Oct. 2 , iyoy.J 
FOREST AND STREAM 
551 
AT THE BETHEL GUN CLUB TOURNAMENT. 
Bergen Beach Gun Club. 
Bergen Beach, L. I., Sept. 25.—The Hudson-Fulton 
celebration cut down the attendance. Two visitors from 
the West were in attendance. Dr. R. J. Held and Mr. 
D. W. Franchot, who thought the targets were thrown 
rather hard. Scores, each event at 25 targets: 
Events: 123456789 
T H Vanderveer. 20 21 22 23 23 16 20 .. .. 
'H W Dreyer. 21 20 20 22 19 17 18 .. .. 
H D Bergen. 20 .. 20 IS 22 23 22 .. .. 
T Braband . 8 8 .. 11 13 11 .. 
Dr R T Held. 20 22 17 20 22 23 24 21 
D W Franchot. 18 24 22 24 23 19 22 19 
J Voorhees . 23 19 19 19 .. 
Sept. IS was fine, but a high wind made the targets 
soar. Mr. Shevlin not having his gun with him, used 
Capt. Dreyer’s, with unsatisfactory results. Scores: 
Wm Hopkins . 23 22 21 20 23 .. 
B Williams . 19 18 19 21 16 .. 
H Miller . 21 15 16 13 .. .. 
H W Dreyer. 16 18 18 19 20 19 
H D Bergen. 20 20 20 .. 21 24 
L Skidmore . 15 19 14 16 .. 
J Braband . 7 10 13 .. 
C Woodcock . 17 19 17 20 
Griffith . 14 9 6 20 
J Shevlin . 8 .. .. 
\V Simpson ..15 21 
The Garfield Gun Club. 
Chicago, Sept. 25.—The flight of the mallard, teal 
and other ducks is beginning to attract the hunters, and 
the attendance _ of Garfield Gun Club members at the 
weekly shoots is silent testimony of the greater attrac¬ 
tion of the active sport. Game stories instead of fish 
stories are now the proper thing. The following were 
the scores at the weekly shoot on above date: 
Events: 1 2 3 4 5 6 
Targets: 10 15 25 25 25 25 
Kuss . 9 .. 23 22 23 21 
Thomas . 5 .. 17 21 18 20 
Herr . 5 .. 17 19 16 15 
Eaton . 7 .. 19 17 21 .. 
Ellis . S 13 22 . 
Einfeldt . 21 17 18 
Wallace . 7 9. 
Kuss swept the boards in Class A, winning every 
trophy. He may be justly thankful for this to Billy 
Einfeldt, who left his “pet” gun home and had to shoot 
with a stranger. 
'Rifle 'Range and Gallery . 
Massachusetts Rifle Association. 
Walnut Hill, Mass., Sept. 25.—Fine weather favored 
the regular shoot of the Massachusetts Rifle Association, 
held on the Walnut Hill range to-day. Several of the 
military, shooting at the various ranges, made very good 
scores. Mr. A. Niedneq in the offhand match at 200yds.. 
scored 90 out of a possible 100, the best performance of 
tne day. Scores: 
Rest match, 200yds.: F. Daniels 103, M. Weeks 94. 
Offhand match, 200yds.: A. Niedner 90, L. Lewis 81, 
E. C. Fitz 81, M. Darling 80, C. Coburn 80, 73; I. 
Smith 73, 72; M. Weeks 71, 70; D. Jones 66, 66. 65. 
All-comers’ practice match, 200yds., offhand: L. Lewis 
SO, M. Weeks 79, S. Merrill 70. 
Manhattan Rifle and Revolver Association. 
Kew York, Sept. 23.—At 2628 Broadway the following 
scores were made: 
Revolver, 20yds.: A. M. Poindexter 90. 88, 87, 87, 85, 81; 
W Hays 86, 86, 83, 82; T. R. Ryder 90. 88 , 87, 85 , 83; 
Dr. R. H. Sayre, 92, 87, 87, 84: C. W. Greene, 89, 86, 86, 
5J..W. Heim. 81. 80: G. Grenzer, 92, 90, 84, 80; J. E. 
bilhman, 88, 86, 84, S3. 
Jos. E. Silliman, Treas. 
PUBLISHERS’ DEPARTMENT. 
The sportsman’s footgear is one of the things that 
either makes or mars the hunting trip. The best is the 
only thing that will do. The Wm. N. Gokey Co., for a 
good many years have manufactured boots and mocca¬ 
sins that stand the test of actual use in the woods. 
METHODS OF TIGER SHOOTING. 
Wherever sportsmen of tiger-shooting pro¬ 
clivities are gathered together, there will one 
hear expressed a variety of opinions as to the 
best, the most enjoyable, or the most sports¬ 
manlike way of tackling tigers. Compare, too, 
the pages written on the subject by the great 
hunters whose names are bywords among 
sportsmen; each advocates his own methods 
and extols their advantages. In the good old 
pre-mutiny days, before stringent game laws 
became necessary, and when the ubiquitous 
tripper sportsman was still unknown, India was 
indeed a paradise for the big game hunter. 
Who can read the quaint tales of the “Old 
Forest Ranger” without a sensation that the 
scenes depicted therein took place in an India 
which we know not? Take the Doctor’s 
favorite after-dinner story, for instance, “The 
daft-like tiger hunt, wi’ they twa wild birkies, 
at the falls of the Canvery.” A tiger had been 
shot at and missed, and made off to a deep 
ravine, where he lay up, being watched by a 
villager from a convenient tree. Meanwhile, 
arrangements were made to catch the tiger in 
a net, bag him like a rabbit, and then spear 
him on foot—“a sport,” remarks the Captain, 
“which is practiced constantly in some parts of 
India; the most exciting style of sport you 
have yet seen.” We can quite believe it. The 
story, says the London Field, goes on to show 
how the huge nets were hung across every 
outlet by which it was possible for an animal to 
escape; the hunters, lying in ambush at a short 
distance, armed only with spears, are in readi¬ 
ness to rush in and despatch him before lie can 
extricate himself from the meshes in which he 
is entangled. The cries of the beaters and the 
clatter of tomtoms at the far end of the ravine 
rouse the tiger from his lair, and on approach¬ 
ing one of the nets he suddenly stops, having 
observed the obstacle. The sportsman im¬ 
mediately leaves his place of concealment, and 
advances, with his spear point lowered, toward 
the net. The tiger, with eyes glowing, ears 
laid back, and hair bristling, utters a tremend¬ 
ous roar, and hurls himself at his adversary, 
becoming hopelessly entangled in the compli¬ 
cated mass of network. Then follows a de¬ 
scription of how Charles went to work with the 
spear, how the spear shaft broke, and Charles 
belabored the monster with the butt end. (Ye 
gods! as well set about an elephant with a 
cutting whip!) And then at last, as the tiger 
is on the point of freeing himself from the toils, 
he is given his quietus with a charge of buck¬ 
shot. It was considered unsportsmanlike to 
use a rifle in the first instance, as the tiger 
would have no chance in the unequal contest. 
The “Old Forest Ranger,” in his own vivid 
language, makes a fine story of it, and who 
shall say that he drew the long-bow? Tiger 
netting was practiced till a much later date in 
Southern India, and may be still for all I know; 
but the usual procedure was to have a dozen 
or twenty men hidden near the net, armed with 
good spears, with which to make short work 
of the tiger once he became enmeshed. 
But the greatest differences of opinion arise 
over the merits of driving tigers with beaters 
on the one hand and night watching on the 
other. Sanderson is the great advocate of 
night watching. “In a shady green machan in 
some fine tree, watching at the cool of the 
evening—that always bewitching hour in the 
Indian day—when jungle sounds alone break 
the stillness, and birds and animals seldom seen 
at other times steal forth and can be watched 
at leisure, while intense excitement is kept 
alive by the possibility of the tiger’s appear¬ 
ance at any moment, I have often wondered 
how any one can consider being perched upon 
a tree under a blazing sun while a tiger is 
being driven toward him sport, and use the 
term poaching in reference to this. How many 
men have killed their forty or fifty tigers who 
have never succeeded in bagging one by watch¬ 
ing—the fair outwitting of the subtle beast on 
his own ground? Give him who prefers the 
horn and tomtom system his diabolical appli¬ 
ances, his calorific post; but the solitary watch 
in the hushed hours of the evening for the lover 
of nature, for him who can feel the true ro¬ 
mance and poetry of solitude in the jungles.” 
Well, yes; he is right in what he claims for 
night watching. The silent, solitary vigil, the 
weird hush that broods over the jungle, the oc¬ 
casional stealthy tread of some unseen animal, 
all are fascinating to one in tune with his sur¬ 
roundings. And then, of course, a tiger may 
come! But, oh, the long, weary hours I have 
spent at this same night watching, when needles 
and pins numbed my legs, and my back from 
sitting for so long in a cramped position; when 
the tiger or the panther would not come, and I 
longed for my camp bed and mosquito net, and 
a sound sleep a belle etoile. Personally, I have 
never been fortunate when night watching. It 
may have been my own fault, the result of in¬ 
complete arrangements—what you will. But I 
never want to do it again. Our actions, per¬ 
haps, are the necessary outcome of the circum¬ 
stances in which we are placed. On my first 
arrival in India it was impressed on me thar 
sitting up or night watching was poor sport. 
I was initiated into the art of beating by a 
pastmaster, and since then have had the good 
fortune to follow the game pretty regular under 
most favorable circumstances, and count it the 
premier sport of India. Poaching, you call it? 
Rubbish! It is an art to which a man may 
serve a lifetime apprenticeship, and still find 
that in practice he relies chiefly on his trusty 
shikari. As a friend of long experience and 
exceptional knowledge once remarked to me, “I 
realize that the most I can ever attain to in 
tiger beating is to be able to rouse tired 
shikaris and beaters to one last effort when 
success appears to be impossible, and when I 
can see just the faintest glimmer of a chance 
remaining.” The born shikari, with his keen 
sight and hearing, his unerring instinct, and a 
life spent in the jungle from learly childhood, 
must always be able to give points to the ama¬ 
teur white man. 
Consider for a moment a tiger beat from its 
genesis, and follow it through the finale. First 
there is the tracking in the jungle to locate the 
tiger and discover his daily movements. A 
thorough knowledge of the whole topography 
of the country is necessary. You must know 
the windings of nullahs and streams, and where 
paths lead to, what is the tiger’s probable run, 
and then you will be able to decide where the 
guns should be placed—that is, if you have 
knowledge and judgment. I have known a line 
of seven o.r eight guns placed so as to cover 
what appeared to be every possible line the 
tiger could take, and yet the cunning brute got 
through unseen. Placing the stops, marshalling 
the long line of beaters, directing them during 
the advance through heavy jungle and dense 
:> 
13 
mi- %im 
