FOREST AND STREAM 
ing, with each waking hour down through 
the years there has been a persistent and 
accelerated recognition of the fact that a 
revolver to be safe must be the very best 
money can buy and that it must be more 
carefully used both when fired and when 
cleaned than any arm. To obtain the 
greatest pleasure the revolver purchaser 
should buy the best and whether it be the 
one or the other of the famous makes he 
will never be sorry. Silver or gold plat¬ 
ing, ivory, pearl or rubber stocks are not 
to be desired and though beautiful to look 
at they are hard to keep clean and the 
stocks are slippery. Checkered walnut 
stocks, whether they add or detract from 
the revolver’s appearance, certainly feel 
dry and stick to the palm of the hand. To 
many there is no finish more beautiful 
than the smooth blued finish. Engraved 
and plated weapons are usually sold for 
trophies or gifts. 
O NCE we become possessed of a re¬ 
volver we have incurred the respon¬ 
sibility of taking care of it. It is 
the very first thing to know about it 
whether we know how to manipulate it 
or not for it will not function without be¬ 
ing clean. The rifled barrel will come in 
for attention first and if the bull’s-eye ar¬ 
tist has used old-fashioned black powder it 
will be well to put on overalls and a pair 
of mittens before he lays hands on the' 
blackened thing before him. If he has used 
Lesmok powder he may lay aside the over¬ 
alls and if smokeless powder he -may sub¬ 
stitute the white kid gloves he was married 
in for the mittens—this is about the dif¬ 
ference between the powder residues. 
Chemically speaking, black powder residue 
is carbon, potassium carbonate and potas¬ 
sium sulphides; Lesmok, since it has a 
high per cent, of black, probably leaves 
potassium nitrate; smokeless leaves nitro¬ 
cellulose, cellulose, potassium or barium 
carbonates and solvents such as amyl ace¬ 
tate. The residue from black and Lesmok 
powders cleans out as easily as cream 
cheese—would that it were the same color. 
The residue from smokeless, on the other 
hand, clings to steel as tenaciously as 
quicksilver to gold. In spite of this we are 
living in the 20th century and smokeless 
is the powder to use, its many advantages 
overbalancing its one disadvantage. It 
makes no difference whether the residue 
left by any of the powders is acid or 
alkaline, a nitro solvent is the medicine to 
use. As we shall want to use smokeless 
powder, only the method of cleaning out its 
residue need be given, ,and it is as follows: 
Clean out the almost infinitesimal ash from 
barrel and from chambers of the cylinder 
with a flannel swab on a wooden rod; 
scrub the bore with a brass brush—on a 
rod with revolving handle—which has been 
dipped in a nitro solvent; do the same with 
the chambers but with another brush al¬ 
ways used for this purpose and which bites 
better for not having been used in the 
rifled barrel; polish bore and chambers 
with flannel swabs on wooden rod till they 
come out white and anoint liberally with 
nitro solvent; scrub the muzzle end of the 
cylinder, the angle where barrel enters 
frame and the angle where hammer enters 
frame with rag wet with the solvent and 
wipe the whole arm with a rag moistened 
with solvent. The solvent is not a lubri¬ 
cant and all wearing parts such as lock, 
cylinder bearing, ejector, crane hinge, etc., 
must be occasionally lubricated with a thin 
oil. In the case of smokeless powder the 
arm must be cleaned again the following 
day and as the fouling sticks like sin the 
target artist will be lucky indeed if he 
can free the cylinder muzzle from all 
traces of powder “plating,” and he may be 
minded of the fact that there is no pleas¬ 
ure without some pain as the monkey said 
when he cuffed the hedgehog. 
(Continued in March number.) 
THE BOW OF YEW 
IN THE HANDS OF EXPERTS IT BRINGS 
DOWN BIG GAME LIKE A RIFLE 
E VER since Ishi, the California Indian, 
started us on our archery career, three 
years ago, it has been an ambition to 
hunt big game with the bow. 
The Thompsons have given us a fine 
picture of what can be done with this an¬ 
cient and honorable weapon, but one’s own 
experience is much more satisfactory than 
' reading. 
Ishi was an unspoiled Indian, whose 
methods of living were those of the pre- 
Colombian times. Killing game with the 
bow and arrow was his business. 
We went together on many small hunt¬ 
ing excursions and upon two rather ex¬ 
tended trips into the mountains. 
His weapon was a four foot yew bow, 
backed with sinew, pulling about 45 pounds, 
and shooting about 200 yards. His arrows 
were of hazel, 29 inches long, tipped with 
obsidian. 
We shoot six foot yew bows, pulling 
from 50 to 80 pounds, having a cast of 250 
to 300 yards. Our arrows are made of 
birch 11-32 of an inch in diameter, 28 
inches long, having steel heads 1V2 inches 
long by one inch broad. These heads are 
kept very sharp by filing. 
Fifteen to twenty arrows are carried in 
a quiver and on a prolonged trip we take 
about sixty shafts with us. Many of these 
are shot repeatedly. 
Those who have taken up the game here¬ 
abouts are Dr. J. V. Cooke, W. J. Compton, 
Arthur Young and myself. Ishi has left 
By Robin Hood II. 
us to go to the Happy Hunting Grounds. 
Messrs. Comptcn and Young are expert 
rifle shots. They now prefer the bow to 
the gun because it seems better sport to 
them. 
Ishi could call small game to him and 
shoot it at convenient distances. I did not 
believe him when he told me this. But 
upon one of our hunts he demonstrated his 
ability. Selecting suitable ground and hid¬ 
ing behind a bush, he placed two fingers to 
his lips and by a strong kissing action, pro¬ 
duced a series of squeaks resembling the 
cry of a rabbit in distress. 
Within a minute a jack rabbit ran out 
of the brush 90 yards distant and alternately 
listening and advancing, came within ten 
yards. At the same moment a wild cat 
emerged from the woods and cautiously 
approached within sixty yards, where he 
sat on a log and let us discharge five ar¬ 
rows at him, not moving till the last grazed 
him between the ears. 
Twelve times during the day Ishi repeat¬ 
ed this performance, and upon five occa¬ 
sions animals came to his call. Rabbits, 
tree squirrels, coyotes, wild cats and bear, 
all responded to it. The first two came to 
offer aid to the supposedly injured victim, 
while the predatory animals wish to share 
in the feast. 
Ishi was a very accurate shot up to forty 
yards. He could hit quail, squirrels and 
rabbits with great certainty, at short ranges. 
Mr. Young is also a crack shot in this 
line. In one afternoon -he killed seventeen 
ground squirrels with his bow—this is good 
shooting even with a rifle. 
An arrow generally kills fly hemorrhage, 
or not at all. They have no shocking force, 
since their velocity is not over 120 feet 
per second. In shooting small game, we 
generally use blunt arrows. 
A quail may be transfixed with one of 
these missiles yet fly till the brush holds 
him from further progress. Sometimes 
death is instantaneous. Compton shot 
thirty or forty rabbits during this past 
season, and the majority of these were head 
shots, with instantaneous death. 
Several ’coons he killed in the same way. 
One shaft entered just above the tail and 
made its exit through the cranium. Alto¬ 
gether we have shot five deer with the bow. 
These we have hit at distances from 
30 to 120 yards. In approaching this game 
we have used the Indian methods of still 
hunting. In one instance we stood in a 
little clearing and shot as many as six 
arrows at an old buck, and had him watch 
us with mere curiosity. It seemed to think 
the arrow was a mysterious bird. If the 
hunter is deliberate in his actions, avoiding 
movement of his legs, the deer takes no 
alarm. 
In the past season Compton and I each 
secured as many as twenty shots at deer. 
Some of these were at hopelessly long 
range, and we only let drive to watch the 
(Continued on Page 88) 
