FOREST AND STREAM 
672 
would struggle along if they cut off 50 pellets 
from a 500 pellet load of 8’s. Consider the poor 
shot makers who would not be selling that 50 
pellets each time a gun went off. It is enough 
to move one to tears—then to a club, not a gun 
club either. 
As a matter of cold fact a lot of guns pattern 
more evenly, and can be more relied upon with 
1 Yf,, oz. than they do with oz. By a bit of 
selection of loads you can make that 1% oz. 
work just as nicely and break just as many 
clays as ever did the 1J- 4 • You’ll recollect that 
the blue rock is normally broken with what shot 
there is in the thirty inch breaking circle, not 
that which goes off on paths of its own. Also 
by an infinitesimal quickening of the time, too 
small for a stop watch to detect, that lessening 
of the pattern density would be overcome- Also, 
what is still more important, there is plenty of 
shot in the 1 y% oz. charge to break all of them 
at 16 yards, and your reform would not be worth 
one whoop. 
Let’s consider a real change. 
It has been proved time and again that a 20 
bore with % oz. of shot is capable of breaking 
close to 95% of all birds thrown at 16 yards. 
The record in open competition is 96 birds out 
of 100, done with an L. C. Smith gun I think in 
Butte, Montana. Also there are numerous other 
public records of close to this, while I’ve seen 
repeated runs of 90% broken with a 20 bore- Also 
this shooting was done with light guns, not as 
steady handling as longer, heavier guns would 
be, nor built for trap work. Build for example 
a single barrel twenty along the lines of the 
Greener or the Daly, to weigh about 7 or 7% 
pounds, make it trap in all its dimensions, then 
turn loose a straight pointer with the % oz. 
charge in such a gun. That would be a show¬ 
down. 
No matter if the shot is not enough to break 
them all, why should anybody break them all? 
No rifle made is capable of putting all its shots 
into the bull at all ranges, even though you do 
point it straight. If you asked a fellow to make 
100 bulls like Stuart, Wise or Perry Schofield to 
prove that he could shoot, you’d have a riot on 
your hands. 
The trap game is far too much of a cinch 
for the straight pointer. Let a little luck, say 
5% work into it. nobody will care. Then make 
the guns used just as close shooting as they can 
be possibly made, and compel the shooter to be 
mighty quick, and mighty straight in his point¬ 
ing to get 90% of them. As it is, even reason¬ 
ably straight pointing gets the goods, it is the 
long strain on the endurance that counts and 
that shakes out the poor donator. 
Just for example the fellow writing this, with 
all due modesty, butted into a tournament last 
spring, and without one day’s practice, or pre¬ 
vious acquaintance with the traps on those 
grounds, broke 92% of =00 birds and 89 from 19 
yards in a handicap. I wasn’t entitled to it, 1 
didn’t shoot for it, I felt like a stage robber and 
kidnapper rolled into one when I drew down 
the fat roll that said percentage brought. No 
game in which high skill, and not endurance 
counts, would let some fellow fall into easy 
money in that fashion. 
A % oz. shot load is 70% of the present one. 
A 2K dram powder load is 75 % of the present 
average. A 20 bore case is cheaper to make 
unless factories get their material free. While 
20 bore cases cost as much now as do 12 bore, 
this is because of the comparatively small num¬ 
ber turned out as compared with the bigger shells. 
But, make the small load once the standard, 
and if the factories would not reduce the cost to 
11s about one fourth, then we’d find somebody 
that would. Facts are facts, and while manu¬ 
facture and inspection do cost a lot, yet nobody 
is going to get by very long with a price on a 
20 bore load as large as he asked for a 12. 
Needless to say, the recoil of the small load 
in a gun of around 7 to 7J4 pounds would be 
extremely mild, and no man—or woman—would 
have cause to complain. No man but can handle 
as quick as lightening, a gun of this weight, and 
this weight would be ample to make the recoil 
not noticeable- 
Also it would be entirely possible to save a lot 
of birds with the proper straw matting for them 
to fall upon, and it would be entirely possible 
to obtain a show-down as to who could shoot, 
and who could not, short of 200 birds that is 
now the pleasant rule for a day’s shoot. 
Therefore let the Interstate cut out this flub- 
dubbery about six foot distance increase or 10% 
shot decrease, and either make a real, a beneficial 
change, or quit bluffing. 
It would have been simple enough to specify 
in the December meeting that in future one ounce 
of shot and 2% drams would be the outside 
loads for American trapshooting, with the warn¬ 
ing that a further shot decrease would be agi¬ 
tated in a year or two. This would still permit 
the use of the present 12 bore guns—and for 
that matter they could still be used with the % 
oz. load—and nobody would feel that his pet 
shooting iron would be practically confiscated so 
far as trap shooting is concerned. Believe me, 
some of them would commence to get interested 
in loads that would pattern instead of depending 
upon that huge charge of 1% oz, to let them get 
the bird anywhere out to where he lit. 
This talk of reform in a game that needs re¬ 
form if any game does, and then handing out 
such stuff as 18 yards or 1% oz. of shot is 
enough to make a man go out and throw rocks 
at his grandmother. 
GOOD NEWS FOR SURF ANGLERS. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
It is our good fortune to be able to report that 
out efforts to obtain a new supply of the high 
quality linen yarn suitable for making our Surf- 
man’s lines have been successful. 
Our spinners abroad have been able to supply 
us with about a year’s run of this yarn, and we 
are therefore advising the trade that we will be 
able to accept orders for this high grade line. 
Yours very truly, 
ASHAWAY LINE & TWINE MFG CO- 
