FOREST AND STREAM 
133 
has never taken such a trip, how many 
things can be found to test your skill as 
a marksman, without even attempting to 
find any real game. You can nearly al¬ 
ways find some abandoned camp, or a 
place where some picnickers have eaten 
lunch, which will abound in empty bottles, 
cans, and other junk. When tossed in the 
air, or thrown into the current of a swift¬ 
ly running stream, these make targets fas¬ 
cinating and difficult enough to suit most 
any one. Then there is always a chance 
to find a snake dozing in the sunshine, or 
to catch a musk-rat napping, or to kill a 
few big fat bullfrogs. And the latter, in 
addition to requiring all of your skill to 
kill them outright so they will not be able 
to get in the water, will be found as tooth¬ 
some as any game that flies, runs or swims. 
By using hollow point bullets, a .22 au¬ 
tomatic or .22 W. R. F. is quite powerful 
enough for any game up to twenty-five 
-> pounds in weight. I have killed a great 
many woodchucks, or groundhogs, as they 
are generally called, at distances ranging 
from 100 to 125 yards and one at 220 yards, 
with a .22 automatic. 
Most any average marksman, with a lit¬ 
tle practice and experimenting, can soon 
learn to judge distances up to 100 yards. 
And he can learn to allow enough eleva¬ 
tion even without using adjustable sights, 
by holding above the mark to compensate 
for the trajectory. Thus he can make 
hawks, crows, etc., fall an easy prey to 
his skill. And one great advantage in 
hunting “varmints” instead of regular game 
is that most any farmer will gladly give 
you his permission to hunt them on his 
land, whereas if you had a shotgun and 
were hunting quail or other game, the 
chances are you would be chased off unless 
you happened to be one of his personal 
friends. 
Many people have only a half day off 
on Saturdays. If they like to shoot, it is 
an easy matter to get on a suburban car, 
ride to the end of the line, and still have 
several hours to ramble around with a small 
caliber rifle. Even if no live targets have 
been found, one returns, perhaps fatigued 
of body and muscle, but with a rested brain, 
quieted nerves, and an appetite that almost 
defies satisfying. 
I find that my experience is similar to 
that of many of my friends and acquaint¬ 
ances : they begin shooting by using a .22 
caliber, and go up the line until they have 
used everything in the way of a firearm 
but a cannon. When they tire of the hi- 
power guns, they return to the .22 for their 
pleasure, and get so much enjoyment out 
of it that they leave their heavy artillery 
at home in the closet, while they roam the 
woods and water courses with a kid’s gun 
on their shoulders, happy and at peace with 
the world. 
J. J- c. 
THE GAUGE OF SHOTGUNS. 
(Continued from page 104.) 
but half-choked left and improved cylinder 
right, then when we go over to a 16 or 20 
we at least have the choice of what we 
will give up. We can kill as far, with a 
smaller killing circle, by having the smaller 
bore more choked, or we can keep as large 
a killing circle and give up a few yards 
in range, by using finer shot with the same 
number of pellets in the smaller charge. 
Each bore has its proper charge. There is 
nothing gained in trying to shoot a 16 bore 
load out of a 20. On the contrary, recoil 
increases and also the irregularity of the 
pattern. 
Irregular pattern from shot to shot is 
the commonest fault of shotguns, accord¬ 
ing to the director of the Neumannswalde 
Experiment Station in Germany. Some 
gunsmiths can bore to a very even distri¬ 
bution of shot, but to get the same pattern 
of shot after shot is almost impossible. 
The trouble is said to be due either to the 
shape of the cone between the shell-cham¬ 
ber and barrel, or to the loading of the 
cartridge. A gun should be always shot 
with a shell of the same length as the shell- 
chamber, according to this gentleman. 
A Suhl gunsmith, famous for his boring 
of guns, told me that he could make me 
a gun with any desired closeness of pat¬ 
tern within reasonable limits, and with any 
proportion of the pattern in the 15 and 
30-inch circles. But I should have to 
choose between an even distribution of 
shot without gaps, and regularity of pat¬ 
tern from shot to shot. It sounded like 
nonsense, and as the extra charge for this 
fancy boring was $36 I did not order the 
gun. 
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