

Stooling! 
T’S “‘stooling time” in the 
costal marshes and _in- 
land lakes and ponds. 
The favorite guns for 
the take 
their game from among _ the 
half-drowned rushes are long 
shooters who 
range guns, capable of de- 
livering a killing pattern at 
nearly twice the range of the 
-_— 
ordinary shotgun. 
In short, the new 
L. C. SMITH 
LONG RANGE GUN 
Shooting the new 3-inch shell. 
the 
season, these guns are making clean 
Every day during hunting 
kills at 80 yards—and giving rare 
satisfaction to their shooters, who 
can bring down birds at ranges that 
make other shooters hold their fire. 
If supremacy at the blinds means 
anything to you—and it must— 
join the ranks of successful shooters 
who are using L. C. Smith Guns. 
Your dealer ought to have them 
in stock. If not, write direct for 
Catalog L-319. 

HUNTER ARMS CO., Inc. 
FULTON, N.Y. 
Pacific Coast Representatives 
McDonald & Linforth 
Call Building San Francisco, Cal. 
Export Office 
50 Church St., New York City 


A good rail marsh. 
Rail Shooting 
Some Notes on a Quiet, but Interesting Sport 
By aalem tds 
canine element on the farm was 
down to zero a thriving rascal 
lifted seven of the turkeys one night. 
A poor, thin and no account setter, 
wholly untrained, was found and in- 
stalled. He was said to be of good 
Irish stock and was about two and one- 
half years old. “Prince” promptly set- 
tled down to his job, took on flesh and 
proceeded to find and hold his birds by 
himself. The writer at the time was 
engaged in engineering work in the 
upper part of New Jersey and was 
home only at intervals. A day or two 
of training was enough to teach him 
to retrieve at which he became adept. 
It was his chief pleasure to find and 
bring in the bird. 
The above is introductory to what I 
am going to write on. After several 
years of quail work, “Prince” was in- 
troduced to the rail bird of which there 
are always a few on the marshes at 
the head of the North Shrewsbury 
River. When the tide was right, low 
in the late afternoon, we would drive 
over to a neighbor’s farm, leave the 
horse in the shed and hunt till dark. 
The gun used was a light 16-gauge and 
the shells were hand loaded by the 
writer with three-quarter ounce of 
shot. It was not often that “Prince” 
failed to find the bird he got scent of 
nor to find and bring him in out of the 
reeds and cattails. He was one of the 
very few dogs I have shot over who 
would cross wide waters and then stop 
and wait for hand directions. The 
birds sometimes flew across the main 
streams and had to be looked for on 
the opposite side of the stream. The 
dog finally lost his eyesight and as no 
Sree twenty years ago when the 
\ J\ other dog was found to do this kind 
ATA 
In writing to Advertisers mention Forest and Stream. 
GRANT 
of work, there was a lapse in rail shoot- 
ing for several years. 
Learning of the Maurice river 
marshes, I made an initial trip there 
twelve or fourteen years ago. The big 
marsh between Mauricetown and Dor- 
chester was then in. Some tides there 
would be close to fifty guns on the 
marsh. There were some annoyances 
dodging No. 10 shot and fighting 
myriads of mosquitoes, but we always 
got a fair number of birds. Then came 
the dyking of the marsh to reclaim the 
wonderfully rich soil for agricultural 
purposes. Great crops of corn, toma- 
toes, strawberries, etc., are now grown 
there. 
The hotels were closed, the boats 
were sold or went to pieces and the 
pushers found other work. The crowd of 
gunners stayed away, but the writer 
has always kept it up, making from 
one to three trips a year, looking up 
the smaller marshes along the main 
stream or its branches and usually get- 
ting as many birds as formerly. 
1 ie is a peculiar charm to the 
sport, being pushed along the 
dykes covered with vegetable growth 
and radiant with flowers before the Oc- 
tober frosts, or crossing the meadows 
on the fast incoming tide among the 
cattail reeds, oat grass, yellow flowers 
and lily pads. A rail jumps now and 
then, sometimes several, at very short 
intervals, all flying in different direc- 
tions. The writer has had four down 
at once and all recovered. It is my 
rule not to shoot at a bird unless he 
can be marked down, as otherwise it 
is useless killing or a waste of time 
hunting the dead bird. 
My average bag is about twenty-five 
It will identify you. 
