104 
FOREST AND STREAM 
a terrible lot of thinking. One of us at 
least would have fired at him if only one 
knew where his body was. It might be to 
the right of the left. As soon as he made 
a movement we could tell, and he would 
be peppered for fair. 
I T was more than probable that the bull, 
though he evidently could not see us 
distinctly, would notice any slightest 
movement, and not one of us dared even 
to turn his head with a view to an in¬ 
quiring look at his neighbor. Oh, for a 
minute of conference. The sportsman 
shrunk from taking any initiative, and the 
two oldsters were frankly undecided as to 
the best action. And meanwhile it certain¬ 
ly was a case of watchful waiting raised 
to the nth power. Each one of us was 
calculating just where the bull’s neck and 
shoulders ought to be, constructing the 
beast body downward with only the given 
clue of those antler tips. The plan that 
suggested itself as the best to me was for 
each of us to aim at the point he thought 
would cover a vital part of the bull and 
shoot quickly. But we could not even pro¬ 
pose anything aloud, as a fraction of a 
second would see those tips disappear, to 
be followed by a tearing through the 
swamp of a fleeing, frightened bull moose. 
M EANWHILE the seconds ticked on 
into minutes—or so it seemed to me 
at least. Charlie told me afterwards 
that he felt a tickling in his throat, and 
that he never suffered more in his life than 
endeavoring to keep from coughing. At 
last the tenderfoot solved the question him¬ 
self, as I all along felt he was sure to do. 
Unable any longer to stand the strain on 
his nerves, he raised his rifle quickly, and 
without taking even a careful aim, he pulled 
the trigger and let forth through that quiet, 
peaceful swamp a bang out of his .405 that 
seemed verily to uproot the young maples! 
And where was the moose? Where? 
Why, right where he was before, standing 
stock still without a movement or a change 
of position! This extraordinary result of 
his bombshell, or rather complete lack of 
result, so unnerved the tenderfoot that with 
hand and arm now palpably trembling he 
banged away twice more in the general 
direction of the antler-tips, while the others 
of us rose to our feet in excitement. There 
was a sound of breaking brush this time, 
and then it seemed as if an express train 
were tearing through that swamp. 
That’s all. We found the trail all right. 
A blind baby could have found it. In one 
minute it was as if a moose had never 
been anywhere near that swamp, so far as 
sound was concerned. We saw that the 
bull had been standing almost broadside 
on, and we dispute yet whether, if we had 
fired as he stood concealed, we would have 
downed him or not. That the bull had 
not moved after the first shot did not sur¬ 
prise an old moose-hunter so much, as 
we knew that sound unaccompanied by 
scent or sight is frequently not enough to 
put a moose to instant flight, and we came 
to the conclusion that the second or third 
shot had probably hit his antler or ear. 
At any rate he and his family had gone 
away from there. 
SHOT GUN GAUGES 
THE CARRYING POWER OF DIFFERENT 
SIZES AND THE EFFECT OF THE BORE 
I N this country and in England, when a 
man wants a smaller shotgun than a 
12, his thoughts turn to a 20 rather than 
a 16 bore. Some English gunmaker has 
stated thaKhe sells five hundred 12 bores 
to one 16, and five 16s to one 20. On the 
continent of Europe, 16 is the standard. 
When the bore is not mentioned, 16 is un¬ 
derstood. Twelve is used for trapshooting, 
and sea-fowl; 16 for the bulk of the shoot¬ 
ing, which is field shooting at hares and 
partridges, with a little woodcock, snipe 
and pheasant shooting on the side. 
The German hare and partridge gun is 
a 16 bore, 29-inch barrels, 6 % pounds. The 
charge is 1 1-16 ounces of No. 3 and No. 
7 shot and dense flake powder loaded in 
a shell with a shoulder, so as to seat the 
wad with an air space over the powder. 
This shell every gunsmith in Germany 
whom I consulted advised me to use. They 
all wanted to know whether I would use 
it, in order to bore the gun to the pattern 
I wanted. This cartridge is the most popu¬ 
lar one in Germany. It is the only one 
with more than one ounce of shot. All 
the others are loaded with one ounce as 
standard and % ounce as a light load. 
T HE idea I got from German author¬ 
ities on the choice of a bore was that 
it depended altogether on the weight 
of shot to be used. For one ounce light 
load, iVs medium and 1 x k heavy, they ad¬ 
vised me to get a 12 bore. For %, % and 
1 ounce they advised a 16, and for %, % 
and %, a 20 bore. With fine shot the 
weights were somewhat less. The powder 
charge was not held to be a separate fac¬ 
tor: it was always adjusted to the weight 
(and size) of shot to give the maximum 
velocity consistent with a regular and even 
pattern. The weight of the gun, I was 
told, should not influence the choice of 
By W. S. DAVENPORT. 
bore, because a gun could be made as light 
as desired in any bore. 
For one ounce of shot as a standard load, 
according to this view, the 16 and 12 are 
equally good. The choice will depend upon 
the second load one will use, whether over 
or under an ounce. For % of an ounce the 
same thing applies to the choice of 20 or 
16 bore. 
T HIS is a convenient way to decide on 
the bore. It offers something definite 
to go on. In England the 16 bore 
has fallen from its former one ounce to 
% as a full load and % as a standard 
light load. The weight of the English 
16 bore is half a pound less than the Ger¬ 
man, 6 x /4 pounds being the average with 
28-inch barrels: 28 inches, according to an 
English authority, is as long as is neces¬ 
sary to get the best possible pattern and 
penetration. Anything over that length 
of barrel helps the pointing of a gun but 
not the pattern. 
A 28-inch 16 bore is a neat looking gun. 
The general proportions are well balanced. 
I asked a London gunsmith who showed 
me a 28-inch 16 bore gun how long the 
barrels were, and he could not tell without 
measuring them. In a 12 there would have 
been no doubt. I ordered a heavy 16 of 
6 pounds 10 ounces. Later I was shown 
the gun “in white” for any changes to be 
made before finishing it. His brother hap¬ 
pened to show me the gun, and he talked 
about it a quarter of an hour without no¬ 
ticing that it was not a 12. This was be¬ 
cause it was so solidly made, with thick 
barrels at the breech. An equally stout 
12 bore would have been a clumsier weapon. 
A heavy load of % ounce of shot in a 
20 bore increases the friction through the 
long column of shot. The pattern is apt 
to be less regular from interference of the 
shot pellets. There is no good reason for 
the combination. A gun must have a cer¬ 
tain weight to match the recoil, and this 
weight is large enough to give one a solid 
gun in the proper bore for the column of 
shot. 
T HE English go to the other extreme. 
They are using lighter loads than 
they used to. One ounce of shot is 
now quite common for field shooting. They 
still stick to the 12 for this load in a gun 
so light that the weight could be better 
utilized in a 16. Also the balance could be 
better regulated in the smaller bore. 
The two extremes of a very light 12 
bore with one ounce of shot and a heavy 
20 with % ounce are the fashion at present. 
The medium weight and bore of a 16 seem 
to be more rational. It ought to be a bet¬ 
ter gun than either of them, made with 
28 or 29-inch barrels and a weight from 
6 % to 6 % pounds, according to the weight 
of shot between % and one ounce. 
T HE bore of a gun is said to have no 
effect upon the pattern and penetra*- 
tion except through the weight of shot. 
The full-choked 12 kills farther than the 
20 because the shot-charge is larger. If 
we shoot best with a 12 not full-choked, 
(Continued on page 133.) 
