3 D 4 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Sept. 27, 1913. 
sure of our grip. He soon ceased to breathe. 
We now for the first time gave an ear to 
cries at no great distance from us, cries for 
assistance, screams from a drowning man. We 
recognized the voice of one of our crew. He 
had doubtless jumped from the schooner to 
swim to our aid. and we, drifting so fast with 
the tide, the poor fellow was exhausted, and 
had lost sight of the boat. What was to be 
done ? 
The pirate might be only partially strangled. 
If left while we were saving the seaman he 
might recover and renew the fight. We were 
already exhausted to the last extremity. A few 
words passed to this effect between us, and we 
resolved to rid 11s of the pirate. We launched 
Him headlong into the sea, and a few bubbles 
“showed where he went down.” 
Taking the seats which had been overthrown 
in the struggle (for we had lost our oars at 
once) and directed by cries becoming feebler 
every moment, with great difficulty we paddled 
to our poor fellows and picked them up. It 
was as we supposed. They had swam to our 
assistance, but were unable to reach the boat. 
We were now four in all. 
Brown and myself entirely overcome, we 
stretched in the bottom of the boat, and we 
drifted very quietly into Hampton Roads at 
midnight, without an oar, sail or rudder. Hap¬ 
pily for us the schooner’s signal guns, of which 
she had fired several, brought a boat full manned 
from a vessel in the Roads. This was sent in 
pursuit, and soon came upon us. We reached 
our schooner about two in the morning, worn 
out and exhausted. 
The rest is easily told. Manuel was not 
dead when we threw him overboard. The sud¬ 
den plunge in the water soon revived the al¬ 
most extinguished vital spark. He recovered 
and swam ashore about a mile. He was pursued 
and taken by a party of U. S. troops two days 
after, whom he resisted to the last, suffering 
several shots to be fired before he yielded. I 
conveyed him to the Norfolk prison, amidst the 
shouts of assembled multitudes, and delivered 
the stern villain into the hands of justice. 
[TO T!E continued in oct. II ISSUE.] 
Rifle is as Rifle Does 
By H. H. MILLER 
B UFFALO, x. Y„ Sept. 14 —Editor Forest 
and Stream: My fellow townsman, Mr. 
Newton, has suggested through the 
columns of a sportsman's magazine that our 
American cartridges leave a little something to 
be desired. 
He is much too conservative. They are 
mostly obsolete, and a perusal of any manufac¬ 
turer's catalogue reveals the reason why. Can 
anyone offer an excuse for fifty-seven varieties 
of rifles and cartridges for American sportsmen? 
We can understand such necessity regarding 
pickles, but as to arms and ammunition it can 
be explained in only one way. The manufac¬ 
turers have never taken the trouble to decide 
what constituted the ideal arm and its charge, 
and then as nearly as might be produce it. They 
tried any and every idea that happened their way 
with the hope of accidentally getting what they 
wanted. It was immaterial that they did not 
know what they did want. 
Such experimenting has given us many good 
pancake recipes, but has left us behind the times 
in shooting equipment. It is galling to note that 
most recent books of American big-game hunting 
contain the phrase, "I did it with my little Mann- 
licher, etc. 
Colonel Roosevelt years ago pointed out that 
no one virtue could make the perfect rifle nor 
cartridge, that such an arm must be a balance 
struck between all the desirable qualities. 
Now, really, there are only four classes of 
American sportsmen to be considered in the de¬ 
signing of a rifle. The first and largest class 
the men who want a fairly cheap rifle, shooting 
cheap ammunition, strong enough for squirrels, 
rabbits, woodchucks, etc., accurate enough for 
target work at the shorter ranges, safe to use 
in settled communities. 
This one class has been amply provided for 
In our several good .22 caliber repeaters, espe¬ 
cially the new one conceived hv Mr. Newton. 
This cartridge being large enough for the smaller 
game, and even powerful enough to permit the 
user to give a bear a bad headache. Very nice, 
indeed, in case one met bear when looking for 
'chuck. 
The second class, the target cranks, need 
little consideration here. They want twenty- 
pound cannon, mounted on a rest, a celestial 
telescope and a hair trigger. 
They have their rifles made to order, each 
with ten whims and a nightmare, the exclusive 
property of the crank. However, observation of 
the results they attained and resulting experi¬ 
ments by others have taught us much regarding 
the cause of inaccurate bullets. Especially note¬ 
worthy being the work done by Dr. Mann, of 
the Massachusetts Rifle Association. 
The third class are the few fortunate Ameri¬ 
cans who can hunt African game. They seem 
to require a rather heavy gun with a powerful 
charge that is almost as unpleasant at the butt 
as at the muzzle. 
They make the natives carry the rifles and 
lead, and the weapons come mostly from Eng¬ 
land, anyway. I will refer to the African car¬ 
tridge later. 
Last comes the most interesting class, the 
American big-game hunter, who wants as nearly 
as possible an all round arm—one that can drop 
a grizzly in his tracks, make high scores on the 
target, and take its place as the peer of any arm 
in the trenches defending his country if need be. 
Such a combination is easily possible. 
At the present time few sportsmen and no 
soldier wants to carry a rifle weighing over eight 
pounds, and a little less than that is enough. 
Length of barrel is limited on the one hand by 
ballistics, and on the other by convenience, 
about twenty-six inches being correct. The re¬ 
peating mechanism must be at once safe, swift, 
simple and sure. 
Foreign makers and the United States Gov¬ 
ernment have decided that bolt actions are the 
best. The barrel must be of the best steel. We 
know how to make rifling as accurate as our 
expert mechanics can produce, and a chamber 
strong enough to safely handle the cartridge 
decided upon. The sights to be of a type that 
will permit its owner to make full use of its 
accurate barrel. Military authorities and others 
have decided that a bullet speed of about 3,000 
feet per second at the muzzle will furnish the 
necessary trajectory to make hits fairly certain 
at the longer ranges at which individual firing 
is practicable. 
This of course assumes the target to be the 
height of a man, and considers the average error 
judging unknown distances likely to be made by 
trained soldiers. 
However, at extreme hunting ranges the 
sportsman would be unlikely to miss any of our 
larger game unless his eyes were far below the 
average. With the weight of the rifle and muzzle 
velocity determined, the limit of bullet weight 
is a matter for arbitration, the contending parties 
being the sportsman’s shoulder and the butt of 
the gun. 
Too great a recoil is not only unpleasant and 
injurious, but causes flinching—that destroyer of 
accuracy. From 150 to 160 grains at the speed 
given will furnish all the kick desired by the 
most enthusiastic. 
Numerous tests of the new Spitzer bullet, 
admitted by all to be the best, have demon¬ 
strated a clearly defined ratio between the 
weight and diameter of the bullet, and the re¬ 
sult in chamber pressure with a given charge. 
It has been proven that the greatest weight for 
the speed, the greatest speed for the weight, and 
the lowest chamber pressure for the combination 
is attained when the bullet weighs 2,560 grains 
per square inch of cross section. This weight 
may be varied slightly if need be to accomplish 
special results. A little speed may be gained in 
exchange for a little loss in weight but the 
limits of variation are not large until more is 
lost than is gained. 
A 160-grain bullet would thus allow of a 
diameter of about seven millimeter or .28 caliber, 
