FOREST AND STREAM 
* 'V 1 
160 
barrel not over 4 inches in length; five 
5-shot strings, each string to be completed 
in 30 seconds. 
Following are the present winners of 
these events: 
Match A. Dr. D. A. Atkinson, Pitts¬ 
burgh, 469 x 500, gold medal and cup. 
Match B. Geo. Armstrong, San Fran¬ 
cisco, 474 x 500, gold medal and cup. 
Match C. Dr. J. H. Snook, Columbus, 
627 x 700, gold medal and trophy. 
Match F. Dr. G. E. Cook, Maryland, 
208 ,x 250, gold medal. 
In 1892 Walter Winans, a noted revolver 
shot residing in England, offered as a 
trophy for a revolver match an American 
cowboy which he himself had executed in 
bronze. The match was conducted by For¬ 
est and Stream and the trophy, after being 
won several times, was finally awarded to 
Sergeant Petty, who successfully defended 
it for two years. 
Although the United States Revolver 
Association awards very attractive prizes 
in the national and State championships, it 
is safe to say that their “rating medals” 
are most eagerly sought for by the rank 
and file of revolver shooters who are un¬ 
able or do not feel skilful enough to com¬ 
pete in the large matches. To get at the 
rating medal question logically, let us sup¬ 
pose the revolver enthusiast has been pop¬ 
ping away at the i^-inch bull’s-eye, two 
rings inside and four outside, over a 12- 
yard range in his cellar. This is the most 
primitive layout that can be imagined, but 
it is perfectly legitimate and will be proper 
for real work when development of skill 
warrants it. 
O UR revolver artist has found that he 
is making an eighty per cent, target 
once in a while. Learning of the 
United States Revolver Association, he be¬ 
comes a member and at once finds among 
other things that he may obtain targets 
for his 12-yard range, which when shot 
before two witnesses who have inspected 
the conditions may make him the proud 
owner of, a beautiful trophy in token of 
his skill. The shooting must be done un¬ 
der artificial light. 
By “any” revolver is meant: a revolver 
of any caliber; maximum length of barrel 
including cylinder, 10 inches; minimum 
trigger pull, 2% pounds; sights may be 
adjustable but they must be strictly open, 
in front of the hammer and not over 10 
inches apart. The twelve yard targets are 
shot in pairs for a score of ten shots. The 
shooter need not make the eighty per cent, 
or better scores in sequence, but may ac¬ 
cumulate ten of them in his own good time, 
when he will become the possessor of a 
bronze medal. This is in the form of a 
little target with two tiny revolvers crossed 
above it, the whole surrounded by a wreath 
and mounted on a star-like medal, which 
is fastened by links to a bar bearing the 
letters “U.S.R.A.” This is the medal 
awarded in deliberate fire, ten shots in 
twelve minutes. 
But the shooter need net stop at eighty 
per cent., and as his scores rise above 
eighty per cent, the medal turns from 
bronze to silver, from silver to gold and 
finally when he can make 10 scores of 
ninety-seven per cent., a diamond sparkles 
on the golden medal. Scores above ninety 
per cent., however, have to be made on a 
regular range. 
I T may be that our shooter resides in a 
community recognized by the association 
as a “shooting center.” A “shooting cen¬ 
ter” may be formed when six or more 
men, living within a radius of twenty-five 
miles, form a club. The association will 
appoint one of the officers as governor, 
and to him will fall the duty of testing 
the trigger pulls on the contestants’ weap¬ 
ons, measuring the range, and performing 
similar routine duties. Usually a “shooting 
center” has a twenfy-yard range and will 
of necessity be indoors, since the shooting 
must be done under artificial light. Or it 
may take the form of the outdoor range, 
with fifty-yard span. The rating medal 
conditions apply in like manner to the 
twelve, twenty and fifty-yard targets, ex¬ 
cept that the fifty-yard is the daylight 
target. 
The uninitiated will watch a game of 
golf or a trapshooting tournament, or look 
with pitying eyes on the lonely bird hunter 
as the cover swallows him seemingly from 
the world, and they will reason with them¬ 
selves, wondering if Heaven really does 
work miracles for those who fling them¬ 
selves against the impossible. So it is 
in revolver shooting. The charm of the 
sport lays hold on the enthusiast like the 
pull of the woods did years ago, when the 
shadows were his first mysteries. The 
most trivial things about the sport seem 
large circumstances now, and never is he 
so happy as when in earnest conversation 
with a brother of the same school. With 
what care does he rehearse the matter of 
bullets, powders, priming, types of weap¬ 
ons, sights—anything pertaining to the 
field that has no horizon for him! With 
what joy does he note that the muzzle 
does not waver when at practice, with 
empty cartridge cases in the chambers, he 
snaps the hammer on a black sticker pasted 
on the window! For him there is keen 
pleasure even in laying his cleaned and 
well-oiled weapon beside its orderly row 
of accessories. 
Surely, the way of the sportsman passeth 
all understanding. 
A GAME PARADISE 
HOW PENNSYLVANIA’S CLAIM TO THAT 
DISTINCTION CAN BE RE-ESTABLISHED 
By HENRY W. SHOEMAKER. 
Part II. 
W HEN the first set¬ 
tlers came into 
Central Penn¬ 
sylvania the streams were 
so filled with trout that 
they caught them easily 
hands. The 
numbers of 
fish became 
reduced and 
the herons 
were fool¬ 
ishly blamed. 
'If a sick 
fish floats up 
to the sur¬ 
face the her¬ 
on will take it—thus preventing a pesti¬ 
lence among the healthy fish, but a heron 
will not wade into the water above his 
knees, and we all know that healthy trout 
do not linger in shallow, tepid water along 
shore. 
One of the last great heronries of the 
Great Blue Herons, in Forest County, was 
wiped out by bark peelers in 1911, who 
made a Sunday orgy out of the slaughter, 
claiming that they had killed the “arch-en¬ 
emies of the fish.” Pollution from tan¬ 
neries, paper mills, saw mills, dynamite 
works, and acid factories has sadly re¬ 
duced the number of fish in our larger 
streams. Once the Juniata, when it was 
the Blue Juniata, teemed with shad and 
other edible fish. Now only suckers and 
carp can survive. Even the salamanders 
or “river alligators” have been killed off 
by the vile poisons and filth. 
W HEN the shad ceased coming up 
John Penn’s Creek, the old-time 
fishermen ascribed it to the fishes’ 
antipathy to passing under bridges, where¬ 
as they were really deterred by the big 
dams below Harrisburg, and the sawdust 
from innumerable lumber mills along the 
stream. Today most of the mountain 
brooks in Pennsylvania have been fished 
out, or the trout destroyed by watersnakes 
or diseases, while the rivers are almost 
barren of fish due to pollution. Therefore 
William Penn’s expressed opinion that the 
lakes, rivers and streams of Penn’s Woods 
would furnish a cheap food supply for the 
poorer people has come to naught. It is 
folly to “plant” fish in rivers only to have 
them cruelly killed by foul poisons. 
Among other birds unjustly persecuted 
may be mentioned eagles, hawks and crows. 
Nature placed the eagles in the world to 
keep rabbits and similar creatures from be¬ 
coming too numerous in the mountainous 
districts, creating Wildcats for the same 
purpose,—without them few young trees 
would escape from being stripped of bark. 
Now hunters have reduced the rabbits to 
a minimum, have practically exterminated 
the big hares or “snowshoe” rabbits, conse¬ 
quently eagles and wildcats would never 
be prevalent enough to do harm to “civili¬ 
zation.” Reduce their food supply, and the 
predatory creatures will die out themselves. 
Hawks are among the most valuable of in¬ 
sect destroyers, and also prey on destruct¬ 
ive field mice, shrews, moles and rats. Owls 
do the same work and should be protected. 
The snowy owl, which summers at the 
North Pole, is a Pennsylvania visitor that 
deserves respectful treatment. The crow 
and the blackbird are foes of army worms 
and ants, and are among the farmers’ best 
friends. The raven, now very scarce in 
Pennsylvania, and the sacred bird of the 
Lenni Lenape Indians, is a foe of beetles 
and rno'tlA, which pests have very greatly 
increased in numbers since reckless hunt¬ 
ers slaughtered off the sable birds. 
(Continued on page 182.) 
