into the 
uceds and I was beginning to drift. I 
couldn’t budge the fish and I couldn’t 
stop drifting. Finally, in a last emergency, 
I picked up an oar with one hand and 
sort of poled back just over the bass. 
With a steady hand on the line, I lifted 
and, lo and behold, the fish gradually rose 
to the surface and floated on top of the 
water out of reach of my hand; but the 
hook was exactly in the fish’s side and I 
noticed that it was nearly tom out. Of 
course there was nothing to do but use the 
net. Carefully keeping the fish in posi- 
tion, I put the net under him, squarely, 
and lifted. The fish was too long and too 
stocky to sag in the middle as I supposed 
it would, and laid stifliy across the wire 
top of my scoop. 
Gently dropping the net, I attempted 
to “head” the fish, hoping he would tum- 
ble into the net foremost. All this time 
the enormous fish (the biggest I ever 
saw, and I have caught at least one bass 
weighing eight pounds) lay flatly on top 
of the water without a motion, just out 
of reach of my itching fingers ready to 
clutch him by his gill apparatus, and lift 
him into the boat in triumph. 
All this time a friend of mine was near 
by watching proceedings and, with true 
sportsmanship instincts offering no sug- 
gestions. Too proud — or foolish — to ask 
for advice as to what to do in my di- 
lemma, and wishing to capture the fish 
all by my lonesome, I gave another stab 
with my net and Mr. Bass slid off into 
the water with a sort of “ha ha” at my 
clumsy methods. 
Even my friend conservatively agreed 
that this fish as he was exhibiting him- 
self on top of the water would weigh six 
pounds. Of course, as the interested 
party, I set it much higher and I would 
be ready to swear that eight pounds 
w'ould come nearer to his majesty’s fight- 
ing weight. 
What would you have done in such a 
situation as mine? Would you have 
taken the oar and hit him over his head 
and ended the suspense? I thought of 
that; but, with a 'fishing competitor look- 
ing on, I thought — like lightening — that 
such a procedure would forevey class me 
with the “pot-hunter” crowd, so I didn’t. 
Anyhow, I have the satisfaction of 
knowing that I fought this fish to a point 
of exhaustion. 
I enlist your sympathy in my distress, 
and I hope that the next time 1 hook a 
big bass you will be there to offer such 
suggestions as will enable me to get re- 
sults. 
Arthttb T. Boxd, Mass. 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH A “GOOSE” 
HAWK 
To the Editor of Forest a>t) Stream: 
D O j’ou remember how your imagina- 
tion usecl to present to your boyish 
mind the appearance and attributes 
of birds and animals of which you had 
heard hut had never seen? Also, how 
those creatures of the world of nature 
took on exaggerated forms, habits and 
powers? 
Well do I remember that at an early 
age I first heard stories of the “Goose 
I 
