416 
passed clear through it, and one shot was found 
in the body. Since then I have seen possibly 
several hundred instances of the kind and al¬ 
ways with chilled shot. 
Only last fall the dogs were on point in a 
cornfield, and I missed as I supposed right and 
left. I reloaded and caught one bird as he was 
trying to follow his mates which had pitched 
into a thicket of sassafras and persimmon. Fol¬ 
lowing them up two dead were found. I had 
been using chilled shot. While all the shot that 
hit them had not gone through these birds, they 
had penetrated the flesh far and had not flat¬ 
tened. This same day, after visitors had been 
shooting there the day previous, I found four¬ 
teen dead quail in different fields, generally 
close to a thicket, as if they had made a hard 
fight to reach this cover but had not had strength 
enough to gain it. Each body contained chilled 
shot except one that had five holes clear through 
it. The sportsman possibly were not to blame, 
and in all likelihood credited themselves with 
misses or feathered birds. 
While I would not take upon myself the task 
of entirely condemning chilled shot, I am satis¬ 
fied that each year in our section at least, a 
thousand quail are lost in this manner, never to 
benefit any one. At other times chilled shot ap¬ 
pears to stop the birds instantly. There is a 
chance that a proportion of pellets are harder 
than others. 
Another cause of cripples is the open bore gun. 
Too many are tempted to try out-of-range shots 
with it. It certainly fits in its place nicely, but 
the temptation to make long shots in open shoot¬ 
ing often results in cripples that are not found; 
or else the judgment of distance is bad. 
Anyway, no sportsman should try to make too 
long shots with an open gun. I have noticed in 
taking visitors hunting, that there are more 
cripples from the open bore than the choke 
bored gun. The latter seems to be more of a 
case of miss or kill. Loch Laddie. 
New Jersey Bills Introduced. 
The Trenton Evening Times of March 6 says 
editorially: 
“Assemblyman Colgate has introduced an¬ 
other game bill, which proposes to divide the 
State into two districts, with an open season in 
the northern district for duck, between Oct. i 
and Dec. 31, and for quail, partridge, woodcock, 
rabbits and squirrel from Oct. 15 to Dec. 1; 
while in the southern district the open seasons 
are to be between Nov. 1 and March 1, and be¬ 
tween Nov. 1 and Dec. 25. This plan was 
tried a few years ago, and soon abandoned. It 
was found that the game was being more 
rapidly extinguished in both sections than under 
the old law of one season for the whole State. 
What New Jersey needs badly is a closed sea¬ 
son for five or ten years.” 
The hot discussion over the present bad game 
laws of New Jersey is inducing many sports¬ 
men and papers to take the ground that all 
shooting should cease until the supply of game 
has an opportunity to increase. Something of 
this kind we may see before long if spring 
shooting continues. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
About Guns. 
Pittston, Pa., Feb. 13. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your February 1st issue I read with 
pleasure the talk Uncle Dan gave us about guns. 
Uncle Dan mentions that he does not claim to 
know it all, which gives me a chance to tell him 
something that he does not know, or if he does 
know he forgot to mention it. 
Uncle Dan claims he has been shooting 10, 
12 and 16 gauge guns on ducks for sixty years, 
and twelve years ago he kept two guns for his 
own shooting, one a 10-gauge, 10 lbs., 32-inch 
barrels, for ducks, and a 12-gauge, 27-inch bar¬ 
rels, 7 lbs., for quail and rabbits. He claims these 
guns were as good as the best for the work he used 
them for, but he sold them and sent for two 
others which he knew nothing about except by 
hearsay, one a big 10-gauge, and a 7-lb., 27-inch, 
12-gauge. On receipt of these guns he targeted 
them and was amazed to find that the little 12- 
gauge could shoot all day with the big one. That 
was the time he should have put his thinking 
cap on. When he was looking for a big gun 
that would outshoot a little one, why did he not 
order a 12-gauge, 10 lbs., 32-inch barrels, cham¬ 
bered to take a 3 or 3*4 inch shell and load it 
with 2V2 or 3^4 drams of bulk smokeless powder 
wadded with 10-gauge wads. Then he would 
soon have seen that he was getting something in 
the way of a shooting iron that would make 
some if not all of the little guns sit up and listen; 
provided the 12-gauge, 10-lb. gun was an honest 
full choke and bored right for good penetration. 
Again Uncle Dan claims that the 16-gauge was 
only good for' quail and rabbits or small birds. 
Once I had a 16-gauge, 30-inch barrel, 8j£-lb. 
gun with a 3-inch chamber. My load for it was 
314 drams of good bulk smokeless and 1 l /i oz. 
shot. The way that little-big gun could shoot 
would make them all think some; why, jmu could 
stand 33 or 35 yards rise on live pigeons with 
that gun, and when you held right the pigeon 
would die an easy death. It was also one of the 
best duck guns I ever saw. 
Another gun I once had was a 12-gauge, 10- 
lb. 30-inch single barrel; just think, a 12-gauge 
single barrel gun that weighed 10 lbs. My load 
was 4^4 drams of the best bulk smokeless powder 
and 1J 4 02 • of shot. The gun was full choke in 
every sense of the word. Could it kill ducks? 
Well, they were yours if you held right. 
I hope Uncle Dan will write again on the gun 
subject. Perhaps he knows a whole lot that he 
did not tell us the last time. Uncle Billy. 
Reclaiming Wet Matches. 
Jamestown, N. Y., Feb. 8 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In a recent issue of Forest and 
Stream I noticed some interesting suggestions 
for the treatment of damp matches. Personally 
I have never had much success in reclaiming 
matches that have been subjected to a protracted 
soaking, but those which have been in the water 
only a shot time can be easily dried in a few 
moments by the aid of centrifugal force. The 
sportsman who has the misfortune to fall into 
the “drink” and wet his matches should bear 
this fact in mind and thereby possibly save him¬ 
self much discomfort. The matches should be 
at once subjected to the following treatment. 
First, cut a piece from your fish line about two 
and one-half feet long. If you have not a fish 
line, shoe laces or narrow strips torn from your 
[March 14, 1908. 
bandanna will answer the purpose. At about 
six inches from the end of your string tie a 
small weig‘ht, say for instance an empty rifle 
shell, a key or a pebble. To the short end of 
the string tie a small bunch of matches, criss¬ 
crossing them as much as possible to let the air 
circulate through them. Now take the string 
by the other end and whirl weight and matches 
rapidly until your arm aches. Rest a moment, 
try it again and repeat the operation several 
times. If you are persistent and vigorous 
enough your matches will soon dry to the igni¬ 
tion point. 
I have just proved this fact to some doubting 
brother sportsmen, throwing a dozen matches 
into a glass of water and leaving them there 
ten minutes by the watch. In less than ten 
minutes more I successfully lighted and burned 
all the matches but one by the above method. 
W. A. Bradshaw. 
New Publications. 
“The Pistol and Revolver,” by A. L. Himmel-' 
wright, recently from the press, is a compre¬ 
hensive work of 157 pages, covering the entire 
subject of pistol and revolver shooting, alike 
useful to the beginner or the experienced marks¬ 
man. It is amply illustrated for all practical 
■ requirements. The features illustrated are re¬ 
volvers, pistols, cartridges and bullets, sights, 
shooting positions, targets, pit, range equip¬ 
ments, correct methods of holding the revolver 
and positions of sights in aiming at the target, 
travel of the line of sight about the bullseye in 
aiming, etc. A brief mention of the contents 
will give a definite idea of the scope of the 
work as follows: Historical; arms military, 
target and pocket; rim- and central-fire car¬ 
tridges; sights, position; target shooting; re¬ 
volver practice for police and pistol shooting 
for ladies; clubs and ranges; hints to beginners; 
selection of arms; manipulation; position and 
aiming, target practice; cleansing and care of 
arms; reloading ammunition; primers, shells, 
bullets, powders, besides rules and regulations 
governing the annual championship matches of 
the United States Revolver Association, 
methods and customs followed in conducting 
matches, instructions to range officers and 
records of the association. Mr. Himmelwright, 
from practical experience in every phase of club 
practice and tournament competition, is fully 
equipped for the production of this excellent 
work. The volume is bound in three styles, 
paper, 60 cents; cloth, $1.00; full morocco, $1.50. 
In a short time Forest and Stream Publishing 
Company will bring out a small volume zvhich 
will contain the charming serial recently con¬ 
tributed to these columns by Mr. S. T. Ham¬ 
mond. The book will contain not far from one 
hundred and fifty pages, and zvill be illustrated 
by a number of engravings. All readers who 
enjoyed the serial as it appeared in the Forest 
and Stream are likely to desire this book in 
order to keep in permanent form these charming 
accounts of Nezv England shooting. Orders will 
be received for the book at any time.. It will be 
sent postpaid for the sum of $1.00. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
