692 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Nov. 4, 1911. 
183 — LONGEST STRAIGHT RVN—183 
at the Post-Season Tournament 
made by Mr. Walter Huff, October 17-18, using 
SHells 
Mr. Huff scored 198 x 200, October 17 - - - 2d Professional 
Mr. Wm. Ridley scored 898 x 1000 (including 200 doubles) 3d Amateur 
PETERS SHELLS —the 1911 Grand American Winners, will “turn the trick” at the trap or in the field. Before 
buying ammunition for your fall hunt, see Peters new shells, with “steel where steel belongs.” In mechanical 
construction and shooting qualities better than any shell ever produced. 
THE PETERS CARTRIDGE COMPANY - - - CINCINNATI, OHIO 
New York: 98 Chambers Street. T. H. KELLER, Manager New Orleans: 321 Magazine Street. E. F. LECKERT, Manager 
San Francisco: 608-612 Howard Street. J. S. FRENCH, Manager 
gun, one full choke, is a necessity if ultimate success at 
the traps is desired. 
Experience has taught that a 12-gauge gun, weighing 
in the neighborhood of or 7541bs., is the right thing 
for trap work. Guns of lighter weight give too heavy a 
recoil even with the moderate load of 3drs. of a “bulk” 
powder (or 24grs. of a “dense” powder) and lJ4oz. of 
chilled shot. Nothing puts a man to the bad when trap¬ 
shooting so quickly and so completely as heavy recoil 
(or “kick”). 
Select, therefore, for trap work a 12-gauge gun, about 
7)41bs. in weight, and either a single-shot, a repeater or 
a double-barrel, for all these have their firm adherents, 
and no one style seems to be much more preferable than 
another, except, of course, that doubles cannot be shot 
with a single-shot gun. 
Another very important point to remember when select¬ 
ing a gun is to be sure that it has what is known as a 
“straight” stock; that is, one that has not too much 
“drop”* to it. Formerly guns were made with consid¬ 
erable drop to them, but the growth of trapshooting and 
the experience it has brought show that, at the traps at 
least (and we are now dealing with that branch of sport 
with a shotgun), the stock of a gun should be straight. 
For a beginner we would recommend a gun with a drop 
of 1 H to l)4in. at the “comb’ and 2 to 2J4in. at the 
“heel.” Some experts use even straighter stocks, but it 
is better for a beginner to select one within the dimen¬ 
sions suggested. If it turns out to be too straight, it is 
quite an easy matter for a gunsmith (or the owner of the 
gun himself, for that matter) to tinker with it, shaving 
it down to what he finds to be the drop best suited to 
his use. 
The thickness of the stock is another matter to be con¬ 
sidered. As a general proposition, it may be said that a 
thin-faced man does not require as thin a stock—that is, 
thin at the comb—as one who has plump cheeks; in other 
words, a man who has a thin face would probably shoot 
better with a thick, well-rounded comb than he would if 
the stock were thin, or wedge-shaped at the comb. He 
would also be much less likely to have his cheek pun¬ 
ished by the recoil. The idea is, of course, that when a 
man puts his gun to his shoulder, drops his cheek against 
the stock and looks along the barrel, he should find that 
he is looking straight down the rib to the sight. If he is 
not doing so, then he is liable to “cross shoot” at any 
time, and his gun cannot be said to fit him, and the stock 
must be altered to suit. 
The length of the stock is another very important 
*“Drop,” as applied to the stock of a gun, denotes 
the distance between an imaginary line representing an 
extension of the rib of the gun and two certain points on 
the stock known as the “comb” (B) and the “heel” (A). 
feature to be considered when selecting a gun. This 
length depends upon the length of the gunner’s arm. and 
naturally a long-armed man would need, and should 
have, a longer stock than a short-armed man. The length 
of the stock is measured from the front trigger in a 
straight line to the center of the butt. (Refer to above 
diagram, where the length of the stock is shown by the 
line C D.) 
A rough-and-ready, but still fairly accurate way of 
finding out whether your gun stock fits you, is to place 
the gun to your shoulder and put your finger naturally 
on the trigger, as if about to pull it. Then, still keeping 
your finger on the trigger, take the gun from your 
shoulder and let the butt rest in the hollow of your arm, 
the muzzle pointing upward. If no readjustment of the 
position of the finger on the trigger, or of the hand on 
the grip are required, it is presumptive evidence that 
your gun stock fits you. so far as its length is concerned. 
The trigger pull is still another point to be considered, 
and is really perhaps as important as any when success 
at the trap is to be attained. Pull is the term applied 
to the weight in pounds avoirdupois which, if attached to 
the trigger when the gun is cocked and held perpendicu¬ 
larly, would cause the trigger to be pulled and the ham¬ 
mer to fall. No hard and fast rule as to just what is the 
proper pull can be advanced, but as a general rule a pull 
of from 4 to 4)41bs. may be considered satisfactory and 
can be recommended. Every gunsmith has a spring 
scale specially made for the purpose of ascertaining and 
registering the pull of a trigger. It is a simple contriv¬ 
ance with a hook to fasten on the trigger to be tested; 
the scale is then slowly pulled back in a straight line 
parallel with the barrel of the gun, until the pulling-off 
point is reached and the trigger is pulled, whereupon the 
spring is allowed to slip back, leaving a pointer showing 
the exact number of pounds and ounces required to pull 
the trigger under investigation. 
It will be seen from the foregoing that the main es¬ 
sentials to be observed in selecting a gun for trapshooting 
are close shooting qualities, weight, drop, thickness of 
stock, length and trigger pull. All these really depend 
on the individuality of the person selecting the gun; in 
other words, the gun must fit the shooter, or he cannot 
expect to do much more than fair work, no matter how 
hard he may practice. An ill-fitting coat is not only 
awkward to wear, but hampers the movements of the 
wearer; and an ill-fitting gun is just, as awkward to 
handle and won’t “point right” in the hands of a novice. 
An expert can do fair work with a gun that does not 
fit him, simply because he knows how to shoot targets, 
and soon learns how to hold the gun, whether under or 
over the targets; but a beginner would be hopelessly at 
sea under similar conditions. 
An excellent plan for a beginner to adopt with refer¬ 
ence to getting a gun to suit him, is to try any gun 
about the right length of stock (this based, as stated be¬ 
fore. on his length of arm) that his friends will loan 
him temporarily for such trial. Sooner or later he will 
find one with which he can do better than with others, 
and thus has a basis to go on. Sometimes a beginner 
picks one tip that happens to be just right, and the trick 
is more than half turned. 
Another pointer for the beginner to remember is to 
have no hesitation in asking the advice of an expert, 
particularly one of the expert professionals, for the latter 
are always expected, and indeed are glad to give advice 
on just such points, and any sugestions they may have to 
offer will be found as a rule to be of much benefit. 
Any good field shot should with but little practice 
make a first-class trapshot. The thing that bothers him 
at first is the idea of holding the gun right up or close 
to the shoulder when calling “Pull.” It is unnatural to 
him, and at first probably strikes him as unsportsman¬ 
like. He tries the up-to-the-shoulder game, and finding 
it a new and strained position to him, fails miserably 
instead of “breaking them all,” which he had expected 
to find a simple operation, as it looks so easy. He then 
reverts to the gun-below-the-elbow (field style), and the 
targets get away from him so fast he has to hurry to 
catch them, which he does not do in a very large per¬ 
centage of instances. Unless such a man has grit and 
determination to find out how it is done, he quits right 
there, and a good man is lost to the sport of trapshoot¬ 
ing. 
If, however, the same man will just sit down and 
figure things out a bit, there will be a different tale to 
be told in the very near future. He will ask, “Why this 
gun-to-the_-shoulder business?” If he cannot give the 
answer himself, some one of the experts will tell him 
the reason much along these lines: “Game, whether 
birds or animals, when flushed, are as a rule pretty 
close to you. They are well within shot, and while 
sometimes you have to shoot quickly on account of brush 
or some other cause, you generally have plenty of time 
to get your gun to your shoulder and pick off a right 
and left. If you don’t get them the first time, you can 
follow them up and flush them again. And don’t forget 
another thing—that, while they jump quickly, they gain 
speed as they go, and fly or run faster as they place the 
yards between you and them. Now, to get back to the 
clay target game: You want to get all you can and 
either beat the other fellow or tie him: therefore you 
want to break as many targets as possible. You know 
where the target is going to start from, and can there¬ 
fore get ready in a way you never could do in the field. 
In fact, you are glad to take every advantage of an in¬ 
animate object, and act in a way that would seem un¬ 
sportsmanlike in the field. You flush your clay target 
when you are ready for it, and but very few quail or 
cottontails are so considerate as to wait for the word. 
Furthermore, the target starts like shot out of a gun, and 
puts the yards between you and it much more rapidly than 
the fastest bird that flies—up to about gunshot range, 
when it begins to fall to the ground. That target must 
be broken if it is to be scored to you. As the saying is: 
‘They make them small enough at the factory’; hence 
you must get them when your pattern is at its best; 
that is. within 40vds. of the spot you are standing. on 
Also you’ve got to get that target the first time it is 
flushed; you can’t walk out and jump it again. It can't 
jump, and even if it could, the referee would unkindly 
disallow any success that might attend such second effort. 
Summed up. the whole matter resolves itself into this: 
Take it from me, that if you want to break targets, the 
thing to do is to adopt the methods as to position, style, 
etc., of those experts who have reduced clay target 
shooting to a science, and then practice up a bit. You 
will soon find that it will all come to you, and then you 
will have them all guessing.” 
The field shot will find another thing, too, and that 
