Dec. 23. .1911 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
921 
SHOOTING CENTURIES WITH 
Smokeless Shotgun Powders 
Exceptional Records Made by 
LESTER GERMAN 
at Prominent Shoots. 
The careful attention given to the 
choice of powders and accurate marks¬ 
manship were instrumental in aiding 
Mr. German to make his notable re¬ 
cords. Du Pont Powders are always 
dependable and are adapted to all 
kinds of shooting. 
Place 
Galveston, Texas 
a a 
a a 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
it it 
Charlotte, N. C. 
Dubois, Pa. 
it it 
Columbus, Ohio 
a a 
Danbury, Conn. 
Portland, Me. 
Date 
Jan. 31, 1911 
Jan. 31, 1911 
Feb. 1, 1911 
Apr. 26, 1911 
Apr. 29, 1911 
May 9, 1911 
May 18, 1911 
May 19, 1911 
June 22, 1911 
June 23, 1911 
Score 
156 Straight 
Powder 
Du Pont 
Last 47 
Entire program, 205 
252 
320 “ 
174 “ 
140 
133 
210 Unfinished 
192 Straight 
_ *188 
*181 from 18 yards, 7 from 21 yards. 
July 22, 1911 Entire program 150 “ 
Aug. 16, 1911 133 
Ballistite 
Du Pont 
it 
New Schultze 
it it 
D11 Pont 
Send for set of Smokeless Shotgun Powder Booklets No. 3. 
Helpful information for shooters and special features of each 
brand of Du Pont Smokeless Shotgun Powders, free to all 
inquirers. 
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS POWDER CO. 
Pioneer Powder Makers of America 
established 1802 Wilmington, Del. 
This confession is met with a volley of chaff 
which is taken with perfect philosophy. The 
host is determined that the novice shall have 
all possible encouragement, and another man 
chimes in. 
“I’m no shot, as you fellows know,” he re¬ 
marks. (“Hear, hear!” from the other side of 
the room; and No Shot immediately proves 
that, at any rate, his eye and hand are good 
enough with a sofa-cushion.) 
“I don’t think I ever did better than on my 
first Twelfth,” he goes on calmly, while his 
friend splutters over a split drink. “An old 
friend kindly sent me to his little moor alone 
with his keeper and coachman. I put up grouse 
from my pillows all through the night before— 
and missed every feather. I went on to the 
moor shivering. But the first lot gave me an 
easy chance. I got the old cock and one of 
the brood, and I was all right for the day. I’ve 
often done worse since then.” 
“Thanks!” says the novice, and hopes he may 
enjoy himself after all. 
This is a Sutherlandshire moor, and the guns 
will shoot it for a time in pairs over dogs. Grouse 
are plentiful and well grown. There will be 
some driving before the season .is over, and the 
novice will then have another new experience. 
Talk flags, and one man, rising, looks out 
through the open window into the night and 
says he thinks of getting to bed. Another man, 
emptying his glass, says that’s a good notion. 
Two hardened veterans, on leave from India 
and China, and with nerves that nothing await¬ 
ing them on the morrow can disturb, think 
they’ll yarn on for half an hour or so. 
“Every man according to his fancy,” says the 
host. “Please yourselves, everybody. I’m off, 
because I must be up early for letters before 
starting. Only remember, breakfast at eight. 
Every gun out of the house by half-past. This 
is the Eleventh. Pleasant dreams!”—The 
County Gentleman. 
WILD DUCK REARING. 
Unlike pheasants in every way, wild ducks 
are more trouble to shoot than to rear, al¬ 
though it sounds like a paradox to say so. The 
reason of the trouble is that the tame-bred wild 
ducks always grow either too wild or too tame. 
They can fly as well as their wild-bred ancestors, 
the ability is in the blood, but to make them 
do it, and also to prevent them flying right away 
in a flock when the guns begin to go, is where 
the trouble comes in. A tame-bred pheasant is 
as confiding in the presence of his feeder as any 
barn-door chick, but the instant he hears a 
strange sound or sees a stranger, whether man 
or beast, the instincts of his Chinese ancestors 
beset him, and he is no longer tame, but a more 
scared creature than his wild-bred relatives ever 
become. This is so because the latter have been 
using their wits always in self-preservation, 
whereas your hand-reared pheasant, having no 
wits to use, becomes simply scared. He will 
usually not go so far away that he cannot find 
his way home to feed, and that is where he is 
obliging in a way hand-reared wild ducks are 
not. The danger with them is, that when they 
are scared they may see from their elevated 
position in the air the other element that they 
love, and go there to find peace, good feeding, 
and good company. This is a combination of 
circumstances that they cannot resist, so that 
they are never again seen at home. You may 
teach a canary to sit upon a gun-barrel when it 
is being discharged and never wink, and you 
may teach duck to mind the gun no more than 
the six-season retriever in the kennel. You 
may even make it a signal for food, but if you 
do that you are going to the other extreme and 
will get no sport, because your birds will not 
treat the shooter as a respected scarecrow ought 
to be treated. Many have been the attempts to 
hit the happy mean, but, although this has been 
approached from every side, a sporting, as well 
as satisfactory, solution has not yet been 
reached Ducks in small quantities are easy 
enough to manage, but ducks in ten thousands, 
as they are reared at Netherby, have defeated 
the wits of man, who has, for want of better 
methods, trapped the ducks and let them out as 
the guns wanted them—which is contrary to 
the latest ethics of sport as pronounced by H. 
R. H. The Prince of Wales has taken part in 
this kind of shooting all the same, but at that 
time it was not known how the ducks were kept 
constantly flighting home without, at the same 
time, flying away. Another plan is to signal the 
duck's to feed by sound of horn, and gradually 
to increase the distance from their resting-place; 
then, by interposing the guns and sending the 
duck home again after feeding, the task is partly 
accomplished. But only partly, because even 
then the difficulty is the ducks; they all. go to- 
gather, unless means are taken to avoid such 
an embarrassment of riches. For. this purpose 
the traps were used, and their satisfactory sub¬ 
stitute is yet to seek. When an old wild duck 
rears her young she takes very good care that 
her children shall be taught exclusiveness in 
their social relations; but, on the contrary, when 
the plebian “wet nurse” out of the farmyard is 
used, the children of aristocratic parents become 
gutter-snipes. They mix indiscriminately, and it is 
this that gives all the trouble. We are often told 
by the oracles that, to rear artificially, we should 
go as near as possible to the methods of nature. 
It has a wise sound, but, as a matter of fact, it 
is very foolish advice. The old wild duck takes 
her brood off to the water as soon as they are 
hatched, and generally loses half of them; but 
the clever duck-rearer, whether for shooting 
purposes or for the table, does nothing so silly. 
He usually keeps his ducks away from water for 
seven weeks at least, by which care he avoids 
cramp and pike, and rears ninety-five per cent, 
of his hatch. It is true the young ducks could 
feed themselves with insects upon the water, 
but they are not particular, and barley-meal will 
do as well.—Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic 
News. 
