72 
Forest and Stream 
A New Kind of 
Wad that Makes 
a Better Shell 
T HE wadding in a shell has 
more bearing on shell effi¬ 
ciency than many shooters 
suppose. These new cork wads— 
Cork-Tex—promote shell accura¬ 
cy and preserve against moisture. 
Soft and resilient, yet strong, 
Cork-Tex Wads hold their form 
in the shell, and do not blow to 
pieces in firing. They minimize 
recoil, thus lessening nerve strain. 
They represent a new and im¬ 
portant ballistic development. 
Write for our free book,“Shell 
Certainty Through Ballistic Sci¬ 
ence,” covering these and other 
points of interest to every in¬ 
formed shooter. 
Bond Manufacturing Corporation 
513 Monroe.St. Wilmington, Delaware 
Note: We make the “Cork- 
Tex” wads for shell manu¬ 
facturers. We do not manu¬ 
facture shells—but factory 
loaded shells are available. 
If your dealer is not in posi¬ 
tion to supply you, send us 
his name and we will advise 
him how he may be 
supplied with “Cork- 
Tex” wadded shells. 
I shots without results I hooked a couple 
of small bass which I returned to the 
water. Just about then I got a fair 
strike and after the fish had taken off 
about fifty feet of line it turned and with 
very little assistance came for shore with 
the line just about taut. When he got 
within eye range I saw he was a carp, 
but it resembled most anything but that 
lowly fish and sure paddled some to get 
away. This fish only weighed about a 
pound and three-quarters and must have 
been hungry or mad. 
Now I am no champion of the carp 
as personally I don’t like their flavor, 
unless disguised with garlic, onions, etc., 
and they are not popular in these parts 
as food fish, but a larger fish of from 
8 to 15 pounds ought to put up a lively 
scrap on light tackle and would require 
a little tact on the fisherman’s part as 
they can give a pretty stiff pull and often 
will spring a light rod. 
Jos. Batt, Buffalo, New York. 
THE CHANCE OF A LIFETIME 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
I N the ancient days the Platte River in 
Nebraska was a great region for geese 
to stop, but forty years ago gunners 
became so many that most of the geese 
were driven away, and it is unusual to¬ 
day to get a shot at them. 
Early in December four of us were up 
on the Platte River looking for ducks. 
The stream was frozen over for the 
most part, and the few open channels 
running along the bank were full of 
slush ice. We had looked for birds in 
several spring holes and in a narrow 
spring-fed open lake near the river, and 
had seen only a few ducks, most of 
which were in the water along the south 
side of brush-covered islands seeking 
shelter from the north wind, which was 
carrying with it a fine mist that froze 
to everything it touched. 
After driving several miles up and 
down the islands looking for ducks, we 
left the car and walked toward the point 
of a rather heavily timbered island. 
Two of the four were following a nar¬ 
row channel which separated this island 
from the main land, one was following 
a smaller channel on the opposite side 
of the island, and I was hurrying toward 
the west point of the island where once 
or twice lately I had flushed a fine flock 
of mallards. The point is heavily tim¬ 
bered and I used much caution in trying 
to reach a position from which I could 
look over the water along the island and 
the whole north channel for half a mile 
to the west. 
When I reached a point where I could 
see, I turned to hurry back as fast as I 
could, that I might let the others know 
what I had discovered. At any moment 
one of them might fire a shot at a rabbit 
or a crow and disturb what I had seen 
sitting on the ice some 300 yards distant 
up the river, apparently not more than 
25 yards from the river’s bank. Here 
was a flock of Canada geese, 40 I 
thought at my first view, but a second 
look reduced the number to 15, of the 
biggest Canada geese I had ever seen. 
The pasture to the south of where they 
were sitting was level for a mile, with 
grass two feet high along the river bank. 
Everything was coated with ice and 
frost, and the air was full of mist, so 
that objects were difficult to make out, 
and it was hard to mark, to my satis¬ 
faction, the exact place we should try to 
reach to come directly behind the geese. 
I invited the rest of the party to follow 
me to the point where we could all see 
and calculate the precise spot we should 
try to reach, but the others remained be¬ 
hind discussing the best method of ap¬ 
proach and left me to do the observing. 
The only mark that I could use seemed 
to be the fence posts running along some 
10 feet back from the bank, and from a 
clump of brush near the bank I counted 
12 posts east. I did this several times 
in order to be sure that if we reached 
this point we would be exactly behind 
the flock and closer to a Canada goose 
than I had ever been before. 
Here was a chance of a lifetime, for 
these geese were sitting there on the ice 
unaware of the presence of anyone. In 
the party there were three Winchesters 
and one double-barrel gun, carrying in 
all 22 heavy goose loads. We were ap¬ 
proaching a flock of Canada geese, well 
bunched on the ice, not over 20 yards 
from the river bank, with every possi¬ 
bility for a successful approach behind 
the high grass along the bank. It is very 
unusual in my experience for a Canada 
goose to alight or remain for any length 
of time within gun range of the river 
bank. I have seen hundreds, perhaps 
thousands, of geese in the Platte River, 
but I have not seen, nor do I expect to 
see again, anything like what I saw that 
day. 
We drove back to the bridge over the 
river, crossed to the main island south 
of the geese and drove westward into 
the pasture about 400 yards south of the 
geese. When we left the car we took 
with us a pair of breast waders lest our 
hip boots should not be available, and 
then we started toward the twelfth post 
from the clump of brush on the bank. 
About 100 yards from the bank we left 
the boots, and two of the men dropped 
there their heavy coats, in order to pre¬ 
pare for action. We meant to get all 
of that bunch of Canadas that we could. 
We had a plan whereby each man should 
fire in such a way that our success 
should be as complete as possible. It 
proved that there were only eighteen 
geese in that flock, so that we had a few 
more shells than we actually needed. A 
single shot ought to be enough to account 
for a goose, and not long before this 
some of us had succeeded in getting 
down twelve mallards with twelve shots. 
Some of us, I think, wondered whether 
we could carry all these eighteen geese 
to the car. There were four of us and 
the geese weighed from twelve to thir¬ 
teen pounds a piece. We felt glad, too, 
that we were going to get them all, so 
that not one would be left to bewail the 
sad fate of its mate. 
We came up, as we should have done, 
behind the twelfth post; nothing was 
wrong with the approach, but when we 
got there we discovered that the geese 
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