FOREST AND STREAM 
41 
Forest and Stream is an Honorary Member of the Interstate Association for the Promotion of Trapshooting. 
(Edited by Fred. P. Copeland.) 
THE FIT OF THE SHOTGUN. 
A MONG those good old, hard-worked 
sayings is the one: “As the twig is 
bent, the tree is inclined,’’ which, in 
shot gun phraseology may well take the 
form of: As the stock is bent, the master 
eye is forced. This coined parallelism may 
bring a direct meaning to you if you are 
not new timber in the art of shooting, but 
have grown up with a gun and will allow 
yourself to exchange places with the char¬ 
acter “Sam” in the following narrative. 
Before Sam was graduated from short 
trousers he owned free from encumbrance 
a double barreled hammerless shot gun. 
It was the climax, the coup de main, of a 
long series of trades starting with a muzzle 
loader, several single barrel shot guns and 
a rifle. The last single, the rifle and three 
dollars formed the triumvirate which won 
the hammerless from its owner. This 
owner may have been one of many who 
had handled the old gun for it was then 
thirteen years old. 
Although it had been sadly neglected in 
some, if not all of its years, its locks were 
bright and its famous American make had 
soundly insured its tightness of fit. That 
the locks were bright had been discovered 
one Sunday after Sam’s purchase when 
from eight in the morning till eight in the 
evening he strove frantically to assemble 
the locks which had been taken down to 
the last screw. There were times during 
the day when five cents would have seemed 
a big price for the table full of odd looking 
objects before him but at last it was to¬ 
gether and at any time during the last fif¬ 
teen years to whittle out duplicate locks 
in the night would have needed but a soft 
piece of pine and a jack knife. 
As money came to hand it travelled with 
the gun back to the factory till the gun 
was in fine shape; rebored, wood inserted 
at the toe of the stock where a generous 
piece was missing, the screws marred by 
his early experiment had been renewed and 
certainly no one owned a more honest gun. 
Its eight pound weight solidly certified to 
this and, although Sam weighed not more 
than a dozen times this himself, it was a 
pleasure to carry it lovingly from daylight 
to dark. Always murderous at game “sit¬ 
ting,” it soon began to take toll from part¬ 
ridges going at express speed. 
There came a time when the old gun and 
Sam made regular visits to the gun club. 
Here it performed nobly, even threatened 
the 80 per cent, mark once or twice to the 
surprise of other members who were striv¬ 
ing for the same end. Sam’s success was 
due to an accidental discovery. The gun 
had a 3%-inch drop, not far different 
from all the guns in use at the club. In 
shooting on a certain day Sam flinched, 
the heavy barrels lifted in sympathy, the 
(Continued on page 42.) 
Is Your Brother A Shooter? 
Give him a Christmas token that will last—one that will 
recall memories of the giver long after the holidays are 
past. Surprise him. Give him a 
HAND TRAP 
The Du Pont Hand Trap is a gift that every man and 
every shooter will appreciate. It’s a real machine hand 
operated and simple that throws all kinds of targets— 
high, low, fast, slow—from 25 to 75 yards —the choice is up t 
you. The machine, not your arm, does the work. Great sporo 
and fine shooting practice for both beginners and expe its 
Costs $4.00 at your sporting goods dealer’s. 
If he can’t supply you we will send it direct 
postpaid anywhere in the United States on 
receipt of price. 
Write for Hand Trap Booklet No. 3 
E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. 
WILMINGTOM DELAWARE 
The most discriminating gun users in America shoot guns made by 
PARKER BROS., 
