668 
FOREST AND STREAM 
fRi^FURS 
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Simon SummGrfiGld 6^ Co. 
Oapi 
133 
ST. LOUIS. M0.J 
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ALBERT LEA HIDE & FUR CO. 
707-09 West Clark St. ALBERT LEA, MINN. 
Flats have a rather widespread local rep- 
utation of being A1 shooting at all times. 
If the weather is bright and clear, and 
there is uo fog, the shooting on the bluffs 
is liable to be poor. But foggy days are 
numerous, and then the bombardment 
along the bluffs reminds one of defending 
a mountain pass from Invasion. Besides 
being a specialty, it Is different from any 
goose shooting I ever saw or experienced. 
U sually one associates goose shoot- 
ing in his mind with sandliars, and 
reedy water, and decoys set in 
stubble; with wide sheets of water or 
spreading fields. Here it reminds mo of 
nothing so much as shooting wild goats 
on Catalina Island. A peculiar combina- 
tion of natural causes go to make up this 
effect. 
The bluffs are high and steep, and the 
lava rock mostly black, giving a stem, 
forbidding appearance to the landscape; 
great douse gray fogs come off the river 
and roll up over the bluffs, so dense that 
it would seem one could reach out and get 
haiidsfull of them. Tlio ground is in- 
tensely dry under foot, unless there is a 
snow, for there is very little rain in that 
country. If the fog is thin enough so 
the river can be seen from the top of the 
bluff it looks like a pale silver ribbon at 
the bottom of a black gorge. At one's 
feet nestles the quiet little town witli 
smoke curling from its chimneys, tlie milk 
wagon on its morning route, and a switch- 
erigino lazily shunting box-ears over in 
the railroad yards on tlio river front. 
There is nothing that by the rcn^olest 
stretch of the imagination rosemblcS cat- 
tails, or a marsh, (not even along the 
river) or a wide-spreading wheatiield. 
(For the ground is too rough and stony 
for wheatfields right at Arlington.) As I 
said bcfoi’e, it is more like Catalina »"'at 
hunting. It is as if one went goose hunt- 
ing on the River Styx according to the 
rendering of Dore. 
A ssuming there is one of those 
dense fogs (the kind you can cut 
w’ith a knife) and that you are 
sitting on a ledge with a sort of blind of 
bouldere, and you can see arouud you for 
some twenty yards Imt in your mind’s eye 
the whole terrain lies in perspective as it 
does on clear days. Suddenly, from down 
in the river, comes a bewildering pipe- 
organ chorus of aliunks as a bunch of 
geese rise, circling like airplanes to get 
high enough to clear the bluffs, and set 
off for the wheatfields. 
You grip the old gun and crouch down. 
(For you arc a goose hunter by instinct, 
and instinct says “crouch.”) But you had 
just as well stand up on the top of a 
boulder. On this particular morning they 
will be almost close enough for you to 
feel the wind from their wings before you 
can see them or they can see you. You 
can count pretty well on them clearing 
the bluff with little space to spare. You 
might knock one' down with your gun 
barrel if you were a good acrobat. But — 
you are an ordinary goose hunter; some- 
what subject to buck ague; a little ner- 
vous to say the least; so you grip the 
/ 
December, 1919 
stock of the old gun almost hard enough 
to make the prints of your fingers in It, 
hold your breath, tell you heart to go 
back down your throat where it belongs, 
and wait. 
Another flock leaves the river and 
starts spiralling upward, mingling their 
ahunks with those of the first bunch, and 
then still others rise — all ahunking at the 
top of their voices, answering and re- 
answering and the echoes clamoring back 
and mingling in with the real voices in 
and grand brass-band of nbunks. 
Your attention is jerked back to busi- 
ness liy the srund of wings in the fog and 
a now burst of Iinnking about fifteen 
yards over your Iiead. They have seen 
you and are scattering temporarily in 
fright. Yes, there they arc! All around 
your head like bumble-bees. You cut 
loose and empty the old gun at the flock 
of barns so close to you, forge.tting how 
small is the pattern of your gun at such 
clc'e range. Result: One or two geese 
come down. One falls with a thud and 
lies dead against a black lava rock near 
you. Another flops off down the hill. You 
can hear him in the fog but you cannot 
see him. You start to chase him down 
and retrieve him. but another brass-band 
chorus of ahunks drawing near makes 
you go belter skelter back to your station. 
Perhaps these pass to one side of you 
and the other fellows who have been wait- 
ing turn loose a bombardment. So it goes 
until the jnorning flight is over. The 
evening is more apt to be clear so the 
shooting from the bluffs is done mainly 
in the mornings. On clear days all the 
geese seek a canyon to fly out, keep well 
over the middle of it, and high up. At 
least it would seem they do. These geese 
at Arlington have become “educated," and 
they can tell how far a shotgun can kill 
about as accurately as a man can, and 
then they allow themselves 100 to 200 per 
cent, for margin. 
O N such days the rifle is the only so- 
lution to the problem of shooting 
from the bluffs. (A man who wants 
geese goes to Shutler Flats on clear 
days.) The rifle isn't a very effective 
solution for the reason of the average 
man’s lack of ability to make hits. Also, 
most of the rifles are rim-fire 22s. I have 
long dreamed of a rifle for geese, both on 
the wing and sitting and I mean to have 
one for a tryout, at least, as soon as I 
see time ahead when I can have suflicient 
leisure to make the investment worth 
While. This is it: A 25 auto, with a 
wicle-ficlcl telescope attached. About 3x. 
Rifle sling, and loading tools. I may use 
an 87 grain bullet to get more velocity. 
The theory being that it is more fun to 
get them when they are hard to get. Also, 
that such a gun may often make the 
difference between a goose for supper and 
no goose at all. I am giving yon the idea 
for what it is worth. 
But If the weather forecasts are for fair 
weather, and fogs have been infrequent 
for a while, the gunner at Arlington will 
do well to take an auto and go to Shut- 
ler Flats where the shooting is of the 
typical goose hunting pit and decoy kind. 
