Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
C 0 Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1906. 
VOL. LXVII—No. 7. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects, Announcement in first number of 
Forest, and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
TO WEEKLY PURCHASERS. 
Owing to a change in the method of distribut¬ 
ing the Forest and Stream, readers who are ac¬ 
customed to purchase the paper of newsdealers, 
at news stands, in book shops, and elsewhere, 
are advised to leave with the dealer from whom 
they buy a standing advance order to supply them 
regularly. If any reader has difficulty in pro¬ 
curing the paper, he is requested to communicate 
with the publishers. 
THE HANDICAP IN TRAPSHOOTING. 
The question concerning what constitutes an 
equitable handicap in trapshooting competition 
is of constant interest to all trapshooters, yet, 
notwithstanding the many handicap systems 
which have been devised and' given fair trial, 
the final settlement of what is a true handicap 
system seems to be as remote now as in the 
beginning. 
On practical trial, each of the different sys¬ 
tems in turn has proved to be objectionable 
to some group, small or great, whose interests 
were unfavorably affected; and each had its 
groups of admirers and supporters who were 
inspired to approve from motives of self interest 
also. 
Much misdirected thought and speech have 
been bestowed on this subject by shooting 
philosophers who mistook a part for the whole. 
Some writers apparently hold the theory that 
a true handicap should give the weaker shooter 
an advantage instead of an equity, thus enabling 
him to come out ahead in the results of the com¬ 
petition. In particular, the failures of the 80- 
per cent, shooter have been exploited in season 
and out of season, and he has been featured as 
a long suffering martyr of the competition, who 
was entitled to more than he received. Yet 
what more rights the 8o-per cent, shooter had 
over the 70-per cent, shooter, or any other per 
cent, shooter, were never apparent outside of 
persistent assertion. 
As a matter of self-evident fact, no shooter 
has any more rights than any other shooter; 
and as a further matter of self-evident fact, it 
is proper to mention that, if a shooter does 
not possess the proper degree of skill for a 
race, he should not attempt to race at all. No 
handicapping can compensate for utter in¬ 
efficiency. 
Target shooting possesses more inherent dif¬ 
ficulties as concerns handicapping than does 
pigeon shooting. In pigeon shooting, the 
events, as a rule, are short, 5, 7 and 10 birds 
constituting the number limiting the events. 
Thus, in such short races, there cannot be wide 
variations between the winners and the losers. 
Again, the birds being alive, much loss was at¬ 
tributed to hard luck, as for instance when a 
bird fell dead out of bounds, or when the wind 
carried it out of the boundary after it fell dead 
inside, etc. 
In target shooting, the races are much longer 
than in pigeon shooting, in their skill the best 
and poorest shooters are much more widely 
apart, and, as the average trapshooter at targets 
dawns on the game and disappears much more 
quickly than does the live-bird shooter, there 
is a wealth of immature opinion which is pre¬ 
sented as sound knowledge. 
In respect to target shooting, the fundamental 
difficulties in devising a handicapping system 
which will give approximately equitable results 
when applied in practice, are the in and out 
performance of the majority of the contestants, 
and the length of the contests. If a contestant 
has a record of 90 per cent, average, the result 
of shooting from 70 to 100 per cent, in the efforts 
of a year, it is self evident that the handicapper 
has a difficult variant to consider. If the in-and- 
out shooter wins or loses, the irresponsible 
critic, who makes his deductions from data 
which suit his purposes, can find that, from his 
viewpoint, the handicappers are either foolish or 
criminal. 
Of all the systems in vogue, the distance han¬ 
dicap has proved the most equitable and satis¬ 
factory for open tournaments. However, no 
system can be devised which will compensate 
for erratic shooting or deficient skill, nor can 
any handicapping committee be found which will 
make the handicaps harmonize with the mental 
squints of the critics. 
IN CURRITUCK AND DARE. 
Previous reference has been made to oppo¬ 
sition to the Audubon Society prevailing in the 
eastern counties of North Carolina. This has 
now taken definite organization in a newly 
formed Gunners’ and Fishermen’s League, the 
purpose of which is to secure political repre¬ 
sentation at Raleigh. In the primaries just held 
the League candidate was nominated by the 
largest vote ever polled in the county. A feature 
of the situation worth nothing is that the Curri¬ 
tuck county people look on the Audubon Society 
as an institution which has been created 
by Northern activity; they claim that the 
revenues drawn from shooting licenses and 
penalties go to the use of a non-resident body; 
and the antagonism which would be aroused in 
any community where such a state of things ex¬ 
isted, is in this case increased by the old sec¬ 
tional feeling against the North which has not 
yet died out. 
The chief cause of grievance against the So¬ 
ciety, as presented by the disgruntled opposers 
of it, is that, while the sentiment favoring the 
preservation of bird life is admirable, the prac¬ 
tice is on strictly commercial lines. The oppo¬ 
sition ignores or overlooks the fact that it costs 
money to enforce a sentiment in any branch of 
activity, and that, in its material phases, the 
protection of bird life in this respect admits of 
no exception. Again, it is held that the game 
laws are against the best interests of the State, 
as they deter sportsmen from visiting North 
Carolina, and consequently shut out a large 
revenue, a vast sum which, in years prior to 
the non-resident discrimination in the form of 
special license and restriction, added liberally to 
the means of livelihood of several large classes, 
among whom may’ be mentioned the hotel 
keepers, the boatmen, the transportation lines, 
the sporting goods dealers, and indirectly every 
member of the community. 
With such antagonism prevailing as it does in 
the districts immediately concerned, it goes with¬ 
out saying that the enforcement of the law 
against night shooting and other practices dear 
to the heart of the Currituck and Dare gunner 
is farcical. The night shooters ply their voca¬ 
tion unmolested. They find protection and safety 
in that sympathy of the community which, until 
it shall have been overcome, will continue to 
shield them. If the Audubon Society or any 
other associated agency is to accomplish the 
enforcement of the laws, it is clear that effort 
may profitably be directed to the creation of a 
sentiment which by lending to it popular sup¬ 
port might be efficient, where without it a navy 
of wardens could not prevail. 
The giant strides which have been made in 
game protection in one State after another have 
been achieved not so much by increased strin¬ 
gency of legislation and enlarged executive 
forces, as by a changed public opinion, which by 
sanction of the law has contributed to its en¬ 
forcement. The same rule will hold good in 
the duck shooting counties of North Carolina. 
State Warden Jonas Swenholt, of Madison, 
Wis., advises us that Frank Stick and Russell 
Dunn, arrested in Oneida county, Wis., and 
fined for killing deer in close season, are re¬ 
ported to be connected with the Forest ane> 
Stream; and Mr. Swenholt expresses a hope 
that if the report be true the paper “will take 
them in hand”; or if it be untrue that the paper 
will contradict it, because of the discredit it will 
cause us in Wisconsin. It certainly ought not 
to be necessary to say that no person connected’ 
with the Forest and Stream has been guilty 
of violating Wisconsin game laws, or any others. 
Frank Stick and Russell Dunn and the other 
persons associated with them in the illegal deer 
hunting are not and never have been connected 
with the Forest and Stream; this office had 
never heard of them prior to the receipt of 
Warden Swenholt’s courteous communication, 
and we thank him for giving us an opportunity 
to say so. 
