274 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 12, 1911. 
Y OU know mallards—wisest and wariest of all 
ducks—Solomons of the air. You can’t knock 
down mallards with a paddle nor can you get them 
with a gun that plasters its shots all over the face 
of creation. 
A mallard shot is generally a long shot, and long 
shots require a hard-shooting, close-shooting gun. 
That's why the long-headed man who goes to a 
mallard country takes a Lefever. When he swings 
it on a towering pair of mallards he does not ques¬ 
tion the result. He know it— 
TWO CLEAN KILLS 
The reason a Lefever kills clean and sure and 
far is Lefever Taper Boring. 
But if you buy a Lefever for the taper boring 
alone, you will get more than your money’s worth. 
For instance, you will never be handicapped with 
looseness at the hinge joint. The exclusive Lefever 
screw compensates for a year’s wear by a trifling 
turn that you make yourself with a screwdriver. 
LEFEVER 
SHOT GUNS 
Sixteen other exclusive Lefever features and Lefe¬ 
ver simplicity and strength make the $28 gun the 
peer of any §50 gun on the market. Upwards to 
Si, 000 . Send for free catalog and get Lefever wise. 
Lefever Arms Co., a^Maltbie St., Syracuse,N.Y. 
"X 
marlin 
REPEATER 
Model 
1897 
The best-made 
.22 rifle in the world! 
Shoots all .22 short, .22 long and .22 long rifle 
cartridges without change in adjustment; ex¬ 
cellent for rabbits, squirrels, hawks, crows, 
foxes and all small game and target work up 
to 200 yards. 
It’s a take-down, convenient to carry and clean. The tool 
steel working parts cannot wear out. It's Ivory Bead and 
Rocky Mountain sightsare the best set ever furnished on any 
.22. Has lever action — like a big game rifle; has solid top 
and side ejection for safety and rapid accurate firing—the 
real test of a repeater. 
Note the beautiful case-hardened finish and the superb build 
and balance. Examine at your gun store or send three 
stamps postage for new big catalog of all Marlin repeating 
rifles and shotguns. Do it now! 
2Hfzr/iJi 7}rearms Co. 
27 Willow Street, New Haven, Conn. 
MWBfflgEBsagagaa _ 
When writing say you saw the advertisement 
in “Forest and Stream.” 
a house and lot—dog house and lot of pups. That is 
always the prize held up to a prospective winner. No 
other kind of betting is allowed or grumbling in any 
form. 
The first round of 10 shots was all right, but after that, 
the first-named pair won out by 9 points. These four 
men shoot almost a 90 average, so that you can figure 
that the joshing was some strong, when you see the 
scores below: 
Match scores: 
W E Smith . 87 87 S3—257 
I C Douglas . 96 89 82—267—524 
T E Holcomb . 86 85 85—256 
L M Packard . 93 86 80—259—515 
Pistol practice: W. E. Smith, 93, 91, 90, 89, 89; J. E. 
Holcomb, 80, S4, 89, 90; I. C. Douglas, 86 , 88 , 87; L. M. 
Packard, 86 , 86 . 
Revolver practice with .22 caliber: L. M. Packard, 86 , 
SI, 86, 89, 81, 86. The Doctor. 
Rathjens Organizes New Shooting Club. 
P. F. Rathjens, the Golden Jubilee King of the San 
Francisco Schuetzen Verein, while on a vacation in Lake 
county organized the Hoberg, Lake County, Schuetzen 
Club, with the following officers: President, P. F. Rath¬ 
jens; Vice-President, Oscar Hocks; Secretary, Henry 
Fiege; Treasurer, August Krome; Shooting Masters, 
Julius Hammermann, Henry Ehlers and John Praller. 
Officers of the military organization are as follows: 
Captain, commanding, Major Edward M. Stehn; First 
Lieutenant, Frank Ruediger; Second Lieutenant, Dr. 
Stone; First Sergeant, Julius Ruediger, Jr.; Sergeant, 
Edward Cordes; Second Sergeant, C. Bredehoff; Re¬ 
cording Officer, Herman Meyer; Schuetzen Liesel, Miss 
Vera McCall. 
The club held an eagle shoot recently at the Lake 
county resort, in which thirty-seven members com¬ 
peted for prizes. The following are the winners: 
Julius Hammermann, king; F. They, head; Henry 
Knust, ring; Mrs. Charles ITapp, apple; Mrs. Oscar 
Hocks, scepter; F. Schatene, right wing: B. Boas, left 
wing; IT. IT. Blum, right talon; Mrs. Atthey, left talon; 
Mrs. E. M. Stehn. tail. 
The San Francisco Schuetzen Verein, one of the most 
noted shooting societies of the country, will hold its 
annual eagle shoot in Shell Mound Park on Sunday, 
Sept. 3. 
George Helms, the rifle shot who acquired fame during 
the memorable contests of the midwinter fair, returned 
to the range and participated in the various com¬ 
petitions and declared his intention of resuming active 
participation in the sport. 
Col. Leslie Coombs Bruce. 
The death of Leslie Coombs Bruce, at his home in 
Greenwich, Conn., on August 1st, will be keenly felt by 
the rifle shooting and general sportsmen’s fraternity in 
this country. While Mr. Bruce has not been in actual 
competition in rifle shooting, of late years, his moral in¬ 
fluence and willing advice has been liberally given. 
Col. Bruce was Captain of the American rifle team, that 
won in 1903 the Palma Trophy, at Bisley. It will be 
rememberejl that the cup was returned, some months 
later, to England, by the National Rifle Association, 
because the American team, through no fault of Col. 
Bruce, violated a rule of the contest, in using a rifle 
slightly different from that used by the regular army in 
this country. There was, at the time, much talk that the 
English were poor losers, but Col. Bruce always main¬ 
tained that the marksmen across the water had behavef 
gracefully at the close of the match, when the trophy was 
being taken to America, and that their protest was 
justifiable. At one time he owned and raced thorough¬ 
bred horses and was a familiar figure at the Westchester 
Racing Association at Morris Park, the Brooklyn Jockey 
Club, and the Coney Island Jockey Club. 
Col. Bruce is survived by his widow and two children, 
a boy and a girl. He was sixty-two years old. 
On the Road to Camp Perry. 
All roads lead to Camp Perry, Ohio just now, and 
those riflemen who are not already there, or on the way, 
are sprucing up at their local ranges. 
A large number of teams, including the Marine Corps, 
are going for preliminary practice before the matches 
start on August 14 with the twenty-ninth annual tourna¬ 
ment of the National Rifle Association of America, which 
will run for eight days—the most crowded schedule in 
its history. On August 23 the National Board for the 
Promotion of Rifle Practice starts its ninth annual 
matches—individual, team and pistol—established in 1903, 
in which the grand prize is the national trophy autho¬ 
rized by Congress. The “war” will not end before 
August 31 or September 1. 
The battle royal for the national trophy this year will, 
in the first place, be a tug of war between the guardsmen 
of the East and the guardsmen of the West. 
But perhaps of more significant interest to the con¬ 
testants is the race between the United States service 
teams and the guardsmen. 
The enlisted men’s team match, established by the 
National Rifle Association, is a contest at 600 and 1000 
yards for teams of six from the infantry, cavalry. Marine 
Corps and national guards. The prize is a bronze figure, 
four feet high, of an enlisted man, presented by the en¬ 
listed men of the Marine Corps. The United Service 
match, which is shot under the auspices of the National 
Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice, is an out- 
and-out new event in America. This match will be con¬ 
tested by teams of 20 —the largest team ever seen in an 
American match—from the National Guard and from the 
army, the navy, and the marine corps. The army team 
will be picked after the national match by the captains 
of the infantry and cavalry teams by the navy and Naval 
Academy captains, and the National Guard team by the 
captains of the three state teams that get in first. This 
match will be shot at 200 , 600 and 1,000 yards and on one 
skirmish run. The prize is the United States trophy, 
donated by Colonel Robert M. Thompson, who gradu¬ 
ated from the Naval Academy in 1868. 
1 he card of the National Rifle Association embraces 
six new matches, which it has taken over from the 
Ohio State Rifle Association: 
The Adjutant General’s Match, in which the prize is 
a J500 cup; the match for the 8500 Catrow Cup; the Hale 
match; the 200 yard off hand match; the Governor’s 
match, and the biggest of all, the Buckeye matches—the 
Herrick, for the 83000 Herrick Cup. The National Asso¬ 
ciation program this year extends over eight days. 
A new prize is offered this year in the President’s 
match by the United States Marine Corps—a match 
which is shot by authority of the President of the United 
States. 
BIRD PROTECTION. 
Save our Texas birds. Our population has 
increased enormously, and out of all proportion 
to its growth has been the increase of gunners. 
For some twenty-five years the writer has been 
hunting in different parts of Texas, and we can 
safely say that the birds, both game and song, 
have decreased over 50 per cent. The hunters 
have increased by some several hundred per 
cent., and with their new guns, pump and auto¬ 
matic, the birds have little chance of escape. 
Most of us have almost forgotten the old style 
of gun, that required a ramrod and was slow in 
loading. We have good game laws in Texas, 
but no money to enforce them. The foremost 
and most crying need for bird protection is an 
efficient system of game wardens. Every State 
in the Union except Texas exacts a gun tax 
for the support of its game wardens and for the 
restocking of the fields and woods with game 
birds. The gun-owner or gun renter pays a 
small fee for the fund. The only gun tax paid 
in Texas is a $15 fee assessed nonresidents. 
Yes, there is another tax on home gunners, 
but it is a joke. Any man can hunt in his 
county and in all the counties contiguous to his 
without paying a gun tax. In Bell county that 
means that we have an area as big as all New 
England. If the hunter goes outside of this 
free zone he should pay a fee of $1.75, but few 
ever pay it, and seldom is one called upon to 
show his license. For several years I have 
been hunting in the fall in different parts of 
South Texas, and never once have I been called 
upon to show my tax receipt, although I had 
it. If the counties have game wardens, no blame 
can attach to them, as their office is generally an 
honorary one and lacking sufficient fees to pay 
even for the keep of a horse. 
We have in Bell county hundreds of bird 
shooters, to say nothing of small boys and 
negroes who will shoot anything when the 
blood lust is on, and the desire to see some¬ 
thing drop is rampant. Not even the beautiful 
insect-eating robin is exempt, quail have be¬ 
come very scarce, and even the despised Brer 
Rabbit is now becoming a scarcity. Any one 
of these shooters will spend cheerfully 75 cents 
for a box of smokeless cartridges, and then will 
never count the number of boxes consumed on 
each outing. None of these men will ever miss 
a dollar gun tax for the luxury of hunting. They 
may howl at first, but so do the people who 
pasture cows and pigs all over the village 
streets, eating up the flower gardens, and whose 
owners suddenly are required to keep their 
stock at home and feed them. The intelligent 
gunner will soon see the wisdom of the tax, and 
when he goes shooting he will find something 
to shoot. Missouri raised over $70,000 by such 
a tax, which paid for an efficient set of game 
wardens and left each year a snug sum for 
quail breeding and the importing and distribu¬ 
tion of game birds. What would our Texas 
streams and lakes amount to without the fish 
hatcheries? What about the rights of three 
millions of people in Texas who do not hunt 
themselves and who would rather not see any 
hunting at all? 
Mr. Hunter, we have hold of a very slippery 
privilege and we had better pay this small gun 
tax and go in for bird protection and propaga¬ 
tion than be denied the shooting altogether. 
The whole State is awake to the dearth of birds, 
and even on the coast one hears that there are 
not half as many ducks as formerly. And now 
comes the pot-hunter and duck-seller and law- 
