twenty-two pistol, the average revolver 
or automatic pistol is just about as 
necessary to a trapper as varnish is 
to an old tin Elizabeth. The trapper 
has but two requirements in weapons 
—a rifle for killing big game and a .22 
for shooting small stuff for traps and 
the table. 
NLESS you are an expert you 
couldn’t hit a bear twenty steps 
distant with your heavy six-shooter or 
automatic pistol. You will be lucky to 
get that close to a bear so don’t worry 
about being attacked by one. Then 
there is always the comforting knowl- 
edge that it takes a mighty good bear 
to outrun a man when the latter is 
badly scared. As for shooting big game, 
such as deer or moose, with weapons 
of this sort I’d advise you not to waste 
your ammunition. Maybe this is tell- 
ing tales out of school but I can’t resist 
the opportunity: once my pard and I 
watched two Canadian Mounted Police 
shoot a box of revolver cartridges try- 
ing to pot a moose with their .388 Spe- 
cials, out of season at that; The net 
result of this incident was two badly 
chagrined police, two highly amused 
trappers and a still more highly 
amused moose! 
For the various double guns on the 
market we wouldn’t give a tinker’s 
hurrah—anything that is supposed to 
be an all-purpose article is a good thing 
to leave alone. Nor is there an all- 
around calibre in any special make of 
rifle; either it’s too small for big game 
or too big for small. And the idea of 
changing from one weight of bullet to 
another is certainly not practical for 
a hard-headed woodsman. When I take 
a rifle out into the woods I want to 
KNOW just how it shoots and this 
knowledge can only be assured when 
cne is using the same weight of a bul- 
let regularly. Most trappers are fairly 
good rifle shots but very few of them 
are experts for the simple reason they 
don’t practice enough. The writer has 
killed hundreds of dollars worth of fur- 
bearing animals and it wasn’t done 
with a rifle with which I hadn’t thor- 
oughly acquainted myself. 
HE requirements in a trapper’s big 
game rifle are simple enough that 
the choosing of one shouldn’t be diffi- 
cult. First, simplicity and strength 
are prime requisites. The action 
must be impervious to frost of the 
sixty-degrees-below-zero variety. Sec- 
ond, ample strength as to energy at 
shooting ranges and a fairly flat trajec- 
tory; the energy of course being in ac- 
cordance with the game sought. For 
moose we would recommend such cal- 
ibres as .30 U. S., .303 British, .300 Sav- 
age, .85 Winchester and the like. As 
to the make of rifle we will leave that 
to the individual choice. Some like bolt 
actions, some lever actions, some auto- 
matics and yet others prefer the slide 
actions. 
After a man has killed his winter’s 
meat in the fall there is no necessity 
of packing a large rifle with him all 
the time. A good .22 repeater, using 
the long rifle cartridge, is mighty 
handy for shooting rabbits and par- 
tridges. If a man has any degree of 
skill a long barreled pistol of the same 
calibre is a pretty good substitute for 
the rifle and is much handier to carry. 
The list of articles required for the 
trapline would be very incomplete with- 
out mention of clothing. This is a 
mighty important subject and the selec- 
tion of clothing should be given careful 
consideration. It is impossible for one 
to give a list of clothes that would 
prove suitable under every circum- 
stance that might arise; nor will the 
same kind or weight of garments serve 
equally well in totally different cli- 
mates. If one is in doubt as to what 
should be worn in a certain locality it 
is perhaps better to take as few clothes 
with one as will fill present needs, buy- 
ing the winter’s outfit after seeking ad- 
vice from residents of the district to 
be trapped. So you must consider these 
selections as for a given climate, prob- 
ably not wholly suited to your re- 
quirements. 
STARTING “from the ground up,” 
we will tackle the hardest individ- 
ual clothing problem of the trapper— 
footwear! In a pinch the trapper can 
wear most any old coat, depending upon 
bodily action to keep him warm, he 
can get along without a hat or cap in 
pretty cold weather, his trousers may 
be ragged and decidedly thin and some 
trappers even go without underwear but 
they ALL must have the right kind of 
feotwear or disaster will result. I 
knew a couple of Swede trappers in 
the Athabasca country one winter who 
were so stingy they decided to make 
all their moccasins of moosehide and 
stuff them with grass instead of wear- 
ing three pairs of woolen sox. With 
what result? Well, the younger of the 
two was caught out in a severe cold 
snap and froze both feet so badly he 
wasn’t able to get out on the trapline 
for the remainder of the season. 
Speaking from the angle of personal 
observation, more mishaps befall trap- 
pers of the colder regions because of 
neglect in the matter of footwear than 
through any other single cause. A few 
years ago the writer thought himself 
pretty well versed on the subject but 
more varied experience has taught me 
that we live and learn and as we do not 
live indefinitely, we never know it all. 
Generally a trapper working on the 
eastern slopes of the Rocky mountain 
ranges, north of 52 degrees, should 
wear moccasins during the cold weather 
period, but in addition he must have 
some sort of waterproof footwear for 
early fall and late spring. 
ND there are moccasins, mocassins 
and yet more moccasins! The Cree 
Indians make their footwear of moose- 
hide and although their tanning proc- 
ess leaves the hide spongy and not 
very good at resisting wear, their moc- 
casins are nevertheless the most satis- 
factory kind that can be procured. 
Most of the factory-made articles are 
highly unsatisfactory because the soles 
wear slick and become stiff and a man 
can break his neck if he isn’t pretty 
active on his feet. For this reason the 
stiff pacs are absolutely dangerous, for 
I have worn them when it was neces- 
sary to get down on my knees and crawl 
up a steep slope. The Cree product 
has a rough finish which never wears 
slick and the soles grip so well one can 
negotiate the glassiest ice without fear 
of mishap. 
The big drawback connected with the 
use of moosehide moccasins is their 
tendency to soak up all the water they 
come in contact with, being about as 
waterproof as a gunny sack. It must 
be understood, however, that snow of 
the north country is dry most of the 
time and a man could wade around in 
it wearing nothing but woolen socks, 
and still not get his feet wet. And 
there is no satisfactory substitute for 
moccasins. A teamster can bundle his 
feet up in great clumsy felt shoes or 
sheepskin-lined pacs but the trapper 
must wear snowshoes and bunglesome 
footwear will not be permitted. When 
it is bitterly cold his feet will freeze 
in rubber or hard leather shoes, so 
there you are. 
Nine out of ten tyro trappers will: 
go into the woods with one or more 
pairs of heavy lumbermen’s sox but 
there is a serious objection to the use 
of them. If you get them wet it takes 
a good heat several hours to dry them. 
Consequently the man who uses them is 
inclined to wear them half-dry—a seri- 
ous state of affairs. 
T is far better to use two or three 
pairs of medium weight woolen sox 
in lieu of the first-mentioned article. 
The writer found that one pair of wool- 
en sox and two pairs of moccasins, the 
latter not fitting too snug, made a warm 
and well-wearing combination. In all 
cases one should avoid wearing tight- 
fitting moccasins during cold weather 
for the least hampering of the circu- 
lation will give Jack Frost a chance 
(Continued on page 694) 
Page 648 
