April 17, 1909] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
617 
Col. Roosevelt’s Armament. 
Ex-President Roosevelt’s expedition to Africa, 
which has been so thoroughly exploited in the 
newspapers, has had written about it much that 
is true and much that is false. It has been said 
that he was to kill all the dangerous beasts in 
the w’orld as well as all the harmless ones, and 
that he was to be armed with every weapon 
from a Gatling gun to an old-fashioned Allen’s 
pepper box. 
Col. Roosevelt with his party is now well on 
the way toward Mombasa, his landing place in 
British East Africa. From there he will go by 
rail to Nairobi, a place in the center of a great 
game region. This is a new city only six or 
eight years old. It is several thousand feet 
above the sea level, is dry by comparison with 
the coast, there are no mosquitoes, and one 
sleeps comfortably under blankets. The chief 
animals seen here are different sorts of ante¬ 
lope, though there are ostriches, zebras, and one 
does not have to go far for lion and rhino, and 
only a little further for elephants and buffalo. 
Col. Roosevelt’s equipment is chiefly from this 
country. Most African hunters provide them¬ 
selves with rifles of European make. The old 
fashioned ones were double barreled arms, look¬ 
ing much like an ordinary shotgun. Calibers in 
old times were very large, while nowadays they 
are quite small. Perhaps the largest now com¬ 
monly in use is .405 caliber, while .303 is quite 
a favorite size. Mr. Roosevelt’s gun and ammu¬ 
nition equipment was long ago given over to 
the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., and though 
It should not be mistakenly inferred that the 
full-patched bullet has the greater power be¬ 
cause of its greater penetration. The soft- 
nosed bullet spreads out on impact and com¬ 
municates a greater shock because of the greater 
surface it presents by “mushrooming.” The 
trajectory is remarkably flat, being 1.05 and 4.86 
inches, at the middle of the flights of 100 and 
200 yards, respectively. 
The automatic .22 caliber is also an arm of 
extraordinary power and destructiveness, con¬ 
sidering the size of the cartridge used. The 
magazine holds ten cartridges, which may be 
fired as fast as one can pull the trigger, the 
ejecting of the empty shell, cocking and reload¬ 
ing being done instantly by the automatic work¬ 
ing of the mechanism. Its 45-grain bullet has 
a velocity of 882 feet per second at fifty feet, 
and an energy of 78 foot pounds at that point. 
This may seem trifling in comparison with the 
powers of its big brother, but the reader can 
gain a better understanding of its import if he 
will place a 78-pound weight in his hand and 
endeavor to raise it one foot in one second. 
The Winchester shotgun, with its six shots 
Vienna Sports Exhibition. 
During the past fortnight the general man¬ 
agement of the first International Shooting and 
Field Sports exhibition, to be held in Vienna 
in 1910, has settled a number of essential mat¬ 
ters. With the progress thus achieved it is now 
possible to start working at the details in several 
important sections of the exhibition. 
The management has received an intimation 
from Italy that the Government of that country 
will be officially represented at the exhibition 
and will endeavor to procure the general par¬ 
ticipation of the Italian circles interested in the 
exhibition. 
Sweden has sent an architect, Herr Sigge 
Cronstedt, to Vienna to make the necessary ar¬ 
rangements with the chief architect of the ex¬ 
hibition for the erection of the Swedish pavilion. 
Prince Christian Kraft Hohenlohe-Oehringen, 
duke of Ujest, one of the most thoroughgoing 
sportsmen in Europe, has consented to exhibit 
in a separate pavilion his unique collection of 
trophies of the chase. This collection, consist¬ 
ing exclusively of game killed by the prince in 
Plungary, comprises several specimens which on 
account of their rareness and beauty will awaken 
general interest. Among others there is a mag¬ 
nificent specimen of the bison or ureox, several 
valuable groups of bears, some splendid stags, 
lynxes, etc. The pavilion of Prince Hohenlohe- 
Oehringen, whose example will doubtless be 
followed in sporting circles both at home and 
abroad, bids fair to form one of the greatest 
attractions in the hunting trophy group. 
many efforts have been made to find out just 
what these arms would be, the Winchester Co. 
has not felt at liberty to make the matter public. 
We are now, however, able to say that Col. 
Roosevelt has three of the Winchester model 
of ’95 .405 caliber. He is also taking a .22 auto¬ 
matic rifle, and Winchester shotguns for use in 
collecting birds. 
The Winchester .405 rifle is of the box maga¬ 
zine, lever action type, using a smokeless powder 
cartridge and a heavy 300-grain bullet. An idea 
of its tremendous hitting power may be formed 
when it is stated that the 300-grain bullet has 
a velocity of 2,150 feet per second at fifty feet 
from the muzzle, with an energy at this point 
of 3.077 foot pounds, which is the equivalent of 
raising over one and one-half tons one foot in 
one second. The soft-nosed bullet *has a pene¬ 
tration of thirteen %-inch pine boards, while 
the full-patched bullet will penetrate forty-eight. 
and marvelous accuracy and hitting powers, is 
so commonly known, being in such general use 
in the field and at the traps, that no detailed 
description of it is needed. 
It will thus be seen that Col. Roosevelt and 
the Smithsonian Expedition, which he heads, are 
well equipped in the matter of arms and ammu¬ 
nition. It will be some time before we shall 
hear anything definite of what they accomplish, 
but there is no question but the arms and those 
who use the arms will render good account of 
themselves. 
For a Free Game Law Digest. 
In the New York Assembly Mr. Martin has 
introduced a bill which, if passed, will provide 
a free pamphlet containing a digest of the game 
laws for every person who takes out a license 
to shoot in the State. 
In consequence of the unavoidable delay in 
forming the great exhibition commission, the 
section, group and class committees and in com¬ 
ing to arrangements with the Trades’ Guild of 
lower Austria and with the Austrian Automo¬ 
bile Club, which arrangements were only per¬ 
fected a few days ago, the time originally fixed 
for applications to be sent in from intending 
exhibitors had to be indefinitely extended. 
Applications in the form and under the con¬ 
ditions already indicated should be made as 
hitherto to the general management of the first 
International Field Sports Exhibition in Vienna, 
1910, Vienna HI., Lothringerstrasse 16, or to 
the Commissioner of the Committee for Eng¬ 
land, Sir Arthur James Trendell, 18 Oakwood 
Court, Kensington, London. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from any 
newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to supply you 
regularly. 
