E H M I LL ER W ARR N . m E d it o r Field an d S t r ea . ‘ ’ THE B OYS B K or HUNTI N D F G OO G AN ISHIN , “ ” CAMP CRAFT, ETC .

H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1 91 7,

BY GEORGE E . DORAN COMPANY

24 I 9”

1 BY T F L ' COPYRIGHT, 19 1 1, 9 1 7, HE IE D AND STREAM PUB . CO

PRINTED I N THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

! cm4 8 05 6 8 PREFA CE

A C as Every merican itizen should be a good shot ,

forefathers were before us . That ability has been f strength during the short li e of the Republic , and reputation of being a nation of r iflemen will con tin ue to be our surest guarantee against foreign in

vas io n . , so long as each generation lives up to its duty ~

In this era of preparedness , I have not failed to put in a complete treatment of the military rifle, mili tary shooting positions , and the curriculum of the s onal Rifle As ociation, the more needful since information is n o t accessible to the general pub being for the most part contained in the Small s n d t Arms Manual , i sued only to the Army a Na ional ‘ ene r al sa le Guard and not on g . “ ” ’ Rifles and Shotguns is the gist of the author s experience dur ing many years of big game and e feathered game shooting. Setting all th ories and s general average methods aside , what the portsman needs is a system of rifle and shotgun shooting that will bring home the meat , and that will not crumple and fail in the tense excitement of the supreme mo m ent , that fleeting instant when your gunsights are trained on wild beast or bird making good his escape

” W ith every power at his command- and success or chagr in will depend upon the truenes s with which the e bullet is sped or the charg of shot placed . V vi PREFA CE

A n d for the hunter it must be realized that ut systems , designed to make target scorers o e general average of humanity, will not fit one fo r th n n or a crucial moment of big game shooti g, will tr p s hooting ever make a wing s h o t who can knock down

o - his bird with a swift snap in the thick brush . L ng th e experience , of the kind that must not fail to get

meat or else go hungry, as an alternative , has taught me what to discard and what to concentrate on in ’ making of one s self a successful big game or fe ath

ered game shot , The sights that will not fail you in the dense timber ; the method of gun po mtin g that loses no instant before connecting shot charge an d flying bird ; details of gun fitting that count for accu racy ; training that will prepare the novice so that he will not have to begin all over again when his p r o fi c ien cy is actually tested out on game ; these are set forth in this work so that the beginner can assimilate

them . M W A RREN H . ILLER.

n . 1 1 . Interlake , N . J , 9 7 FOUR CENTURIE S OF FIREARMS RIFLE MECHANICS R L IF E. SIGHTS

A BI G GA ME IMING AT . TRIGGER RE LEASE RIFLE TARGETS

TW O RI FLES FOR THE POOR MAN

THE 2 2 v R E . IFL

THE U . R S . MILITARY IFLE KNOW YOUR GUN THE MAN ’ S GAME OF TRAPSHOOTING

T E E CLAY BIRD . PRAC TC AFI LD SHOTGUN MECHANICS SNAP SHOOTING CARTRIDGES AND TABLES

L Edi r Field a d S tream H. o n W ARREN MIL ER, t E I . E N FI G . ARLY SCOPETTES AND PETRO ELS TYPES OF PERCUSSION CAP REPEATERS THE EARLIEST BREECH LOADING MUSQUETOON

LONG BARRELED SIEGE GUNS OF THE 1 7TH CENTURY

R E G G A G FI G. 2 . N AMPART SI GE UNS , REN DE U S M ULTI FI RE WE APONS

DOUB LE FIRE GUNS

’ O E L 86 ACTION F THE WINCHEST R, MODE

’ A E E L CTION OF THE WINCH STER , MOD 9 4

E ACTION OF THE . 3 5 CAL R MINGTON AUTOMATIC ACTION OF THE STEVENS SINGLE SHOT FA VORITE

’ A THE CTION OF WINCHESTER , MODEL 9 5 A REMINGTON . 3 5 CALIBRE UTOLOADING MARLIN REPEATING RIFLE

’ SAVAGE MODEL 9 9 4 2 V

’ “ T . U S . R F HE SPRINGFIELD MILITARY I LE, MODEL OF 03 4 6

T E - HE SAU R MAUSER 8MM . 4 6

HE T MANNLICHER 9 MM . SPORTING RIFLE

SIGHTS OF THE . 2 2 RIFLES AND ARMY BATTLE SIGHT

I G E G E F VORY, OLD B AD AND LOB RONT SIGHTS ANTELOPE TARGETS FOR CELLAR RANGE CAMP FIRE CLUB RISING BEAR TARGET X

FOLDING BA R' AND LEAF REAR SIGHT FOLDING PEE P SIGHT

THE U . S . GOVERNMENT CARTRIDGES

SHOW ING THE EFFE CTS OF CANTING THE RIFLE Fo x AND D EER CARTRIDGES To o FINE SIGHTING CARTRIDGES USED IN TW O RIFLES FOR THE POOR MAN CORRECT TARGET SIGHTING

’ E E E 86 R E G R TUB LA R WINCH ST R MOD L EP ATIN IFLE , MAGAZINE

’ E E RE E R B o x Z E WINCH ST R P ATING IFLE 9 5 , MAGA IN

A PARTY OF B EAR HUNTERS

I OO Y THE CAMP FIRE CLUB RISING BEAR . RANGE ARDS

’ THE AUTHOR S PENDULUM DE ER

’ THE WINCHE STE R MODEL 9 2

T - E HE SPRINGFIELD MAUS R , MM

THE SPRINGFIELD- MAUSER ALTERED To A SPORTING RIFLE

2 2 . RI . CAL FLES CAT RIFLES

TOP VIEW AND VE RTICAL SE CTION OF THE ACTION OF THE

, ARMY SPRINGFIE LD 1 2 2 V

T THE U . S . A STANDARD MILITARY ARGETS USED BY RMY, NATIONAL GUARD AND NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION PLAN FOR AN OUTDOOR RIFLE RANGE

TAKING OFF EXTRACTOR

TAKING OUT BOLT

TAKING STRIPES OFF FIRING PIN SLEEVE

UNSCREW ING SLEEVE NO AND THE CORRE SPONDING HITS ON

LOAD FULL CHOKED AT 4 0 YARDS

UM CHOKED RIGHT AT 30 YARDS 6 OFF CENTER

FULL CHOKED LEFT AT 4 0 YARDS

FULL CHOKE D LE FT AT 30 YARDS IN 2 4 CIRCLE

MOUNTAIN SHEE P TARGET AT 300 YARDS

SCE NE AT THE GRAND. AME RICAN HANDICAP TRAPSHOOT

THE TRAP PULLER AT WORK TRAPS OF THE ASBURY PARK GUN CLUB

THREE CLAY BIRD TRAPS SET B EHIND BOARD SCREEN

DOUBLE TARGETA UTOMA TIC CLAY BIRD TRAP

I NTERI OR OF TRAP HOUSE

2 A FINE I THACA 1 GA . SHOTGUN

- D E O NE 1 2 . THE L . C . SMITH TRIGGER OUBL GA SHOTGUN

PARKER I O AND 2 0 GAUGE D OUBLE GUNS

2 D E LE FEVER 1 GA . OUBL GUN

I REMINGTON REPEATING SHOTGUN

A HIGH GRADE SINGLE TRAPGUN

WINCHESTER REPE ATING SHOTGUN

ACTION OF THE LE FEVER SHOTGUNS

ACTION OF THE PARKER W ITH AUTOMATIC EJECTOR Y SHO OTING W ITH

FOU R CENTU RIES OF FIREA RM S

I N 19 07 it was my good fortune to be residing I n

France , and furthermore to be in close touch with the ’ é A r ill r HOt l Mus e d t e ie in the e des Invalides in Paris . m n n m t . . le Co d a L My good friend M a , , Hardie , then er mi s s i o n curator of the museum , gave me p , as an an d American author and sportsman, to photograph handle the firearms in that vast collection to my ’ heart s content, and I was not slow to take advantage of the opportunity . Perhaps the most complete bridge in the gap between the antique bo mbard and the mod — ern automa tic high - velocity rifle of to day 18 that col

n - 2 00 ff lectio of firearms in the Invalides , 5 di erent pieces , arranged in five great halls . I have seen the o n collections at Dresden and Berlin , the Tower of L o wn don collection , and our magnificent exhibit in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art , but it is safe to say that none of them approaches in completeness and extent ’ the great collection in the Paris Musée d A r tiller ie . The photographs herewith of the more interesting m groups of hand firear s were taken by the author , l eaving out th e artillery section of the collection as 15 ‘ 16 QRIPLE S

may be class ed the hundred years the cannon or bo mbar d was th e through which gunpowder was slowly develop excellence where it could yield a velocity suit hand firearms using comparatively small mis

against armour plate . The arbalest and the still held sway in the XI Vth Century as hand shoot On e mg arms, the bow, three inches wide by one and ‘ a d o half inches thick at the centre , n seven feet l ng, being capable of penetrating all smaller pieces of

armour plate , and the arbalest, with its great , steel it ' u d iv fi waggon springs and geared winch to wind p , r ing a steel bolt right through the strongest part O f any

armour , provided it hit square on, at close range . But gunpowder could give no such force or pene t r atio n im , for, until you pass a certain velocity, it is

possible to penetrate steel plate, no matter what the z S i e of the ball . Fo r o the a century after the first use f cannon , powder Was Still so poor as to be useless in anything b 1 0 like hand firearms , but y the year 4 3 , shortly after

Agincourt , the battlefields of Europe began to know here and there the early escopettes and petronels . f ew There are very of the former still extant . Forged bat in soft iron , most of them perished on the field of l r tle or were forged over as o d scrap iron . They fi ed but a very feeble shot, and were usually carried by mounted men - at - arms and fired by holding the iron tail against the armour under the left arm and touch ff O ut O f ing o with a fuse held in the right hand . the ’ é d A r tiller ie vast collection of the Mus e , there are

TS

- uebus n o n . q , dependi g the calibre — Nuremberg an d the wheel lock

stone of yellowpyrites and rub it Violently fil A ea shower of sparks will be rais ed . S ’ remberg genius couldn t rub With the pyrites any known form of hammer , he made th e wh eel n r th e shape of a , which spun around u de m o e . pyrites when the hammer ca e d wn . The wh el h as 3 n " a chain and spring acting on its post and is wound up I n with a crank, carried along with the weapon as arbalest days , and is locked by the trigger . The ham " mer also has a strong spring and the trigger releases o both wheel and hammer . The priming p wder hes

' in a pan = wh o s e bottom is the serrated r imof th e wheel

it . and the sparks ignite _ This wheel—lock made a very completemechanical

fi r e - arm of the arquebus , and it soon became popular all over Europe . The armourers and locksmiths of

’ that day were used to fine work and turned out ex c eedin l c r a ftman like g y , handsome guns , light, and

n . n easy to aim a d fire . They were used for both hu t and ar uebus s es ing in warfare, and such guns as the q of Louis XI II and Cardinal Richelieu are examples of the combined jeweller ’ s art and gunsmith ’ s craft m seldom equalled in our day The name arquebus comes from the German I E LY E S OPETTE S TYPES OF PER USSION - P F G . 1. AR C C CA PETRO NEL S REPE ATERS

THE EARL IE ST BREE CH - LOADIN G M USQUETOON

FO UR CENTURIE S O F F IREAR M S 19

“ ” a - uc - hac ken b h s e or crackling tube . This gun had

two serious drawbacks for use in war , though well c w adapted for the ch ase . In the first pla e it as of

m i i - rather s all bore , fir ng a ball we ghing only one third

n - r ou ce or forty eight to the pound , and so had ve y to t little penetrative force, owing the poor quali y of

the powder . The arbalest, with its steel waggon i t u sp r ngs and heavy steel bolt, could shoot right hro gh a c oat of plate at short range while the arquebus ball irn l s p y caromed off and hit some one else . The sec ond drawback was that pyrites is prone to mis fi r e and i ul an g ve no sparks at all , partic arly when some tall

t ag o ni st is about to spit you with his partisan . To avoid this unfortun ate eventuality they often supplied u two m e the arqueb s with ham ers , sometim s both of

- r e O . py it s , ften with one match and one wheel lock In spite of these difficulties the arquebus w as very exten s iv el y used . Large divisions of the Spanish armies c onsisted entirely of a r quebu ss ier s and they also pla yed a very prominent part in Germany in th e ’ Thirty Years War .

But in France the wheel - lock never came into any ff great favour . The matchlock was surer to go o and F easier to manufacture . Besides which the rench were det ermined to fire something at a knight in armour which woul d at least attract his attention — which the arquebus certainly did not s o the musque too n gradually became th e sta nda rd weapon of the F rench armies, and the musketeers of the type of ’ D A r ta g n an formed the back- bone of the armies of é u S . Cond , Turenne and Prince E gene of avoy This w as gun of an inch bore and larger, firing a ball 2 0

r with the villainous powde . of the

’ e e a s p tronel, whenc the need for a groom , such ’ ’ ’ D A r ta n an S l e g P anchet or Athos Grimaud, oft n O f very much attached to the musketeer he served . course the matchlock was quite often used on the ar

uebus - mus e o n q and the wheel lock on the qu t d s . The real distinction lies in the weight and calibre of the weapon . The warfare of the time of Louis XI V was chiefly noted for the siege character of the operations . o f O Mal la Marlborough and his victories udenarde, p

. S quet, etc , were but the results of prolonged iege and m fort warfare , which had its due influence on firear s in the shape of long- range; accurate rampart weapons which c Oh ld pick out a horseman or a knot of gen ~ er als and do damage among them even at a very con i r l s d e ab e range . To get this range and accuracy with the powder still in a quite primitive condition , you

e . had but one recourse , lengthen the tube of the barr l Some of these extraordinary siege weapons were Ve r o . fourteen feet long and The photograph , show ing a very complete set of examples of long- range siege guns , will give you some idea of how they o r looked . Those sh wn with shoes on we e for the Obvious purpose of resting the fore end on the ram ’ parts instead o f on some husky villain s back . n th e O f these siege g u s ‘ first in importance were a to fir e as t n d o operations was to be ble . f a furi us

storming parties scaled the ramparts . The de thought out for' rapid fire by the ancient gun ‘ e and . cranks have been ndless , of an ingenuity worthy

t . . 2 of a Connecticu Yankee Fig shows , besides some

O f ~c ur io s ities shoed rampart guns, a number for quick r ba firing, such as the German gun with th ee rrels

touched o ff in turn with a punk ; and the two grins . o ff with eight and ten barrels respectively, set by a

single hammer on each side in sets of four or five . They also had revolving ma tc hlo c k guns in great p ro

fusion , both with the chambers revolving and with . f sets o barrels turning ab out a central pivot. There is also a gun with chambers in a traversing br eech ae o block, which is the Medi val prototype of our m st modern cartridge clip . Undoubtedly the first repeating arquebus wa s in vented by reason O f the Clas s l C mistake of getting two

th e o f o . loads in same barrel, one on top the ther This did not worry o ur forefathers any. They just ‘ took the offending arquebus to the gunsmith wh o “ ” - fixed it by sim ly boring another . touch hole and p — adding a second wheel lock . The gun n o w became ff NO 2 ' e o . a repeater , sinc you fired charge with one

N 1 . hammer an d charge O . with the other The king th e m other , with nicks on ra rod to see

down the match se rpent into each ‘ ’ l h - r every time you pul ed t e trigge . m h e h for handled and ai ed t is inv ntion , and can vouc a e a man the perpetrator h ving be n large , powerful , ' for the a r quebus weigh s at least twenty- fiv e pounds and takes every ounce of a modern man ’ s strength to

even aim it . The Inventor evidently escaped with his life with ff 1 r 8 ' NO . o . out firing No prematu ely instead of , but probably became discouraged on seeing a line of po w

’ c h - I der Spouts out of all his to U holes when No . o ff finally went , and the bullet rolled out of the barrel at a greatly reduced velocity . Almost every scheme of modern times has been “ ’ — Th e a tried by these early gunsmiths . first breech a lo der is a musquetoon nine feet long, of the latter

th e X-VI th half of Century , weighing nearly sixty was pounds . It has the bolt action , which not then th appreciated , nor used extensively until e Prussian

- needle gun of nearly three centuries later . Its bolt X i - e i . Sl t t we ghed pounds , but locked into h gap of the breech on t urning ever on its side Just as with '

' Th e e wa o ff modern arms . charg s touched with a c matchlo k . The introduction Of percussion caps about 18 15 brought in its train numberless queer inventions , par tic ular ly a mong the investigative Germans . The

with powder from a brass magaz

in the ball and squeezes it home , puts on a p er c us s 1o n cap and cocks the piece All the shooter has to do is to go and get some one else to ‘ fir e t O f i for him, and then collect the pieces his friend for the funeral ! S I n ur Another invention, ince duplicated o day , is ‘‘ ” a primitive silencer . An arquebus of the date of 16 1 5 has labyrinthinevents Cut all over the barrel for

a foot back from the muzzle . Th e s to cks arquebus s es l of all the early are ex t r emel a aim y short, squ re and clumsy, so that to one

’ nowadays you have to hold t h e flash - pan un plea s Th an tly near your eyes . e reason for this was that

- all the foot - so ldiers o f tho se times wore a steel c m 4 ' an d th e arms a n d was rass steel sleeves on , the stock cut to rest nicely against the b reas tplate o r pr ojec -v w s tion from the sleeve , which a several inches from ’ the man s real body . we c hr om ue But are getting ahead of our logical q . By far the greatest invention in firearms was the

- product of a , famous hotbed of armourers and gun a ; smiths that centred in and bout Madrid, Spam This was Or the flint lock, called iginally the Miquelet lock,

after its inventor . Consider what he had to do to make a step for a w rd from the serpentine and the wheel lock . He - I as RI FLE s A ND -

steel so as to direct the r es ultin ‘

priming powder , and yet keep dry ag ain s t th e elements up to the instant o f As the wheel lock already had its components e h e f bl d outside the lock plate , ollowed suit, flint in the mouth of the hammer instead of a O f the or bit pyrites , arranged his main spring as in o earlier wheel locks outside n the lock plate, and then he made a steel cover for his priming pan which i would be struck by the hammer and opened at th e e same time the flint scrap d past the edge of the steel .

- bi ear This involved a right angle cover, with a g fi sticking up, which is the rst thing the hammer f h strikes . The force O it throws open the pan and t e o flint scrapes the sharp edge of the cover, thus sh w

ering sparks into the pan . This discovery dates 16 0 f o r d about 3 , and it at once paved the way stan ar dis atio n of arms , and made possible regular bodies of in f aritr y all a rmed alike and firing at command in

platoons . In Spain the Miquelet lock kept its original S form for many years , and in the Barbary tates the b t F e Arabs still use it to this day, u the rench turn d the lock around so as to sink the spring and trigger

mechanism into the wood of the stock, which is the form it has remained even to this day in all civilised

countries . Practically the only change in the lock,

I n . outside of the percussion end of it, has been the t n modern Anson and Deely lock, loca ed in slots u der S u the barrel , as described in our chapter on hotg n n Mecha ics .

We have , then, roughly , a hundred years for the r n in in which a . s e p e t e ( or sometimes n d t o ff w a a flin lock both touched the po der, the fi rst mis fir ed you had merely to touch the

minded French is beyond me . Since the ser o ff h fl was sure to go , why bother , wit the int — a lock at all ? And the answer is probably rain . L

' lm e is lwa s be p a y to reckoned with in France , putting th ne e serpenti out of the running entirely, and if the enemy was disposed to fight in the rain there would be nothing to do but give him your best with an addi io n l flin tlo c flinl ck was t a k . E t o ventually, the per c ted flin fe ts an d , by testing t tempering the steel so that

' it seldom mis fir edj f a nt r i t reigned supreme and ’ fought all Europe s wars for two centuries ; s aw the

rise and decline of Louis XI V . ; the decline of Hol 5land ; the r is e~ o f England as a colonial empire builder ; the rise and fall of Nap o leo ri; and the birth of lib

er t . y in the United States of America Then, about 18 1 5 , the first glimmerings of a fulminate of mercury cap, that would exp lode with the blow of a hammer , began to Shine forth in crude inventions of the p er cu s 18 0 sion cap , which finally reached its zenith about 4

~ - - D with the well known ( and well belaboured) G. . caps of our grandfathers .

The percussion cap had a short life, not over I h t ir t , to y. years before it was put in the a the reign of the breech loader beg n , hammer either came down direct on th primer or else struck a firing pm w primer an d set o ff the little particle of fulm merc ury between the primer head and the

anvil. . t m r iflin Another importan invention in firear s, g

g the bore , we have had with us smee the last half of ‘ — th e XVI th Century 1 585 being the earliest date on e t a rifled arqu bus tha I can find . The original idea a O f the rifle grooves was simply to provide a w ay to ’ blow out the crude products of combustion of t he — “ powder , thus making the gun self cleaning . For a hundred years before 1 585 the armourers of Nur em burg had tested out and appreciated the effects of spinning an arbalest dart about its axis by means of helical vanes . The museums of the world are full O f n d such bolts , fitted with curved copper, wood a i‘ f e th er van e i a s . Any object to wh ch a rotary motion has been imparted suffi cient to set up gyratory action ffi is very di cult to deflect from its position . It will not keyhole, nor dumdum , nor, if it strikes a minor o ff obstruction , will it be set wildly its course and go th e all to pieces , but it will rather pursue even tenor wa th e of its y, piercing obstruction if it has force n flec ted t enough and continuing on u d e . All of his had been well established by tests in Nuremburg With arbalest bolts , so it was but a step to utilise the clean ing out grooves to twist the bullet by cutting with a rotary motion to the cutting tool as it was O a s drawn through the barrel . nce a nice twist w e s a w same time . Ne dless to y, a o C to m' cap city in the p wder harge, these were dispensed with as wasting too much gas

S l multan eo us l r iflin h e course, y with g , came t

elongated bullet, with cone head or even with the parabolic head and fine entrance Of modern

7 I n fact, as gunsmiths , there was little that we can do

' - ar d lic to day th at those early mourers could not iip ate. Rifled s c ar abin es h mu kets , or as t ey were universally s s imulta named, were used a military arms almost n eo us l r r iflin y with the discove y of g , the earliest

regiments being those of Wilhelm , Landgrave of 16 1 nd o f lec to r x Bavar l a Hesse , in 3 , a E Ma imilian of in while Louis XI V had a corps of r iflemen as ‘ his personal bodyguard . In 1679 he decreed that in each company of light cavalrymen there should be r iflemen two , and later united all these into a sepa

’ O f c ar a bzn ier s r rate regiment . Du ing the Seven ’ Years War, Frederick the Great had a battalion of

' e s a n d th Sub hunt rs armed with rifle , in Sweden e s W o I lieutenants of dragoons carried the ame eap n . n F r 1 rance the fi st regulation rifle was adopted in 79 3, was d period of the Directory, and hence calle the

Cam bln e d e Ver s ailles Cartridges first came into use about the time of $28 .

e O uro . history f E p , Here,for example , is t Italian musque oon, with its wheel lock,

was a celebrated armourer wh o flourished e s r e MediCi 15 when the f ud between the Fa nes , the , h? and s un 1 Barberini and the Borgia rent Italy, o t his g

doubtless served the Farnese clan in the Papal war s 4 F — O f that period . Here is a rench wheel lock arque

bus , richly decorated with engraving and sculptured

ivory . A picture engraved on it presents a costume i O f th e t me of Henry I V of France . This dates it ’ about { 59 0 and suggests the battles of Arques and a al n s t in s Ivry g the Catholic League , which thi t S an weapon probably took par , Also recalls ully d f t c the Edict of Nantes . The musquetoon next to i a

' tuall h is o r tr ait ifn a y belonged to Henry IV, and has p" - h - 1 I n I t e . bas relief vory on mahogany stock It is .e"x c eedin a d is F g richly inlaid with gold and silver n , W a one rifled ith four grooves , thus being lso

. earliest known rifles . The horn of the stock

nates in a finely carved demi - globe of the world,with a map carved on it of all that wa s known of the world at that time Another interesting weapon I S a German arquebus

Opm g o shows the maker ‘ es c tch GOn rd in Prague , but the u and the inscription S tifter Hans e shows it to have been the prop f that famous cannonier , and therefore to have part in the S iege of Prague by the collected ’ of Sweden , which closed the Thirty Years r . A little farther on in the collection one stum 1 8 upon another early rifle, of the date of 5 5 , a

- man wheel lock arquebus . It bears upon the long of a warrior carry

' a sh ield with the arms of the Empire on the right

- - l the fleur de lis of Fr ance on the left . What a c e b etween Germany and France of the date of th is s 1 est ? 1 8 1_ IV does _ gg 5 5 suggests Cath e Medici and her three weak so ns wh o held the r of France under her direction . As Hen y IV he first of the House of Bourbon and did not 1 8 to the throne until 5 9 , when he was then an

t Protestant, detesting the religious convulsions

on by the regency of Catherine , this rifle een borne by a soldier under Guise who

the Catholic armies . As France was under the c o n tI n ued fire and slaughter of d r iv wars and broke into open rebellion , 1 8 about 5 5 , this weapon e of the armed mer c en a of Catherine in all her wars and intrigue in 1 88 most fortunate death 5 .

, Among the musquetoons there is a XVI th n the end of the Century, beari g

’ t o r am s ed to the Guards of the Ci y of Paris, g same time as the events of the arquebus ju scribed, and this very musket took part in the rebel ! lion of Paris which drove out Henry III , ended the reign of the House of Valois—and may have been — fired at that mercenary who bore the Fr an cOGerman we ! arquebus , for all that know

Another , belonging to the same page of history 15 a beautiful matchlock musquetoon , heavily en? in graved with inlaid filigree work in copper, and — - : crustations of pearls and mother o f pearl . It carries a on the muzzle an engraved head of a Turk, with i l bel mouth muzzle and a groove for the S ight. It “ 1n s c r i tio n Po m' main tem r la o l s uis belle bears the p , f , et d elle et aux en n emis d a r ols s uis r ebelle et ' fi , , cr uell main tain m F e . (For g The aith I am faithful e and serviceable ; against the en mies of the king I am . harsh and cruel . ) Needless to say on which side this gun f ought ! O n e can spend weeks I n g o mg over the workman ship and inscriptions of these weapons of all centu m ries , each so distinctive of its ti e and maker ; and

“ when all is done the whole scene of the politics and , nation building of the countries of Europe stands out like a vast picture painted I n indelible records left by gr F O U R CENTU RIE S O F F IREA RM S 3 1 W the very armourers , gunsmiths and soldiers ho made

the history, fought out their religious convictions and o political ideals, and left the C ntinent a family of ati o n s each as distinct types of the human ideal as er s it O f y thought and life could make them . CHA PTER 'I I

RIFLE MECHA N I CS

THA T r ; wonde ful mechanism, the modern big ’ s t h e ar game rifle , a such a triumph of gunmaker s t

’ ' ex er l en c e wh o Us e and the woodsman s p that we , them. thoughtlessly, would do well to contemplate, just for a ll once, the labour, brains and experience that go

fi r s t - C into the makeup of such a lass weapon . The ideal must meet the following requirements : It must be true to itself and of good steel , so that its bullet wa will always do the same flight in the same y, and this regardless of a reasonable amount of negligence

- r o o fedl in cleaning ; it must be safe and fool p y so , so — that th e? enormous recoil of the high power cartridge

“ will be blocked at the breech by solid metal , bearing against the solid frame of the weapon, and this block ing must take place before it is possible to fire the fl ri e, so that no prematures can occur in moments of intense excitement . The ideal rifle must handle cart e ridge after cartridg , feeding them into the chamber and discarding the empty shell without possibility of exc 1t em en t jamming in the of the chase , smoothly and ’ without too much effort on the shooter s part ; its sights must be optically adapted to pick up faint and indistinct marks and define them clearly in all kinds

“ of lights ; the hang of the weapon for quick sighting 32 w o enclosed by the action , ith n awk

' recesses to catch and hold dirt and sand ; no all and intricate sighting mechanisms or other eas ~ broken parts must be exposed to the vicissitude s mountain and trail work ; the rifle must be easily

ed , and, finally, more than one of cartridge in the same weapon is exceed

Quite a formidable list of requirements ; but note how well they all are met by American r ifle- makers in h alf a dozen true and tried models that are in daily A m er 1c an r i flemen ! O f use by millions of course , the scope of this chapter is too limited to describe the

' many fo r ms o f rifl es that have found favour with the m A erican public , but a dissection of how the ideal has been met by several well - known types is well within our space . We have room for a look at two

- ho ~ of the best single s ts , four justly popular lever a ction repeater models , one good automatic and the

- best of our American bolt action sporters . And, as every sportsman should know something o f wh at goes on inside the r ec el ver frame of his rifle when he oper ates its reloading mechanism , we shall confine our es ec I all selves more p y to the mechanics of the weapon , “ ” - s o . the action , called, of the rifle With the single—shot rifles the gunmaker ’ s prob lem has been comparatively easy , and the embodiment O f the best practice may be found in the popular S tevens and Winchester single shots , in which the c bree h block slides up \and down in grooves cut in the 3 41 s RIFLES A ND

also the trigger guard, and , further ple extractor in a recess in the r ec ei

possible chance for the cartridge to blow back here , i nor can it be fired prematurely, because the fi ring p n I S in the breech block and is not presented to the ham mer until the block is securely centred behind the c ar

t r id e . a g The barrel is secured solidly in the fr me , ’ thus insuring trueness to its elf o f the bullet s flight in c respect to the sights no matter where mounted, whi h

' cannot be h ad where the barrel moves on a hinge in

opening the gun , as in shotguns . The extractor merely starts t h e cartridge out of the Chamber some — h one eighth inch , after whic the fingers can grip the — shell , and with factory made ammunition this is no

- great hardship , though hand loaded work may some o times be swelled s that the shell sticks in the barrel . In both of these rifles the breech parts are made big

enough to fill up the general contour of the weapon , leav in h ts g smooth exterior , with no holes or pocke to catch grit and dirt ; the hammer is the only projecting O and m akm bject , safety is assured by g this of the

’ - rebounding lock type, with the trigger sear in the

notch at all times , so that a blow from behind the

' hammer cannot force it on the pin and accidentally “ ” Old discharge it . Both rifles are reliables , beloved ’ r iflemen of all the of America, and few sportsmen s

households are without at least one specimen of them, 2 2 usually the . , though they are made for nearly all

the large calibres . When we come to the repeating arms th e gun ’ maker s problems are much multiplied . Not only

85

throw out the empty cartridge and put in a

all in one motion of bolt or lever . And " three words br 1n g us tothe most joyous par t r dy co ntroversy that has raged for years in c o n ten the great bolt vs . lever — . all tion They are really bolt action rifles , every one

of them , only in some you operate the bolt by hand,

grabbing a knob for the purpose , and in others a trigger guard lever operates the bolt for you !

Let lo o k r o v er f ew us, then, the mechanics of a of th e old reliables so that we shall have more th an a f t bowing acquaintance with th e outside of the gun . i ’ 86 Beginn ng with the popular Winchester Model , n o w w never more m general use than right , hen its

33 moose cartridge and the dependable 4 5 - 9 0 keep it ’ s — we till a big game hunter s favourite , have here a rep

- r es en tativ e u ar tub l magazine rifle ; in fact , the best o t devel pmen of the tubular type , for with larger and longer cartridges there is no t length enough for enough of them and we are forced to go to the box

magazine type . u The action of such a rifle is simplicity itself . Yo : have really four main parts the main bolt , finger

lever , cartridge carrier and locking bolts . Throwing

’ s lid es bac k down the finger lever the mam bolt , which

pulls the empty shell along With it , and, riding down

the hammer, cocks the rifle . At the same time the spring in the tubular magazine has shot a cartridge d into the carrier an the latter lifts it, with the last of 36 RI FLE S A ND

” l o the downward motion of the ever, up in fr nt

holt and in position to slide into the chamber . here is a practical point w down in the woods ; they get e-xc home that la st downward motion of the leve to o u c in t to reclose it q i k heir hurry , with

that , as the cartridge has not been lifted up enough , it

' cannot get into the chamber and a temporary jam r e l s u ts . Besides practising to shoot your rifle accu r atel y, you ought to give a good deal of time to running magazines full of cartridges through the action at full speed . Also put in lots of time firing f full speed at a target, eeding through the action as ’ I m a with actual big game . know that it doesn t ake s n iCe c an scores as you really make, firing the weapon

- n e single shot, but are fi scores really What we are ’ after ? Continuing the action of the Model 86 lever ; as the hand brings it up again , the bolt forces the new shell home and the lever raises the locking bolts into

- position . These are those small , bright looking metal squares that you see coming up from below when the action closes , and they are the one thing needed to bring the contour all flush , with no holes or dents and hardly a crack for snow, twigs, needles and sand to get in by . Your rifle is now cocked and ready to h e was shoot , and t whole action of reloading done

- fla h with the quickness of a hand s . You may want o ff to plant that shot right , or you may have a con s id er able in stalk to make , which the care of your rifle will be subordinated to the all - important practical consideration of keeping flat to the ground and mak 01 ing no n se ; m any event , there is little about the rifle 37

‘ m — the utmost safety, as the locking sche e two bolts f recessed in the frame and half 5 about the last thing that c anfail ’ The Model ! 9 2 is almost a duplicate of i n ed g for short , stubby cartridges, its carrier s wmg s on a p 1v o t operated by the toe of the lever in o f stead being translated straight up and down , as ’ with the larger cartridges of the 86 . In both rifles the way to start taking down to give them an annual ff n cleaning is by taking o the butt . Important pi s u cannot be got at to drive out nless you do this , for ‘ - fir s t c o me o ut other parts must to let you get at them . O ne hesitates to unscrew the mainspring and take out the hammer in order to get at the rest of the mechan s ism, but it mu t be done about once a year , as all the s mall parts on a long hunting trip get coated w ith rust

' an d o u ht to b e d grease and g taken out, soake in kero sene; cleaned and replaced . I have done it in camp

'

- with no other tools than my hunting knife , axe blade 1 and a small wire na l . The camp axe, if of good steel, makes a good screwdriver , using the turn of the upper ' ‘ ff . t o corner of the poll With the rifle s ock , all the rest of the dissection is plain sailing. The necessity to handle long cartridges in the tu bular magazine led the Winchesters to develop the ’ ‘ - d Model 94 , and , in box magazine type, the later Mo el ’ - 9 5 , one of the most popular of big game rifles . The need was for a longer swing to the lever , and this could not be had without dropping the centre to some " 38 i ,

" ’ w n ted als o m e a , , in Model 94 fra e to handl

the locking bolt was moved back where it could be poked up end of the bolt and the solid back wall of

. a s th e frame Mechanic lly, thi type of backstop and one 1n grooves is stronger and safer than some forms

of side lugs such as are found on military rifles, for ' to sh a e in tr o d uc in the latter must be forged p , g hidden weaknesses , and are subject to crystallisation from i the pounding of the reco l , as are all outstanding bits o n m o f of metal all achinery . But a plain bit mild

o av ~ steel , like these Winchester l cking bolts or the S age main bolt, backed by the receiver frame , while they may be squashed like cheese with excessive n pou ding, will never become brittle or crystallise and snap o ff

“ ’ The Model 94 action is a delight to the mechanical 2 i engineer f o r ts simplicity . Throwing down the lever at the same time drops down a piece of the bottom of r m the receive fra e, thus lowering the central pivot, so that you get a long swing to the lever head, which slides back the bolt . This bottom piece also carries W down with it the locking bolt, hich , by the way, will be the last thing to come back—just when it is wanted to close and make safe the action . Further up on the lever is pivoted the long carrier onto which each car t r idg e is shot from the magazine by the tubular spring. As this carrier does not need to come into play until the lever head is well through its work of sliding back the bolt , its position far up on the lever insures this STEVENS

’ ' 3 0 G o 06 . . v t 3 5 in c s . W he ter ,

4 05 n c s . . Wi he ter

A i o n l the carrier . jam here s y possible throw—ing th e lever down far enough to t r id e r e g easily ectified, ven in a swearing m e h e m o tio n wh en imply co pl ting t , ; the ca released an d a n ew one shot up under the e

i i ‘ n th e e . stead of the , butt , as oth r models Taking o ff the fore end exposes the screw and Spring con e trolling the magazine pusher . Two more screws t m m s r m lease the magazine box . Turning out the a p g s r l screw relea es the hamme , and its remova permits c an h getting at the lever pins , which be driven out wit a wire nail . The safety locking d ev 1c e on this model deserved especial consideration, owing to the powerful car i F ’ t r d es . g handled ollowing the lead of the Model 94 , and for much the same reasons , the safety is a bolt u pushed p from below , in between the rear end of the bolt and the rear wall of the frame . If you will look ’ at the rear end of your 9 5 you will note it d r o ppmg down immediately you start the lever , and will see h o w much of a wall of solid steel (more than equal twice the cartridge base) it interposes between the bolt and the frame . In Order to let the hammer get at the firing pin a notch is cut in the centre of the , locking bolt , which takes the lower half of the pin , the mm upper half being its projection from out the a bolt . ’ A great old rifle is the 9 5 ; in its three powerful car ’ 06 i . 0 0 tr dges , the 4 5 , . 35 and . 3 Government , it is a great favourite for big game a nicely " balanced weapon 411

’ it makes a nice hunter s weapon . For auxilia i 1 80 M ar e s r es . . e you have 4 Colt, the 3 Colt m steel hl

B . 2 . . rayton cartridge, and the 3 S W for the three 0 main calibres of . 4 5 , . 35 and Government

Closely allied to the above actions are the Marlins , the p r mc ip al diff erence being that the top of the r e c eiver is closed in , the rifle throwing its shell out the side ; the lever is pivoted from a lug below the frame to give a longer slide to the bolt than with pivoting through the frame ; and the lacking lug I S pushed up e from below inside the action , taking its b arings on grooves cut in the frame . The action is simple and of

a few strong parts . It is somewhat hard to get at the cartridges from outside the frame in case of a am j , but compensations are found in the complete pro ‘ ec io n t t to the int erior parts by th e solid receiver top . These rifles a r e adapted to such cartridges as the — 2 - 0 8— 0 . 0 . 3 4 , . 3 55 , . 3 3 and 32 Special , besides the m s aller and stubbier designs . Diff ering radically from the above are the r e ea tin S p g actions exemplified by the avage rifles , whose — . 0 . 2 2 . . 2 0 000 3 3 , hp and 5 3 cartridges are in such uni c versal popular favour . The scheme of the Savage a i tion s simple and strong. The bolt is a solid block of steel fitting snugly into the opening of the receiver n frame . Whe the lever is operated this bolt entire is pulled first down and then backwards , exposing the m o ff box agazine , from which an ther shell is pro ered that its front end rests against th ecartridge the rear end against -the solid metal of the fra only W ay this could fail would be by first lowe

s e . in om way, which the recoil cannot do h lo ; T is bolt is operated by a ng, curved link, form

device pivoted to a lug underneath the frame . As the bolt is as long as the receiver frame and must come ‘ o wn len th the e o back its g to expose magazin , it f llows that this link" mechanism must be placed under th e e tang instead of under the receiv r, as with the Win chesters and Marlins . Undoubtedly an element of weakness , due to the hollowing out of the stock wood, but the compensation lies in having the weapon ham l n n mer es s d s a d . ! a giving it a mooth graceful outline Once closed there is very little place anywhere on it in a for ra , snow, grit or twigs to get into the action ; good stalking rifle . s As far as hammer or hammerless goes , that i a matter of individual preference . Whether to monkey ‘ with safeties and the sense of touch to tell you whether full cocked or no or w hether to rely on a glance of the eye and a hammer always handy to the

’ an thumb is for you to decide . I am an old fogy d prefer the hammer that I can see and know just what

' it is d o mg and that no safety device can ever put o h —t the fritz . I can endure a hammerless shotgun hat s o me — a m ri is . hammerless shotguns but I ot enough

that presents o n e at a time

The extraction is sidewise , and , as

held by the rims , they are noiseless , and n t ed ones cannot be burred by hitting their points against the forward box walls . As might be a r tic u expected with such an action , it lends itself p la rl y well to powerful cartridges , as there is no limit to the recoil the bolt can stand and no limit to the s mc e length of cartridge, the bolt can be made as long as needful without introducing c ar rl er or locking bolt ‘ P 0 problems . ;or moose and large game the 3 3 has al — 8 a . 0 0 av ways been favourite, also the 3 3 and 3 55 S l wo n e 2 2 0 t w . age for deer , whi e the products , the and

h - - r r id e . 2 0 a t s 5 igh power, high velocity e g , after they ’ had gotten over manuf a c turing troubles with the am munition , turned out to be very good for all the smaller big game at long ranges where trajectory heights and loss of energy through distance counted . Among the automatics we have space to examme but one , the justly popular Remington . 35 , one of the

— - best all around big game rifles made . For five shots .

u1ck . q , with plenty of steam behind them , this rifle fills

the bill , and all American game, from the huge Alaska New brown bears to the giant moose of Brunswick, O have gone down before it . utside it follows the

’ “ usual American g un build er s practice of nothing on it

to catch and hold in the underbrush . The rifle is s r m automatic is simplicity itself . A p g and

w a a a and firing pm for ard g inst the b rrel , w ‘ cartridge in the chamber ; This barrel 1s 1n s 1de w ee jacket, which is hat you s looking like a barrel

' th e i r e when you take r fle in you hands , and it can slid n o back inside its jacket about three inches . Whe y u

fire the rifle the recoil - o f th e cartridge against its bul let drives the whole works , barrel and breech bolt to th e h am gether , back inside the receiver , riding over b mer on the way back . The breech lock is held back l for an instant while the barre starts forward , urged n by a Spring i side its jacket . In doing so it leaves its fin er — e x cartridge shell behind, under the g nail of the w tractor , and, as soon as the barrel gets for ard

enough to clear the empty cartridge , the extractor

tosses it out of the action . That gives a chance for

“ ' the next ear tr idg e to Spring up out of the box maga a zine, tripping release as it goes, which lets the breech a d l s block shoot forward again n the rifle reloaded . ‘ A ll this takes place so quickly that you cannot see it

done . All you see is a flash of brass as the cartridge

pops up into the air , and you wonder on which side of your Stetson it is coming down ! Pulling the trigger releases the hammer again and the same cycle of op

- er atio n s is gone through . To load her single shot you e on b have an ext rior knob the reech bolt by which it r can be grabbed and pulled back by hand until it

catches . The barrel will stay in place, being held for

ward by its spring . Now put in your single shell (or

456

twigs in th e way of these explosive bullets,

r aw - same is true of big, hip bones and others

. l the surface Planted square , the bullets wi l e n and no t ex cutio , if you do mind full of little pieces of copper they are the l th e - h o w n minute idea on to kill a y large , ‘ ' mal not as yet r educed to own er sh ip and possession,

- an Mechanically, the bolt action rifle is simply y big- game rifle with the lever part of the mechanism i out . Instead, you crook up your right hand, qu t ”left c b lt ting the trigger guard to do so , and pull ba k the e , w or , with rifle at shoulder , reach up to it ith your right hand or else take down the piece and rattle the ‘ uic k as bolt as q you can , get her back to shoulder and get another aim for , with most animals , while you may have hit him your first shot , the vitality of most of them is amazing and your deer i s making good time ’ ar t s un kn o wn e to p , your ram about to run hims lf over

' a precipice where you will never get down to him in a e thousand years , or your bear is crawling into lodg pole pine so thick that a weasel couldn ’ t make it on —an d s crutches your earnest desire is to top him, ! quick, before he goes another yard

Having eliminated the lever, to help us in the

we ; w above , have still the bolt We might as ell climi we nate the hammer, while are at it , and substitute a spring inside the bolt coiled around the firing pin . A ‘ c n knurled nut , which you a pull back if your fingers are not too numb with cold , serves to cock it, and a sort of wing which folds to right or left serves for a

o our way of releasing the b lt . The foreign rifles S l fli a a the pringfie d do the p flop , a turn up nd in back . The lug may be cut to fit recesses in t e i n h chamber , as in the Teuton guns, or it may have addition a stop on the bolt with a piece of the frame jutting up for a backstop as in the Springfield

is th e - The third lug u rotary broken thread screw , as " — ’ exemplified in the Ross Friday Folger s old 3 - inch field piece breech mechanism over again ! Pulling back on the handle of the 3 - inch Navy breech bloc k rotated the block free of its screw thread and the same n swing threw Open the piece for a ew shell . Pulling

back on the handle of the Ross bolt rotates the lugs , disengages their screw threads and releases the bolt O n . e free to come back less motion, a straight line

pull instead of a righ t angle and then back . I cannot ff see that it makes much di erence , as you have to take

' your hand away from the trigger Vicinity With either — — of them and get it back again also readjust your

shoulder and resight the piece . S imple as the bolt actions are , their makers seem t o have a genius for getting small and fragile parts

a - out where they are vulner ble to unsympathetic rocks , and do not seem to worry about the numerous little

nooks and crannies in evidence , easily choked up with C sand, pebbles , twigs , and hemlock needles . ompared with the smooth - fin ish ed surfaces of regular sporting

rifles , with hardly a crack visible in the actions , good ‘ tain o us or forested count sporters will stand a l ot of cleaning up

being practica l weapons . The original k ll loc , had a its mechanism on the outside —i logical min d et reh c hman turned it around and to be done by the big rifle companies when they give '

' a b u us olt rifle made expressly for h nting big game .

The Ross - comes the nearest to being cleaned up of

t . any of hem at this time Again, in the matter of their sights a lot of soldier ideas need to be adapted

“ to rough country big game hunting. I had a fancy t h e o bolt sporter in my hands ther day , with half a pound of what appeared to be some sort of optical an d instrument on its breech , a chimney full of good ‘ i a things on the end of t s nose . I would h te to drop that rifle accidentally on the good old granite of York

' nor wad e u in State, would I like to p to my neck s c r agg s it» Nova Scotia with it and expect to find the sights ready to see through at the end of the wade .

' Nor would it shine as a crutch in a ram stalk in the Cas siar s , nor could it be laid in the alkali dust of Ari w e zona with impunity . Yet manage to drag our

Winchesters , Rems , and Savages around in those n countries without any particular care, with a occa ‘ sioual fall or a horse rolling on them , with mud and sand in the canoe bottomthickly spattering them and yet when we pick them up they are generally ready to shoot , and keep on shooting as long as it is needful to work the lever . CHAPTER III

RIFLE S I GHTS

RI FLE shooting for the woodsman is such a very different thing from rifle shooting for the military man that almost from the start it requires a totally ff th e ’ di erent training . Summed up, woodsman s train ing must enable him to hit swiftly moving game“ at comparatively short ranges . This game, deer, moose, elk or bear, will be going at top speed, except for pos s ibl y the first shot , and his progression will not be a ’ ’ straight line like a bird s flight but a series of bounds , and furthermore the viewof him will not be against a

— ' sky line but against a ch ec ker ed gray background con s tan tl y interrupted by tree trunks, bushes , rocks and m ravines . It takes the highest order of arksmanship

100 . to hit such a mark at yards Captain Carver , of " ’ e glass ball fame , couldn t do it with any c rtainty, for it is infinitely harder than hitting balls and pennies in

f r e the air . Sighting and holding fo r woods shooting quires adaptation to the purpose intended and i s en ’ tir ely different kind of shooting than hitting a bull s ' eye after a slow, careful aim at a long range target , which is the essence of military rifle training . The sights of your hunting rifle are of the first i m portance, for more misses are due to inadequate sights 5 0 RI FLE S A ND S H O TG UN S

e r cord on targets , and confident of getting into — 2 00 eight inch bull every time at yards , will

real bull elk as big as a locomotive, clean, at eighty, simply because when he raises his rifle to fire he either cannot s ee the sights plainly and accu r atel y against the dim figure of the game, or is unable to get enough time to refine his aim so as not to

miss . Conversely the crack game shot will make a r disgraceful sco e in a military match , thereby losing i the last shred of h s reputation . These things have happened time and again within the experience of all of us and it is generally traceable to sights and hold

ing, nothing else . Both men will tell you that they “ ” shot rotten , but as a matter of fact they shot as well — as they knew how , and missed because the game was a n ew one to them. The sights of a rifle are like the lens and crosshairs ’ v the of a sur eyor s transit , most important things on

“

f o r . the rifle , they are what you aim with Lots of poor sights are sold on game rifles, most of them theo r etic all y good, but mighty mean things to pick up a r bouncing deer with . The most important is the rea

sight, for it controls the Whole aim . A plain flat bar , d devoid of any notch whatever , is often a vocated as the best rear sight on the theory that the eye naturally e finds its centre, but the minute error that the ye is sure to make in locating that exact centre means a

miss every time at any range at all . The flat bar , —o f— with a silver centreline , or mother pearl triangle

showing the centre by its point, is , on the contrary, one

of the best sights made , for it permits exact centring

5 2

S rear white line , making it hard and low

a edy for it o f c o ur s e is to sto p the white line or about a thirty—second inch below the top of the

Vantage of this form of rear sight is tha t it will no t " “ let the front sig ht fool you and make you shoot o ff ” the light . In the woods all square edged front sights and all beads show a light point or line of light on the. side the light is coming from . As this shiny point goes down in to the dim depths of a deep notch the eye ’ fo r naturally takes it the sight s , centre and you so e hold, with the result of placing your bull t several inches away from the mark on the side opposite from where the light is coming . The flat rear bar lets you see this line Of light in its true relation to the centre of the sight, and that so clearly that even in the hurry of a running shot at big game you will make no such ! ‘

. r mistake When the sun is shining brightly, howeve , the flat bar sight i s apt to have a mirage or gla re on it and then its best substitute is a very wide notch , c ut with knife edges to out glare, in which the whole

' front sight is seen . The eye easily lines it up centred n correctly, and, for any shot, where you wa t to see all you can of the animal it is a very easily aimed and accurate sight . Both of these sights , mounted to

- e gether on one slot p destal , both folding flat on the h barrel at will , can be had in one combination sig t . Ano’ther theoretical advantage that does not work out very well in woods shooting is to have the rear S ight as far back as possible , to get a long distance . P H 2 2 P F M B O EN SIG TS OF THE . RIFLES AND S RING IELD AR Y ATTLE SIGHT

No . 3 1 N No . 2 8 No. 4 o . 3

IV RY G D B AD AND G B FB NT IGHT O , OL E LO E O S S

‘ I A B >- ANTELOPE TARGETS F OR CETI o“ 4 1 m CLU B RISING BEAR BANGE TARGET ’ m e e im i i . . 5 s o s 3 s . L n a o u 7 h t , t e l t e gth b t feet z H a l f a c tu a l s i e .

FOLDI NG PEEP IGHT FOLDI NG B AR A ND LEAF BEAR SIGHT S

F g ame . ront sight and game are because the front sight is so ' far ( about two feet t en in ch es ) that it i “ ” t were, in the universal focus of the eye , but

t e s . r h rear sight is a hopeles blur To avoid blur ing, tw S o remedies are devised , the peep ight through h t . which e eye looks , and the forward placed notch The latter consists in simply placing the rear sight notch well forward on the barrel , eighteen inches from — the eye instead of the old time twelve or fourteen all inches , so that it is quite clear and the eye sees three things , rear sight , front sight, and game clearly , the rear sight being only a little blurred . With such a rear sight as the flat bar and centring triangle this slight blur makes no practical differen ce as all three can be seen with plenty of clearness enough to centre ac u r S and c rately and ight front ight, for quick shots on running game in dim light its advan ‘ tages f ar o utweigh the disadvantages the short dis tance ( S ixteen in c h es ) between front sight and rear sight .

Remains the peep . To my mind it is up and away the quickest thing to et a rifle on the game th at th er e g l is . At first I used to try to centre the front Sight in the peep aperture , and so lost many a good shot for lack of time . The last shot so lost was the rare great horned o wl which I had a shot at on the Lumbee

River trip . The owl that makes the familiar deep 'at hoot in the woods night is the barred owl, not the .5 4

the canoe and my partner at for all he wa s worth to let me get a whipped up the rifle and soon settled the bead on h is reas u e r b t, but the rear apert re did not exactly c nt e, and W hile I was adjusting this the canoe was whirling t around, making me urn more and more to the left . wa Then tree branches got in the y, while trying to get n h im in the fro t sight on , true centre , in a clear view , and then the canoe turned so much as to permit no more corkscrewing of my body, and, by the time that was straightened out, the current had taken us much farther down stream and more trees intervened, so we one had to let him go . Lieut . Whelen told me on of f his visits that any old centre with the peep su ficed, so long as you saw the front sight through it and had its bead on the game ; even o ff centre well to one S ide would n o t make a difference of over an inch at ordi ‘ amé . nary g ranges I knew that , with a small and ’ d th e istant bull s eye , centring in the peep made all difference between “possibles and an indifferent e score , but a little shooting with the peep aperture mor or less out of centre With bead showed that this dif ference was not enough to pay for the time wasted in

n 1 - 2 trying to centre . An ordi ary tang peep of 3 in . W 100 aperture ill let you see a mountain goat at yards " e ntire , besides the whole front sight and part of the o ff barrel it stands on , yet the total possible error in 1— centring will be less than 64 in . out of the centre line of the barrel . The total throw of the bullet, then , 1 would be 1 g? inches o ff centre at 00 yards . Using being set for the surrounding illumination . dence should be well supplied with sights for all con? tin g en c ies and there is no reason in the world why a couple of folding sights cannot be put forward on the r an d n th e ba rel a folding tang peep on the stock, givi g

( use r open sights fo r quick sighting in dim lights at r r n d o n sho t ange, a a tang peep for sl w , accurate , lo g range work in any light or quick work at long r ange

Never depend on a peep alone . There will come many a shot when the light is so bad that no

’ ' u be h ad W i few e q ick sight can th it , and not a , wh re

s ' no ight at all can be made . I have shot grouse over

' the open bar when it was s o dark that only the dim black outline of the bird and the shadowy bulk of the front sight could be made out , yet it meant meat for H the mulligan that very night . ave your peep either

' a folding or flexible, if a tang sight, and raisable if receiver peep , putting a folding leaf or bar sight in the old buckhorn notch so that it can be folded flat down on the barrel when the peep is in use . Do no t try to have both tang peep an d leave in the o buckhorn , for the notch f the latter gets right into the peep line of sight and you are S imply shooting .5 6

r advantages of the peep a e at once lost . And ” it that these things all work properly ; that sights are not so loose as to be continually fall

out of plumb, that the peep releases easily and

while it makes little diff erence if the front sight is n o t the a “ absolutelycentred in perture , it makes a vast d ff i s i ere‘nce if the peep itself not on the true centre

n . li e . As they come from the factory those that I have used have been horribly out of true, requiring several Shims o i paper under their pedestal on one edge or the other to throw the peep aperture over o n to the exact centreline . The choice of a front sight requires quite as much a thought as the re r one . The military front sight, showing a black, square section to the eye , will give the user many a heartache if he hunts deer with it .

Some sort of bright front is essential on game , for a black sight is lost against th e dim coloration of the ' ’ to o w a . e k animal The military sight is also too high , e e and too movable for hunting purpos s , and the st el “ shield that guardsmen carry to slip over it would have no place at all in the woods . I made a fair hunting sight out o f the one on a Mauser that I once owned by filing a 4 5 degree flat across the upper rear corner of

—d e fin ed the sight . It gave a square , well , bright bar of light for the front sight, one easily seen against dim brown and gray shapes , and one that would reflect skylight back into the eyes much later in the day than F a bead could be seen clearly . red Vreeland , of the i d Camp Fire Club , applied th s i ea to a knife blade

5 8

just back of the shoulder in the hear

the bullet will go over him , even if you

will always hold und er to allow for this ; c itemen t of shooting at game you have

e o ff fi shoot, g tting the mitt your trigger ting the strap under your elbow if you use —if ing his. j ump , finding the right lead this you have to do some lightning cal an imaginary spot six inches under fi ar e wil already gured, the chances you

“ e about it or guess wrong, with the r sult No ; the thing to do is to see that the “ ” point blank at 100 yards and then h draw c oarse when you get a long range hunting rifles are already sighted to hit 100 bead or top of sight is held at yards , field practice with them until you know j your groups land is essential . A sho at 75 yards or 12 5 will not introduce a s of more than an inch . Any fool can hit i r fo r string, cutting it and b inging down the apple

n o w ! the applause of the multitude, but is the time to learn your front so nicely that you can hit a h or iz on tal string ! Having gotten well acquainted with your rifle at 100 kn o w t yards and vicinity, so that you wha she will

do when you see your sights in a certain position ,

5 95

such a quick method of s hift

lexier to push down the releasing ,

to the required mark, and tighten O n e can do it without hardly taking o ff th e eye the game , making all the changes with hands alone and just glancing down to see the right mark for an instant while the thumbs finish the it change . To do more than this is hopeless to ask wh o of a big game hunter , , after a stalk of four hours around a great mountain rim is not going to risk his shot by monkeying with a burl nut or other complicated adjustment when he knows that any min u te the ram or goat may wind him , or take alarm from some other cause and start to move while the

- tifle is being resight ed? The quickest range shifting d evice is the combination of three leaf sights either h c an on one base or three bases , any one of whic be pushed up with a move of the thumb , never taking the eyes o ff the game and never moving the rifle from ready position . The flat bar rear sight and straight front sight . permit of very accurate cutting o ff of the amount of front sight seen to one wh o . “ knows his rifle . The three leaf sights together on a modern rifle hardly involve a change in height of over a six teen th an d of an inch, any practised marksman can cut o ff a like amount from his front sight with a little practice at known ranges . 60

l-o i l s and a cknut under th s . You are to oo en the o and turn the other so as to raise the peep shank a given notch cut on it beforehand ; absolutely t much m ask of a hunter whose stalk

of it, the barrel and the game and a lot of the scenery besides. It is fine and quick within its range ; outside of it your best plan is to kn o w h o w much over him

to hold the bead for longer ranges . A final thing that must be looked to on the tang peep is its position fo r

' W c ard of the eye on the tang . With the kick of su h ? a powerful weapon as the . 35 Winchester, for in stance, the least distance it should be forward of the e eye to prevent its being kicked back into the eye sock t , 2 or else strike your frontal bone is % inches . This f will clear for o fhand and sitting positions ; prone, your h ead fi is so much farther forward that it will surely come into your eye and you must hold your head back to allow for it . Many of the flexible tang peeps are set so far back for the particular rifle for which they are sold that they will come back into your eye anyhow ; the makers were evidently so much more interested in dodging the breech bolt with their pre ’ c io us sight that they gave no thought to the shooter s o o o r optic . H wever , a good tang peep is such a j y f quick and accurate shooting at anything near its normal range a s . to be worth some trial to find the right peep for your rifle . The one sold for the model ’ ’ 94 Winchesters fits the model 9 5 , . 35 calibre much RI FLE . S I GHT S 6 1

tter than the o n e sold for that rifle itself: I would f o r - s s shoot the latter the ake of my eye , as it sets th e tang half an inch farther back than the one for ’ h e t model 94 , and this latter one is only just enough

forward to clear your eye when the rifle kicks back . Fo r man a larger , with heavier bones and more flesh h on them this would not be the case, probably, but w en you do get a tang peep see that it has not this fault ,

’

. a and if it has , look over the stock in tr de and pick out one that sets it further forward . Never mind the bolt running into it ; it makes not the slightest ff di erence in the action , and the flexible feature of the sight is for that very purpose o f rolling back when the bolt passes over it . A I M ING A T BI G GA ME

WE no w come to the important part of holding in

- fle - big game r i shooting . You read much of making

a human tripod of yourself, to get steadiness , and probably wonder why so much stress is laid on it when o S m st of the hots you had required a swift , easy swing

rather than any steadiness . What you really need

is a sharp eyesight and a prompt, accurate trigger “ ” i s finger . Any tr gger which creeps is out of the que

tion for woods shooting . You want an instant r e o i lease, not over four pounds trigger pull . All the “ ” - military dodges for a steady, rock like foundation . i “ ” t o on which base your shot are nix, but of course

- should be learned , as there will be long range, still

shots in which they will be u seful . But the shooting that you will use far more is a swift swing of the e rifle on or ahead of the game , and a quick, simultan

' ous trigger - pull the second th at th e bead is Where you S a want it . Such great game hots as Lym n and Walter

Winans insist on this training as the only one . I personally have found use for the military system , and

e s a expect to use it a good d al more , e pecially in moun tim o es e . tain work,as g by But, even after the first t shot is thus expended and a hit scored , even a mor ally wounded animal will in most cases start o ff at top

62

’ both in number o f bull s - eyes and total score my ’ man s way of aiming had it on him . Give him of time and he would have made every shot a

a deer in the wo ods ? I have made my best pos l ” s th e sibles, ten succes ive bulls, by just swinging , s e sights acros the bull and l tting drive as I crossed, and never could equal them by slow and careful hold ing. The point is that it is just as accurate as the slower method and infinitely more serviceable on game ; in fact, it is the only practical method on game . th e Therefore, begin at start with moving targ ets r o c k fl at close range . A pendulum tin can , a blue thrown in the air will teach you more woodsman r ifle

. L shooting than any amount of range practice earn ,

first of all , just how much of your front sight seen

means dead in the mark, and then always see that

. , much sight , when you lay the piece Next plant it mo v m th e on the mark, or , if it is g , ahead of mark ff ’ o . the right amount, and let at once That s all there

th e - fin er let o ff is to it, training of trigger g to , the fl arms to hold the ri e sights in line , the eye to see the i h mark and the s g ts at the same time . A barrel roll

ing down hill , a cardboard deer , bear , or rabbit hung

from a trolley wheel , running on a taut wire with a

slant to it like the cash runways in a department store , cans and blue rocks tossed into the air—these are the

marks that count for real training . I quite agree with

. S . i T Van Dyke , the still hunter , n his remark that what the woodsman needs is the ability to hit a three o ff begins where the huntsman leaves , and

ff e . A di er nt training t that, they p rovide for quick, accurate firing during or inélée when the ranges are close and two seconds is the most that any one should have to aim and fire

A miss is as good as a mile . What counts in hunt ’ ’ s s ing are the hits only . There are no 4 and 3 to help

along the score, and therein is the danger of target O n . e practice gets contented with a string of fours ,

all of which are misses , and the other fellow with his ’ bull s - eye may lose to you because of a wild 2 o r a

mean 3 , in spite of the fact that he hit and you did 16 not . Your total striking circle in a deer is about 0 inches , 3 in elk, moose or bear ; get the notion that

it is either to hit inside of that or not at all . Every

t o - be running animal has led ; not right ahead of him , t but above or below him , depending upon whe her he ’ in is going up or down his bound . An elk s back will

- rise ten feet in the air in mid jump , a deer about six feet ; if you fire then you will most likely overshoot as he will have come down from two to four feet e while your bullet is getting ther , so try to get him

lo w . two coming down , and hold and in front About

feet in a hundred yards is none too much . Like the

- wing shooter, you can cut this down a bit by getting the knack of flipping the rifle ahead as yo u pull trig

ger, it then gets its lead while the hammer is coming

down . To get to know your rifle with this kind of 66

s o m e hour at least . That i g g about fifty f et ’ yet many of your shots will be a t th is speed an d need lots of holding ahead and lots of practice know h o w much After climbing a steep slope or running fast to b make a quick detour you will be sweating like a ull , and your fingers will be slippery and cannot grasp ”

- the fore end with any firmness . For this reason checking on both tang and fore- end is essential ; if

’ la in d o i you bought your rifle p , it yourself w th a check ing tool which you can buyfrom the sporting- goods O r th e store for fifty cents . have local gunsmith do o it ; but never mit it . be Again , when tracking elk or deer in the snow , careful about letting your right hand get numb or " fin - sluggish . A g er mitt is no good for the actual f ar shooting, it is too clumsy, and you cannot feel the s trigger sen itively through it . I lost a fine shot once e from this v ry cause . He had been watching me , and suddenly burst into a dead run about seventy yards o ff o ff o . I had no time to get the glove and s fired o ff wa s with the mitt on . The rifle went before I th e ready and I overshot . I was just drawing front

sight fine when it fired, and I knew I had missed .

A friend of mine lost a deer from numbness because »

' r h an d o n l when he sta ted the deer he found that his , y

a short time out of the mitt , was so numb that his

. thumb simply would not , raise the hammer He w anted it to, all right, but there was nothing doing with the thumb ! The best way is to carry your rifle

67

eas tern woods it is more or less of a

" , it not only gives you steadiness , but checks that wild impulse to jerk up the rifle on sight of

. s game The rifle mu t not be jerked up ; raise it slowly , taking the time to align the sights so that they will “

fall to your shoulder practically trained true . My h m strap is just long enoug to slip y elbow into, and when the piece is at shoulder the strap is taut and helps hold the rifle fi rmly s o that o ne can swi ng the sights th e Without wabbling. In raising . rifle the strap drops h a elbo w an d natur lly around my , , as it comes to shoul th e der it begins to set fast . In a cross Wind it is m only thing, for the a ount that a gusty Wind will — r a b l is a l . wabble well held ar e , lmost unbelievab e For that reason avoid a Standing shot Where the win d ’ is i . o heavy The strap sh uld be wide and so ft, taper ng

down at each end to an inch . The bronze swivel

- e d buckle is the right one for the fore n , for , in run

ning from it over your shoulder , the buckle swivels ,

thus feeding the strap flat on your shoulder .and not at ' a twist as it ' would do if the b uckle were merely

hinged . A hinged bronze buckle goes at the lower end o of the strap n the stock . o Your rifle is your hunting companion, y ur best P friend, and the heart of your trip . ick out the one o that you fancy and then stick to it, learning all ab ut _ “ ” it , dolling it up , with sights and straps and checks ,

Every man has his own pets ; I will describe and their sights, not that they are a mod one else, but to give some idea of the pra " siderations that went into their selection . My ’ i er n i n e r— r fle is a . 35 Wi ch ster , Model 05 , a chee

“ n h ful you g can non with a knockout punch . S e 8 weighs but % pounds for all that, and has a hand

- some stock with checkered fore end and tang. I owned another just like her , only plainer, for some time before I was sure that she was th e rifle for h me . S e has a plain front S ight with the 4 5 degree filed across the rear upper corner of the knife ; a com i bination wide notch leaf and flat bar with pearl tri angle sight on the barrel , and a flexible tang peep on the tang. I use the tang for most shooting, the flat — 80 bar for all short range shooting, with the . 3 supple mental in the Marble - Brayton steel auxiliary cart 2 ridge for small game met on the trail . Rifle No . ’ 2 - 2 0 2 is a . 3 Winchester Model 9 , for eastern work on deer and hiking trips where you want a good, all i s around r fle that can get quirrels , woodchucks , ducks ,

2 o . . etc . , With the . 3 S . W . sh rt , and the H V — S cartridge for deer and long range hots at fox, duck h e or hawk . S has plain front sight, filed ; receiver

- tang peep , and folding wide notch leaf and flat bar . The receiver peep is raised out of the way in dim light and the other sight used ; otherwise I) use the peep entirely, for quickness and accuracy . Rifle No . 3 is ’

. . 2 2 S , the Kid s treasure, also my own It is a tevens F 2 2 avorite, shooting all the . cartridges . It has a folding tang peep , and combination globe front sight, ' 69 g i — ‘ e . . t h barrel sight is a folding wide notch leaf The i a i c o mbin atio n . w th l tter , n the ivory bead, is the gen

in - er al choice for game , the tang peep and p head for

- th lo ng range work . With these e Kid once made a 100 m to yards , and I had to ake a 4 7 keep him from trampling all over me ! All three of these

w . rifles are some busy, and they suit us a hole lot And this last is a quality in a rifle by no means to

be overlooked . Do not stop with a weapon that you

are not completely satisfied with . TRI GGER RELEA SE

I F co n s id er i t you will stop to a minute , the release

i r ifl - of th e trigger s the gist of e shooting . If the I hammer falls at the precise instant that the rifle S . e an d sighted on the mark, a hit will be scor d , this up to about as far as one can see to shoot or hold, with

- — c modern flat trajectory, high velo ity rifles . The mat n ter of a perfect trigger release is , the , something for each individual to study carefully and practise at until it becomes second nature . Most beginners will recall wa s that , in sighting a rifle , their attention first cen t r ed on finding the mark, next on holding on it , and "‘ ' fi l then n al y o n letting o ff the trigger . By the time this last had been successfully attended to, the hold ing had been forgotten entirely or else left to hap hazard . Such is one of the tribulations of the begin

- r ifle - ner in shooting . o is e An ther that of hard trigger release . Som s rifles are sent out with ab urdly heavy trigger pulls, and the unfortunate beginner , after getting all through with his aim and being at last satisfied with the holding, presses the trigger only to find that it refuses to budge without displacing the aim . He next yanks nervously at it , while the rifle sights do a swing n o T around the three ring, but still report . hen he 70 up all h is res—erve co ncentration and tries to do hings at onc e holding on the bull and r elea s mg

would tax the abilities of a veteran ! And in no form of shooting is the light trigger release of more im

ortance than in the revolver, for here it is virtually p — impossible to make consistent scores with a hard pu ll

Again , there are many rifles with a creeping trig ger . These are fine for target work, but require special training to use with big game . The creep reaches a definite end , which the sensitive trigger finger can dis " tin c tl r e y feel , after which a little added pressure , leases the bolt fi r in g - pin ( for it is in the military rifle that one encounters this form of trigger release the

- . o most) For target sh oting we have no quarrel with . ‘ th is ' r eleas e a s tead , as one concentrates on y hold at the instant the end of the creep is reached, but with f big game , especially deer on the move, it is di ficult

a e ' to use , for the rele s is not instantaneous and there is no time to feel for the creep, and if you have trig

- fin er ger g mitts on you cannot feel it anyhow, and must release without knowing just when the rifle is

o ff - till going . With pistol shooting the creep is s mus t a r e worse, for here you have an inst ntaneous O wa . s lease nce I in a match where a fine , high power, foreign pistol was the prize, the shooters us ing the pistol itself in the competition . In that match , were some of the best pistol an d revolver men in the ranks of modern sportsmen , yet none could make a decent score and th e prize went to about the most t erra ic shot in the bunch . That pistol had an awful your trigger finger got was an infinitesimal

creep . This was repeated several times u ntil the pistol finally went o ff it wa s unexpectedly and yOu f'

M s odern big game rifles , exclu ive of the converted

- s a e . military sporter , are all inst ntan ous release The 2 b trigger pulls vary from pounds , which is a out as l s a fe to too light as it is at all , 7 pounds, which is far e h avy to do good shooting with . My own rifles , the

' survivors of a very extensive collection , for I have cleared out most of them so as to really know the ones o I use constantly , vary from 3 p unds trigger pull , S for a target tevens, to 4 % and 5% pounds for a

- o w er ' an d medium p high power big game Winchester ,

f - respectively . O these the 3 pound pull is undoubt edl o ff y the nicest to let , albeit you have to get used to the sudden way it lets go when, perhaps, you are not quite ready . For forest work, on big game , I should consider this pull too light and too apt to pre

’

. e mature For small gam it is just right, as you need fine shooting for them and usually get an instant to

- aim in when the animal is still . The 4 V2 pound pull a is noticeably heavier , enough so to take your ttention

u ou . away from the aim , ntil y get used to it In all trigger release your mind should be co ncentrated on the aim , the trigger being attended to subconsciously , the same way you see something else out of “ the tail of your eye when concentrating your gaze on a par i l t c u ar object . Yet you have considerable nervous excitement to allow for in the shooting of big game , come after a great deal of v io k o h ar d to et a lent exerti n , running g to a vant ge point, e ffi xecuting a di cult stalk, climbing hard or worming wa f o urw ea rt your y through di ficult underbrush, and y h‘ will be pounding so you can hear it, with your mouth open, and your muscles will be in anything but a calm state . Under such conditions too light a pull , un such as for cool target work, will result in your doing. Four and a half pounds is as light as I would care to have in the woods , and such a contraption as

- a set trigger , with extra hair trigger, would cost more tribulation in trying to manage it properly than it would be worth . — - My heavy big game rifle has a 5% pound pull . e There is pl nty of good reason back of this , too . Con sider that you have a number of things to provide for

- besides hitting your game . The recoil in a high power

‘ e 2 2 00 - rifle of this calibr represents about foot pounds , and you must hold it firm and solid against your arm , cuddling it well in on your chest like a shotgun . The right thumb must be laid over along the tang, not W o ff curled over it , or it ill take your nose , the kick

- o n ~ will be severe , so that your grip tang and fore end is hard and firm, and altogether the muscles of the hand are under considerable tension . The trigger

finger has a long hook to make , and so can put on ff Fi considerable pressure without conscious e ort .

' th at r e uir es nally, I use a —sling, not the military kind q o f an d several turns your arm shoulder in it , but the rifle carrying strap is of such a length that it will 741

is a s or ry to a id in aiming ? This st its o ff own, and once I let i n g into it and swinging high place in the deer match at outing, as I already had three nice ’ but didn t know it, as the deer matches ‘ in N s tr o f . o until the g shots is fired , s On t sati fied with 5 % pounds hat rifle, change it , more especially when I think of shots fired with a woolen trigger mitt on the h more than once I have had to fire in bitte weather when there was no time to even‘ mitt .

In revolver work, as I have said before ,

' it is the trigger release . Two pounds to half is ample ; any more will handicap y c if l u ly . Good revolver scores are the

- steady arm , a cool head and strict — h tail that is , seeing to it t at your holding i when the hammer is coming down . So many do fine aiming and then lose all control at th th of firing, wi the result of an , erratic group ‘ t you see such a group, question the shoo er will find that he does not distinctly recall j

he was d o mg at the instant of release . A

o ff ow the revolver went , and that sh s that

eyed after the brain order to release went into exec u

tion . All this presupposes a trigger release that will its dis turb n c e be light enough not to communicate , a to o the muscles holding the pistol , and this is got ar und two n pounds . I have seen ma y good guns that went

as high as four pounds , and the average is three .

Better lighten to two if you want to make fine scores . And the checked trigger is another feature of great

' dis t r ibutes th e use on a revolver . It weight of your t e finger flesh evenly over the surface of h trigger , so that the pull does not have to be concentrated at

any one point, as in the bend of a smooth trigger .

' It makes a very noticeable d iff er en c e in the ease of o pull, so rder a checked trigger with your gun when you get it , and make things just as easy for your t i self as possible. I s worth the money and pays for itsel f in th e ammunition that you will save in getting to be proficient . ’ ’ 2 8 - Among my shotguns , the boy s gauge has a 5 : 12 — 6 pound release ; the hammerless gauge double ,

12 - pounds in both right and left, and the gauge old hammer gun that I use for ducking in the salt marshes an d 6 n has 7 pounds for the right pou ds for the left .

These pulls are about right for their separate uses . ’ Fo r o a boy s hand, 5 pounds is heavy en ugh, yet it ’ o ff requires a firm pressure to let , and for a man s 6 v . S en strength , pounds is nice p pounds is a trifle too heavy, but in the muscular work of fast gun 76

o is , of course, instantaneous , the p int sear lifting directly out of the notch in the ha without any interven ing leverage as in military rifles In consideration of the vast in fluence the trigger r e ’ lease and hammer fall have on one s swing, it mus t be practised until eye and trigger - fin g er work together as s ubc o n s c io us ly a a s in golf form or any other mat ‘ A a o o r ter of muscular skill . man with p shotgun trigger release will make a most erratic shot . Even assuming that he swings alike each time , and that the birds are as regular as a clay pigeon on a calm d ayf h e will miss a lot of them through slow or fast release .

e - fin er in Trigg r g training is , fortunately, a most

r ~ expensive amusement . With rifle o revolver it sim ply needs a tack head in the wall of your room or a mark out in the yard reduced to correspond to give long ranges Daily practice on these costs nothing and trains two things—the set of muscles that hold and swing the rifle or revolver, and the trigger finger o ff and eye partnership that lets at the mark . You will score mentally many a miss before you get so you think you are hitting them freely . Then real practice at a range will show you up some more . In nearly every armory they have an improvement on plain sighting practice, also very inexpensive . It S consists in a pringfield, hung in movable tongs that are connected up in s uch a way with the mechanics of the target that a small pointer registers a hit on the e target when you pull the trigger . This is good pra

'78 RI FLE S A ND S H O T G UNS

In conclusion , let me urge the tyro to pick out a good medium pull and not change it until he has a

lot of experience . There are thousands of gun cranks who pick a gun to pieces the moment it gets from th e factory—but not you ! The men who made these guns e have been at it for some tim , and they know from long experience just wha t is best in the long run f o r all the conditions that you and your gun may hav e ’ o in to face . S don t rush and change everything for some fancied advantage until you are sure that the advantage will outweigh the disadvantages that may come up under other conditions . Experience will tell . AU TU MN i s the time you begi n to reach for the Y s o . o u good old double hotgun , your pet rifle , or b th find to your horror that the beloved rifle is morerusty than trusty and that there ’ s actually a speck of dirt — — i 12 - several of them n the ba rrels of the gauge . Then comes the Annual O verhauling with screw h ot n itr o s o lv en t un driver , kerosene , water , and g ‘ . r s . grease Afte which , the irresistible longing to hoot — ’ The h s fisherman has had i day and is gone, it s your turn now . It is yet thirty days to the Hunting Moon , but afew practice aims set you breathing hard an d

“ you realise that the particular muscles that hold a i s gun are flabby and Soft . And right here where the

- little 35 foot cellar range comes to the rescue . After you have fired not one hundred and fifty, but five hun

dred and fifty shots in the cellar range , often in strings and of fifty, your holding muscles are hard steady, the piece lays to the shoulder in good alignment and all there is left to do it to choose h o w much s ight you ’ to are take, swing into the bull s eye and fire . 2 2 I do not advise the inevitable . for this sort of f practice . It is too light and too di ferent from your e regular hunting rifle . If the latt r is a large high

w - s e po er , use a sub calibre te l supplementary cartridge 79 use and good enough for everybody in s o n all y I believe that , except for moo

bi 2 - 0 - Rocky Mountain g game , either the 3 4 32 2 0 — or H . V . sixteen shot repeater is the safest and best rifle for all aroun d Eastern and Central States shoot in i s - 1 1 - g . With t full power 5 grain bullet it is deadly fo r r r dee and bea , and from that down through the 2 range of . 3 cartridges it takes all the smaller game, h 2 winding up wit the . 3 short for ducks , grouse and squirrels .

. 2 . t Using the 3 short S . W pistol car ridge ,

o u . smokeless, y have an excellent cellar range load S upplemented by a few afternoons outdoors , guessing distances at all kinds of marks with , say, three sizes s of cartridge , you will find that the cellar range put one in surprisingly good form for field work . After getting so that you can depend on yourself for a 2 2 o r a 2 3 regularly with th e standard pist ol t arget, you have got all the benefits possible without increasing the range, and it occurred to me to give the cellar practice v ar iety an d novelty by app r o xim at ing big game conditions as follows : I cut out of a mag az me small pictures of running antelope and mounted them by twos on ca rdboard . At their S ize of I V; inches high by 2 % inches long they were equivalent in the ce llar range to the real beast at 2 50 O yards . ver the sights of the rifle they looked like little gray ghosts , and the stunt was to fire five shots on three seconds time limit each , heart shot to count 5 , head shot 4 an d body shot 3 ; or 5 for each if intention

i d r flin a a . end is toward r, expands n takes i g ’ neighbors chickens have left home in A . M . and to return from regular raid on to my property .

’ that the bullet drives clear through the beasts until it hits a big bone . As a cat discourager it is fine . It of t is , course, hard on the cat, bu I cannot find any sympathy in my heart for the miserable bird- killing beasts .

Did you shoot five shots in three seconds , or one ? shot Latter is some quick shooting if so , while five a shots in three seconds with that sort of aim is r ther, unbelievable in this locality .

Yours very truly,

A . . . OSS A N . Los ngeles , Cal E C CR M

- This three second time limit is a mere pipe . Rob inson, in his article on Aiming, points out that rifle h o e e O men seldom realise w quick the y is . nce your sight is drawn and you are on the bullet it’ s time to let o ff n , as there is little to be gai ed by holding longer

- and wabbling about the _ 5 spot in hopes that you can — stay there long enough to make a brown study of it . My own practice is to draw my sight in the imme diate neighbourhood of the bull , swing into it and fire in that fleeting instant when the bull eith er s its on / the sight or is to the right or left of it , depending on windage to be allowed . The count of three is ample to alig n the piece, draw the sight and walk into the A n bull . y longer time is S imply doing it over . — - fiv e yard standard pistol

o costing a d llar a hundred . They i - r i h t ro to start with , but to be in the g p

~ portions with outdoor 2 00 - yard targets you should

— - - I o get up a target with inch bull , % inch f ur ring

2 - — and V2 inch three ring . Send this to the nearest job printer and he will make a line out out of it and run o ff you a thousand for a couple of dollars . For out 2 00 door practice the Standard N . R . A . yard target 8 26 — 6 is inch bull, inch four ring and 4 inch three 8 2 w el ring with a field 4 by7 which counts t o . All c lar range practice should be supplemented whenever . n —fi l o t possible by a day or a afternoon a e d . Dig up u of catalogues the trajectory of the various cartridges a r e a r o xi you using. It is essential to know them pp mately, for at all close ranges you are apt to over shoot unless you are familiar enough with your cartridges to make a fair allowance .

- 100 With point blank at yards your bullet lifts ,

t 0 I 2 I . say, 3 inches a 5 yards, VZ at 5 and % at 75 — Raise it a notch to 2 00 yards point blank and the lifts for the same cartridge will be approximately 6 inches

100 at 0 1 0 . at yards, 3 inches 5 and 3 inches at 5 In Chapter XV we have a table of trajectories which you

will do well to study , and then work them down to

- practice in sight drawing afield . Quite by accident I discovered a means of getting — a world of fun and good practice in rifle shooting a ma is similar to the ani l at B ley,

’ r ate of s ix a 75 feet in seconds , and not

forward of his centreline . I myself have hit him four at 100 u t n out of five yards , which score p me dow e ninth or tenth man , as two of them were haunch s n 10 counting only 7 , whereas the brisket shots cou t . The speed of the Camp Fire deer is about 8 miles an

u , hour , which is what a deer will do thro gh timber when not badly frightened the kind of shot you g et “ ’ when he won t stand still . How fast it really is , you o but “ f do not appreciate until you get at cl se quarters, it is in any case the real thing for big game rifle shoot on ing practice , and many a sportsman his way to the annual ,deer hunt would give a lot to have a day or so at just such a target . The deer that figures in these illustrations 15 pro

“ " f o r n n 2 0 portioned reduced ra ges , bei long from g " I to nose to tail , 3 from haunch brisket and 5 through the body . He was cut out of brown card 0 board and first used standing, firing at 5 and 75 yards , only the first shot being allowed on three sec ’ ff o n d s time . All the rest had to be got o just as fast F as the lever could be worked and a sight taken . rac ‘ r tically all the army method, of slow , ca eful sighting, with the front sight travelling around the bull until that instant comes when the bull sits squarely over

' ard s un les s h i stopped, and any other t will y — set him and you o ff on the long wounde d ani — mal trail unless you can knock him down to stay “ et ' u o w 1S before he g S o t of sight . N the eye quick i f l as a flash , and the arm muscles , well trained, wi l ew th th e rai s m bring the rifle sights into lin i , g of the piece ; it is only the brain and trigger - fin g er that a r e is e e slow . If the rifle not fired the instant the y sees th e o a sights n a vital spot on the nimal , a second sight

' u a o th e m st be had, and still another and n ther until

’ - fin r M ean wh ile th e trigger ge does its duty . animal m all ay move , or , if moving the time as deer and bear r e t a - often encountered, there is no time to g e any

r o With this deer , a party of fou f us that were going to Maine and Pennsylvan ia after deer practised ' id ea o f t with the getting used to dull brown targe s , e the shape and vital parts of a deer, wh re to put the

e ' b ad quickly where it would do the most good, and th e a c how to work mag zine qui kly and smoothly, a ‘ feature that many bi g - game hunters overlook until the time comes when they want ' that whole mag az me as quickly as it can be fired . O n e 0—0 man brought a . 3 4 box magazine carbine ;

0- 0 the second a . 3 3 tubular magazine; the thir d a dou “ of b S n a out actual ize, a p rofile s owshoe hare bo t full S r profile grouse , h ize and intended to be fodde

“ 2 o t st ed 3 S . W . sh r s in a eel

d e th e 8 - ~ g , 3 55 had reduced arm Q. ‘I ’ . l o r . 2 S . . , 3 “ y cartridges while I had a pocketful of W s l — —2 0 which can be shot direct in the chamber of the . 32 without any supplementary cartridge at all . The deer wa s 0 tried first at 5 yards and then 75 , five shots being — a im fired in a string, the first being a three second

z i and the rest as fast as the m ag a n e c o uld be worked . '

ff 0—0 2 - 2 o h e . The honours werecarried by t . 3 3 and 3 0, ’

n 0- my o. wn gun la ding four out of five of the 5 yard

- and all five at the 75 yard range , principally because w a s a she completely sighted in , had receiver peep

h r . with large aperture, and I knew e of old The other men were still in the stage of getting acquainted with — h n ew . 0 0 their rifles, the 3 4 man having just boug t is t 8 h and put ing most of his shots high , and the 3 55 landing nearly 8 inches above the deer until he had had a short but earnest Session with his sights . After W not r e that things ere smoothly enough , though I do member a single m ag a z in eful that Went o ff absolutely

Without jamming . This was due , for my gun , to dirty m and unoiled agazine action , a part often neglected in

an d n . favour of the bore , on the larger guns ofte to th r o wm o th not g d wn the lever full length . Working e ; magaz ine is just as much a practical part of rifl e shoot — ing in the woods as firing the gun yet h o w many

o counted a shot whether you sh t or not .

catch your sights no shots were permitted except at ;

th e centre of th e . s win g when his speed was about n t eightee fee a second, for of course a pendulum slows up at either en d and its total swing was o nly two c ! se onds for the eighteen feet of travel . Fun L ord,

' it was equal t o wing shooting ! We soon learnt that h littl m one as e ti e for fine sighting. You could not ‘ see the deer at all at the two ends of his swing ; you caught a S ight of him coming full speed through th e and bushes , picked him up led him from a foot to to eighteen inches ahead of the brisket , and whaled it him ! It took a long time to realise that you mus t lead t a running animal a good deal . Eigh een feet a second 12 is about miles an hour , even that not half the speed fri h ten ed ' o r an d k of a badly g hit deer , the time it too the air rifle bullet to reach him was just about the

- e o 00 time a high pow r bullet w uld travel 1 yards , call

ing for an apparent lead, then , of not less than a foot ,

and better two feet . r At fi st we held just ahead of the brisket, with the o f result haunch shots when they hit at all . The tendency to overshoot was also just as marked as it s is with real game running, and the pendulum it elf Soon accumulated a n umber of shots in its shank above ‘ S e o the deer, howing wh re many of the shots were g in we on g . Gradually crept up to three out of five hits ‘ 8 9

I t did not do to hold somewhere ahead of ‘ h i mand let o ff when he approached the spot within a “ foot or two . You were s ur e that these were go ing

— ahead of him nearly eighteen inches and were sure it— that you did you heard a satisfactory plunk, and later found the bullet hole in the brisket . My best score wa s 34 ; two haunch shots and two briskets ( 14 and curiously enough the identical score that I F 1 1 100 made on the Camp ire deer in 9 5 , running at yards , the rifle being a . 35 Winchester . Another thing : it took some practiceto get your trigger - fin ger to let o ff promptly at command from the brain . Time and again your brain would say “ ” No w ! in the rush of aiming and firing at that fly ing beast, and you could actually see yourself missing, the rifle still S wing ing ahead but the trigger letting ff o n t . a infini esimal fraction too late Your brain , act w s ee was ing still quicker, ould that it going to be a ‘ miss and was already forming an appropriate and forceful D amn ! which would be out of your system befo re the rifle bullet would be heard zipping through the underbrush .

You may fondly imagine that you are going to . hit t that deer this fall, no matter , if he goes pas you c o n fi through the woods on the dead gallop . This dence is fo stered by memories of scores that cause you to kn ow you can depend upon yourself to make good at standing targets , however dim and ghostly deer and rabbits in the shooting galler y at 2 0 yards ’ ’ n t ! o at all , Gertrude And it s fun ; it s the best fun with a rifle t hat you ever h ad ! Rifle practice with a big game rifle has or should it— have one golden rule guiding the good old rule , f ‘ ” a r h i miss is as good as a mile . Many a hunte as spent nights sleeples s with chagrin over a mortifying but o v e r th e miss which may have been an inch e ani ’ e mal s back, may have cut a furrow through the v ry — hair of your deer, in fact but you would never know

’

- it . All tho se close fours and other well placed shots mad e s uc h which ; , a satisfactory group around the bull — an d showed up s o well on the score card where would you be if they were swept into the discard with ’ the twos and complete misses and only your bull s eyes counted ? That is the tr ouble with the target : it tends to complacency W ith close misses and leads away from the accurate holding that gets meat . That, and the ' ’ visual perfection of its arrangement o f black bull s eye on white paper ground . Still another fault o f the target is its un r esp o n s w e ness to a hit . We like to see something happen when o ur Th e rifle bullet lands . shattering of the clay at th e report of the gun is the satisfying and instant reward

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th esplitting action of the bullets would send a piece of board flying over the landscape at th e

“ i on shot . Whether to add a face plate of thin r or

the bullet, for the inertia of the plate is so great com pared to that of the bullet that it has passed clear through it before the plate begins to fold over back Th e ward , turning on the hinge . steel or soft iron w h plate helps hold the target together , if reinforced it ‘ - 2 0 o z . iron tacks all over the surface, and does not

add much to your carrying weight . The action of this' target is simply to fold back n when a bullet hits it, the hinge retur ing it to its normal upright position on the edge of the spade? S haped piece which is driven into the earth . Simple but eff ective in letting . you know instantly whether or no you have made a hit , and it is a great target for tin approxima g big game conditions , forest shooting, for e poor light your sights , running at speed befor

firing, dim target and the instant necessity to fire again quickly when you s ee that you have scored a miss . CHAPTER VII

Two RIFLES FOR THE POOR M A N

WHEN I was a boy of twelve I had at last rec eived the paternal permission to relinquish the beloved ( and “ ” r accurate) Chicago ai rifle for a real powder gun .

Within two hours from the removal of the edict . against powder guns a stamp an d coin collection had been sold and Within two days there had arrived — — by express a certain Belgian muzzle loading 2 7 gauge

s - ingle barrelled shotgun , advertised by a metropolitan gun house at I think I s p en t a n entire evening i ‘ just gloating over this marvellous length of g a s p p e . Sh e fitted me all over , and lock, s tock and barrel , and ' a certain juvenile he ar t ' W en t out to her in warm and “ ” n o n unquestioning admiration . Was she t a real gu — ? a - death dealing, really and truly terror to the game —Pish —there was nothing to it ! wa It s a full two weeks , however, before the exchequer reported funds enough to buy a box of , — percussion caps , but I had not been idle far from

it . Nothing could be too good for the little queen ;

f o un d , s c r a ed the finest horn had to be , p and drilled and bottomed for a powder horn for Her Majesty ; the finest squirrel skin in the land had to be fashioned

h - for a s ot pouch , and nothing would do for the per ’ c us s io n caps but a snake s tail , said snake to be hunted 93 At length the wonderful weapon wa s t a woods , where all the delicious details of lo ding

— - i - f de= n pple cap , filled four feet six of boy with ine fable h i h h ler . R o s light abbits , squirrels, g and meadow

’ larks ( the last two now happily under the law ) were ’ — boys game in those days and we never went hungry . But the sad fact that The Infallible couldn ’ t hit any of these creatures came home with something Of a ’ jolt at the end of the first days shooting with her . — — Sh e wa s all a nice gun , and made a fine noise, and that ; but compared with the accurate and hard - hitting ’ — m little old red air rifle , she wasn t one two as a ga e "

. getter The same victim that was sure eats at . the end of a successful s talk with the air rifle would fly ‘ ” away exasperatingly when the real gun Was turned loose on him . It mattered not that the testimonyof ’ my own eyes h a d told me that The Infallible s barrel ’ — was no straighter than my setter s tail that was no doubt some unexplainable stunt of the gunsmith ’ s ” but that a real powder gun Should actually miss o f — me what you aimed at was not to be thought , see d

e . incomprehensibl , unforgivable But The Infallible —and a shotgun at that—had to give way before the f ’ e ficient red air rifle, for a small boy s stomach simply will not tolerate any nonsense about g oing hungry miles from home And then I met up with another youngster who

n r o . is eeded, from squi rels t deer A n d this Statement leads me to the first of the ’ - - - e . 2 2 0 1 1 r e Poor Man s Rifl s , the 3 5 thirteen shot

2 5 0 p eat er . I hear an agonized whoop from the . 3 4 an d a shrill squeal from the 2 5 - 2 0 both of which

- a d h e . 2 2 0 c rtri ges are far ahead of t 3 in accuracy , r ee hin k at th hundred yards . No marksman would t

2 - 2 0 of using the . 3 when he could possibly lay his e ! ! hands on eith r of the above cartridges But , soft

We are not talking of marksmen , nor of rifle ranges

- with a mule load of ammunition apiece, nor yet of

r S . Schuetzen ifles, with a keg of beer on the ide We

' S r are peaking, on the contrary , of a rifle for the r m c uiser camper tra per of the East , whose game may d a and one ybe a duck or a wild goose, the next day a deer; the man wh o wants but one light rifle i n his l o o ayout, and is limited to less than two p unds f ’ for r e cartridges a two weeks trip . He wants it a ‘ p eater because there are always two or more chances “ the to quick aimer ; he wants it lever action , as there is no comparison with it for the bolt when it comes to n speed, and , above all , he wants his ammunitio pile to look like two small flat boxes of fifty cartridge s an d o n e fi ft — e d — each , tall one of y sam imensions say make a scientific collection o f rare

e I O . 2 circl at yards . The ordinary 3 short will not 2 answer, as its diameter is but . 99 while the stand

- 2 2 0 1 .it ard bore of the . 3 rifles is 3 so will not even ” flin 1 r i . . touch the g . But the S short is 3 3

- diameter two thousandths too large, so that it fits

' r iflin the g snugly, and you will have no trouble in ‘ nicking a 12 - gauge g un wad with it at thirty- five i Out i yards, two t mes of five , w th the other three hug n gi g it close .

s 1 1 - I know that the tubby, 5 grain bullet of the

2 - 2 0 n . 3 has been tabooed alo g with other shorties as inaccurate by many authorities , but, as a matter of

' ‘ — r ifl e= r an e u — woodland , not g , acc racy when you can — plug an 8 jn ch bull and three close fours W ith it o ff — ’ hand with factory sights at 2 50 yards your r i fle s ac curate enough in all conscience !

2 - 2 0 Getting down to figures , the . 3 Winchester ’ - 2 high velocity smokeless , suitable for their Model 9 repeater or equivalent Marlin or Stevens rifle, has a e a muzzle velocity of f et a second, strikes blow

68 - 1 of 9 foot pounds, and penetrates 7 pine boards n o with full patch bullet . I am t interested in soft h wood penetration, but I am glad to ave the fact

' tucked away in my memory that its lead bullet mush rooms out to half an inch diameter after smashing ’ “ ‘ t s n o t s o i worse, rising but two inches in

e n 2 - 0 ever qu stio ed the old black powder . 3 4 f o r this ‘ " o b et n f o j , y it o ly has a striking energy of 74 7 ot

- 60 . 2 2 0 pounds or more pounds than the 3 H. V . ’ 2 —2 0 Men who don t know the . 3 would be apt to shake their heads and venture that it lacks bone - smashing me ne power . Let utter the rank heresy that this bo " — a s h e 2 - smashing stunt is mostly bunk as far t . 3 2 0 ’ ‘ is concerned . You can fire it at a big bull s rib at ae its thickest part, up Where it hooks into the vertebr , to and it will tear right through it , smashing things an d splinters , continue on to penetrate three inches ‘ o r f live oak . This with the soft lead bullet of the e loading tool mould . Take the heaviest bone in the — animal , the humerus , up near the pelvic joint the

- . 2 2 0 . way the ‘ 3 walks through it is a crime I once

- i th e tried it on a three nch moose knuckle , ball joint Th e of the humerus . little bullet landed fairly on the knob , penetrated straight through , and lodg ed an inch into an oak against which the bone was placed . You could ' lay your thumb in the hole on the reverse r iflemen side of that bone . Kentucky who used to Shoot deer with a pea rifle will tell you that you have power enough and more than enough . ’ ’ — — 2 Let s take a trip i n memory s Ship with the . 3 “

2 0 - . You are on a three day tramp and deer hunt, with

9 9

a partridg e sitting on that tree ; bad shotgun range ,

’ 2 - 0 If you have a . 3 4 , it s bacon for yours , as the noise S h e would make would end the deer hunt then and there, and its chamber is too large for the S .

' fain n ’ W . But the little t pe k . of the S . W . cartridge

2 - 2 0 fired from the . 3 is no great circumstance, so you th throw down the lever, catch e shell flipped over O t your shoulder and pick out the one in the carrier . u 2 — of your pocket comes a . 3 short and into your pocket goes a fat grouse !

Again : You are o ff for a September canoe trip . 2 Shotgun or rifle ? Take the . 3 and a handful of 1 shorts . Your shotgun would be a pound heav er , and h its shells out of the question . Besides alf of your

’

' ' it n be Out Of s r a e . chances will g And , just for luck,

— - c slip in a half dozen high steam artridges , in case you “ ” ‘ To war d th e should stumble on a varmint . end of the day ’ s paddle you suddenly d rop the m otive power and reach for your rifle, for there is a duck swimming a in the next bay ahe d , and he looks good, though out 100 a s of range of any honest shotgun . At about y rd

— “ 2 - 2 o you drill him with the . 3 do it just as neatly and with three - quarters of an inch flatter trajectory than

2 - 2 0 the boasted . 5 . And next day , if you run into br ’ er b’ ar—you won ’ t be holding a religious meeting u r p a t ee , as you certainly would if you were the

2 - 2 0 proud owner of the . 5 . 100

' lo w - gauge power . You want lots of steam ’ et flattest kind of trajectories . You ll g most

" r ’ n across . But,as C ossman says , it s a case of mini g ‘ ' - d o wn in to your jeans for at least thirty fiv e pesos for . r ifle— o u l your and to get a Springfield sporter y wil ,

have to have military relatives to boot . But hereby hangs a tale : Some time ago the War ' Department made up its mind to have the Army rifle the same length for all arms of the service ; whereupon a fine lot of Spring e field barrels , the finest in the world, w re thrown into ’

the discard as not conforming to the new regulations .

F s - ranci Bannerman , the well known military goods 0 1 New dealer, of 5 Broadway , York, bought up the a r av ilable supply of discarded bar els , thinking they

' m a might so e d y come in handy . Having on hand 6 0 about two million 7 . 5 mm . ( 3 cal . ) Mauser m fl cartridges , he bought up a lot of Ger an Mauser ri e

actions and fitted them to his Springfield barrels . A little juggling of the stock and chamber was then all that wa s needed to turn this weapon into a “ sporter equal to any of the h i- power bolt - actions i aflo at

. The mm cartridge is in appearance very , like

. 1 6 . S . . ss 0 the cal U Govt rimle 9 , and shoots the

N rm —A ll h r ld o . t e se Sp ingfie Maus er s h ave been bo ugh t s in c e th e Eu ro ean ar p W . tary clip, and you transfer

es the rifle you simply push the clip down until it catch .

r ec Ord ' with A five ts the rmy bolt gun, with aimed sho ds 2 — in secon , while the lever record is 4 5 seconds H i ( a nes) .

It would,however, be a good stunt if these Mann licher military sporters could have some sort of a light spring catch which would hold the clip when the last shot is fired . As it is , it drops merrily on the ground as you eject the last shell—which would be “ ” provocative o f assorted profanity if the ground happened to be some wet river , or a crevice in the ’ — - rocks , or that no man s land under a wind fall .

As regards penetration , the records credit this c artridge with 56 - inch pine boards with full patch Per s o i all S bullet . i y I noted that it howed no hesita tion about ambling through eighteen inches of oak s t acros the grain . At hese high velocities it is ques tio n able about how much mushrooming eff ect the bul let should permit . If it mushrooms too much the a e bullet will not sm sh bone, as has often b en the case in moose shooting with small bores . Big game shoot ing with the Springfield and the n ew Spitzer bullet show terrible wounding qualities for the hard bullet

encountering , bone , as its smashing power then be — th e 1 00 ft . comes enormous . Delivering whole 9 pounds of energy upon a devoted beast is like drop c ping a ton of bricks on it, oncentrated at the bullet h im more th an a quarter of a ton of scrap

Th e best way to test bone - smashing qualities of a m cartridge is to s ash bone with it, so I got me one knuckle I could find ; four meaSur ed was . through The full patch Mauser bullet , th e turned loose on this cute little toothpick, with result of pulverizing it into five pieces and assorted a ter sizes of fine splinters , f which the bullet pierced

- o a twelve inch black gum tree , and is g ing yet, prob ably . As regards accuracy I did not find tha t any tests

'

I could devise amo un ted l to more th an c o r ro bo r atio n of th e well - known Springfield barrel grouping of five shots in a four- inch circle at 2 00 yards from muzzle

’ h o wever th at . was rest I pleased to note , , in field few work with her out in the hilly pine barrens, a th e C o as t sh e wa s a miles back of , very accur te and

' satisfactory at all sorts of ranges and marks . As a nail - driver I also tried her on an oak billet offhand,

' shooting first a hole in it and then aiming at th e h o le

00 2 0 . with sights set at 3 yards , distance being about The result was a neat group just above the bullet hole that you could completely cover with a ten cent

2 0- piece . Kick was about half that of a bore shot gun . You can reload the Mauser cartridges or get the

n ew e . identical cartridges , Am rican made Write for the Mauser rimless to any of the big cartridge

the . 10 companies . For a bullet use Ideal No reload ' 1 12 0 ing tool , casting the 3 99 bullet which fits the 3 3 ! lead grooves and make curious alloys 0 ‘ a fiGa s . s l nd s check cups list at a dollar a thousand , o i there s no cause for your pocketbook to take fright . Mauser shells W ith the full patch bullet can be h ad

m fo r 2 . 00 but ar e fro Bannerman $ a thousand, if you a mushroomer you can buy them s Oft nose from our own companies for a hundred , or else you will u O want to load yo r own shells . rdinary lead will not

b in h i- do, e g too soft, but you can buy power bullet f e metal alloys from any o the reloading compani s , ” h and, wit a can of smokeless , you can have all the cheap shooting you want . Personally I reload my

'

- . 2 2 o s 3 with ordinary lead bullets , using a Dupont smokeless which has the same bulk measure as black . ’ These two Poor Man s rifles weigh nearly the

2 - 2 0 6 3 o un d s an d same , the . 3 being about 4 p , the

S r in field - p g Mauser 772 pounds , so that practice with th e one is all to the good when you .change o ver to the ‘' but — . O other Reloading is not nly cheaper , also how one . d o es love to fuss with anything that can sling a bullet !

A final word , as to putting some class into the appearance of th eSp r in g field Mauser . As she comes to hand she is almost a musket with a rather cl umsy “ ” h a r m s butt, excellent for grounding p on brick pave

\ - ments , but broader than the rear end of a fat bear . ’ ‘ Sh e also has too much wood for d to please the eye . — The front fore end joint can come o ff as far back as

THE . 2 2 RI FLE

SU BSCRI B R th e A E , deficient in saving sense of Field an d humor, once wrote in to the Editor of “ ‘ ” S h a wn asking for a definition of the term Cat Rifle — ’ couldn t find it in his dictionary . By that term he of course meant the useful and ubiquitous least - calibre 2 2 l rifle, the adorable . . For all the wor d loves the ’ ’ 2 2 fi sh er man s . . It is the small boy s idol , the delight , ’ ’ the big- game hunter s fowl - in - pot and the marksman s

. un training school You can shoot it anywhere , in ‘ limited quantities , take it along no matter how light h e r ff t going, and acquire a wa m a ection for the little devil that Will accrue with a growing respect for its unvarying trueness to the mark and with memories of phenomenal shots that you hardly believed her c a l pab e of . O f course , if it was left to the manufacturers to

. 2 2 s select the to be described, they would all want S c to how their repeaters , sin e gunmakers take even more pride in the mechanics of their weapons th an ~ in c their practical utility afield, but I here des ribe only two representative repeaters , the Remington and Mar

' - . I o 2 2 lin, latest models The new Savage shot . is also touched upon because it is the first of the bolt- action 2 2 ff . o th e repeaters, and, with about a pound taken

106 e accuracy,

and simplicity . Next , he wants some can clean easily and see that it is clean ; ming or clogging ; something that he can drop over board o r leave out in a shower or in the bottom of a wet canoe and yet take apart without trouble to get at and wipe down each piece so that later it will not rust and annoy .

The cat rifles are all as accurate as you can hold . It i s more a matter o f knowing the zero of yo ur par

' tic ula r an d an rifle, for the sights are large coarse d your first experiments had better b e with a sand- bag ’ rest until you know your r ifle s zero and know h o w to Fo r lay your sights to it . instance , after getting fairly

’ 2 — e accurate at the 5 yard targ t , take some long rifle

- n - 2 cartridges a d tr y your luck at the 00yard . My word for it , you will find none on the target out of your first string, and may have to pick up your zero at 100 yards and work back from it to the 2 00- yard e targ t position . The long rifle cartridge has a trajee o n l 2 1 2 00 tory of y inches at yards , so that the front sight h as to stand up like a factory chimney to give the needful elevation . As I said before, the quickest a h o w 2 2 i w y to learn to hold your . for long ranges s to work back by 5o - yard steps from some familiar

2 o - n range, such as the 5 or 5 yard dista ce . th e None of the cat rifles have, to my mind, ideal ‘ - open sig ht combination, viz . , a rear U notch and a th No t c ni u u . m nder e b ll w, his e ha c

r an d s me it, the combination of shape rear sight which shows easiest any true alignment makes the best set of the bar and U there is plenty of light sho t e th e h bar, so that eye notices at once if o t of W n o t i n in the centre the U, even hen n your hands can correct the lay of the rifle eye is still focused on the bull Winchester and Remington use the front and U rear combination of cat rifle optically it h as the disadvantage that the r rear shapes are too simila . The bead fills t on fine sights and bead and notch blur on m both because of si ilarity of shape . T Savage V rear notch and bead front On same objection , particularly fine

Stevens , with a square section bar fro

15 to . rear V notch , easier shoot With a it would be as easy as the army Sp r the square front sight stands out sharp o h an even with the eye focused the bull , 8— i s exactly the width of an inch bull at . whereas the ordinary bead sight S hows Riflemen larger . , in general , are

09

e i s a good deal of tendency to overrate the

2 2 an e es . of the , short, long d long rifl cartridg

' ’ lo n r ifle s h oV d g has but 4 5 grains of lead , e " l I O c a ong by grains of powder, whi h gives it a strik in en er 12 2 g gy at the muzzle of but foot pounds , and 8 ’ this dwindles to 3 at one hundred yards distance .

2 - 2 0 68 Compared to the ordinary . 3 with 9 foot c at pounds, the rifle breed certainly lacks the punch 2 of the 3 calibre tribe .

We hear of, wonderful scores with the long rifle 2 2 f . o . As a matter fact, if you hold zero on the bull 2 00 2 1 c be at yards , it will land approximately in hes n 10 a d 0 . low it, at yards will drop inches For

“ this reason, knowing your zero, you must exercise almost as much judgm ent in drawing your sights at

as w ld r . long ranges o u an a rcher shooting rove s And, a l s with , cross wind, the drift quite as great as the d S drop, so that the fiel hooting at ranges much over 100 2 2 o u yards with the . is almost guesswork , until y get to know your own particular rifle in all winds and weathers and acquire somewhat of the automatic judgment of the wing shot . 2 0 2 2 But at 5 , 35 and 5 yards , the . is entirely in s its own sphere . Almo t any good holder can wop “ ” “ ” out possible after possible at 2 5 yards with any 0 r i of the cat rifles , and 35 and 5 ya ds s mply require a little more judgment and experience i n drawing your sights and allowing for drift . At 35 yards the drop I 10

c r n an d ter, bolt ; Rotate bolt, insert a tridge, retur bolt Th e lock it . act of locking does not cock the firing

2 2 r extractor is straight pull, drawing a . sho t case 2 2 entirely from the chamber and the . long nearly n o t so . It is S imple and strong and will stick or e a wa o n fr ez e fast, and you can l ys put more steam the bolt handle if the cartridge gets obstinate Remington Repeater : Loads by pulling out brass mag az m e tube and dropping in the cartridges until " O full , when the tube is shoved home and locked . per ating slider, loads , cocks and extracts , though the first cartridge can‘ be put in by simply pressing the magazine tu be . The extractor is a straight pull and o steel hook, throwing out to the side . T empty the magazine, pull out tube, when the remaining cartridges will run out at the slot . They will not click or rattle, however , with the tube pushed in and locked . Neither trigger nor hammer will operate unless the

slider is at full forward position, when it locks the — recoil withstanding parts and is safe . Marlin : Magazine loads by d r awmg out tube and

dropping in the beans . Has safety mechanism, which

’

locks all firing parts until the slider is full forward .

To unload magazine, simply pull out tube and invert

two o f take feet length package , so that any of

' s e th 2 along rocky tream beds, and for him eith r e %

pound Stevens - Maynard or the 3V2 - pound Winchester

th e - bolt is the weapon . As a second gun for big game man , I should recommend the repeaters . Most of i s their weight in the barrel , where it gives the most

' aid in steadiness of holding; and the rapidityof the I S action is almost inconceivable . In the magaz ine a clean and comfortable way of carrying fifteen or six u teen ro nds of ammunition, and when you tear loose

on duck, grouse or small furred game you want to be able to keep plugging him aga1n and again until i f r d o wn t o . A o he is stay nd, for target practice or — - I S glass ball artist training, the repeater the only

weapon . To clean : Winchester : Take down ; press on sear

and extractor and take out bolt , giving you a clear Vl eW r iflin o ff of the g. Taking barrel exposes all

trigger mechanism . To take apart bolt , drive out

the guide pin of the firing pin , which will free the firing pin and allow you to clean everything but the

' spring, which latter can also be taken out by driving th e A out firing pin head pin . short and simple tale ,

and the only tool needed is a small nail . Remington : Unscrew pin on side of frame (no ‘ et To g out bolt, press catch pin on slider c n r iflin on ection , after which the g can be seen and

- \ Marlin : Take down by unscrewing a pin o rl side of r frame , after which the receive will come in two 1n c ludin halves , exposing all the mechanism, g the hammer , for cleaning . To get out bolt, lift the slider , o ff s connection its pin, press firing pin relea ing the ifl r in . bolt, when the g becomes visible Savage : Unscrew knurled nut under fore - en d and take down , exposing trigger mechanism and carrier .

Press trigger r elea s in g l bo lt and giving a clear View r iflin of the g .

e : ~ t r iflin al St vens Tip up ac ion , so that the g is vVa s is i s y ‘visible upon breaking Mechan m easily n gotte at by unscrewing lever pins . And, while on the me oint out o subject, let p that the r unded upper

- corner of your camp axe is an excellent screw driver , I one that will unscrew all sizes, big and little . have ’ l 2 completely taken apart and c eaned my model 9 ,

- solid frame Winchester , using the upper corner of

th e s c r ew - my axe only for driver . m With yown weapons , just as sent from the fac : tory, the trigger pulls stack up as follows Winches

- 6 ter bolt single shot, pounds ; Remington repeater, 7

6 S - pounds ; Marlin repeater , pounds ; tevens Maynard

- ‘ S . single shot, 3 pounds ; avage bolt repeater , 3 pounds F r in field s u our pounds is standard for Sp g , Ma sers an d other typical army rifles . Anything over this their small fingers are not strong enough to

2 2 r - firing pins of our bolt . 3 without a g eat deal of

’ their grasp and discharging th e piece wherever it

happens to be pointed . While the Savage cocks o n i clos ng bolt, both it and the Winchester pins require 12 pounds. pull to cock them , and a boy of ten to twelve years will writhe and twist in his efforts to get the

‘ pin back to the sear . With pivoted hammers the

leverage of the hand comes into play, so that even a ' small boy can cock the Marlin and Stevens easfly 8 with a hammer pull of 7 and pounds , respectively,

firing pin . The drops for the above cat rifles line up thusly

Winchester, 3% inches ( 3% inches in light model) ;

Remington , 3 inches ; Marlin , 3 inches ; Stevens , a t r l er : inches ; Sav ge , 3% inches . Distance gg to butt e I I Winch ster, 3 inches ; Remington , 3 inches ; Mar I S I 12 lin, 3% inches ; tevens, inches ; Savage , %

inches . The above measurements will have a good

deal to do with the selection of a rifle to fit your boy , for if the stock is too long he will have to lean back to bring the centre of the gravity of the rifle in far

enough , and too much drop in that position will make f it di ficult for him to catch his sights . Boys of twelve to fourteen usually adapt themselves to almost any o ff— reasonable dimensions . To tell hand if the rifle bo fits your y, let him lay the piece with both eyes

shut . If the sights are found in reasonable alignment

116

as they used the tin air rifle principally to play I

o s with . But the country boy, who begins his real sh ot R e . s ing arly, mourns the departed Red ifle Its be t m . o o u $ p p i i fl , substitute is the 3 _ action repeat ng a r ri e

0- a h a r d ao 5 shot, by the Daisy people, hitting and r ifl — curate air e . There remain the high priced Quack m e e bush air rifles . The Quackenbush illustrated w ighs i s 2 I I pounds , feet inches long, does not take h a s down , and a drop of 3 % inches and length of pull 1 ff of 3% inches . It is accurate and e ective up to 2 2 1 10 about 5 yards , shooting . felt slugs at cents a 100 box of ( expensive ammunition for a juvenile) , with a penetration of about inch of white pine . Using steel darts which can be pulled out of a board target and used over again a d lib is the cheapest prae V tice scheme . The sights are a taper pin front and rear notch , and the trigger pull is adjustable to any 2 thing from pounds up , though best set at 3% pounds . TH U I ITA RY RI E . s . M L FLE

' TH S o ffic iall kn o wn E pringfield, y as the United

'

S . 0 1 0 S tates Rifle , Calibre 3 , Model 9 3 , is the ervice r A r m o u . arm of _ y, Navy and Marine Corps It has

displaced the Krag, formerly used in the Army , and 2 6 . a L . o the ee 5 , f rmerly the Navy standard It is c

knowledged to be the best military rifle in the world , for it far exceeds all others in utility as a soldier ’ s ' ’ l 06 c weapon , and in kil ing power its ex eeds all the r was r im ea lier cartridges . The old Krag a fire

r 0 - 0 cart idge , the popular big game . 3 4 , With a rimmed ‘ o r ~ c as e shell , and its magazine fed sideways , making

' a rather wi de an d - clumsy receiver a n d stock there “ ” for . The Krag or Army , as it is called in the

2 2 o - trajectory tables , has a grain bullet, of the usual

- — e 1 . blunt nos d big game shape, propelled at 9 9 7 ft

en er i o f 1 muzzle velocity , and it develops an gy 949 h 2 00 ft . lbs . Its midrange trajectory height for t e 6 ’ 2 6 ee . yard range is inches . The L mm or . 5 wa s cal . Navy a better rifle as regards muzzle velocity, 2 2 n . wa s having 56 ft . secs and it inte ded to kill at long ranges with considerable penetration of light of warship armor , such as the plating lookout tops ,

z 16 2 . . . but etc , but its mu zle energy was 3 ft lbs owing

I I 2 - to the light grain bullet . Both weapons went 1 17 2 2 0— 2 2 0 to match , a grain bullet driven at 4 f 2 l z s. n . b a d developing 374 ft mu zle energy . This

c a 2 00 s traje tory, midr nge at yard , ‘ m 00 it ' a ain idrange at 3 , so the Army went at g , add ing more powder to the charge and lightening the bul I 0 — let to 5 grains , besides making the all important change to the spitzer point which reduced the losses r due to ai resistance . This gave us the famous Govt . car t r id e with m g , ‘ the enormous uzzle velocity of

' ao 2 00 . l . 7 ft . secs , and , since the energy of the bul et in e the cr ases as the square of the velocity, muzzle 2 2 energy of 4 6 ft . lbs . It also lightened the cartridge , so that a bandolier of sixty rounds of ball cartridge weighs but lbs . It made an ideal military car t rid e fo r ' g , , with the high velocity, the trajectory height dropped to in midrange at 2 00 yards and ‘ 00 midrange at 3 .

Big game hunters were quick to realise the value s i of th s cartridge. It was found that the splitting ff e ect of the spitzer point, backed by the high velocity , gave great shocking power even on tough African big t game ; hat, while the earlier military cartridges were e th e m re puncturers , like many of those now used in

E . present uropean War , the Springfield was a killer

I 0- er The 5 grain bullet was , howev , a trifle light for s such game as moo e , elk and grizzly, and so two more ’ 06 t ammun i Govt . cartridges were go ten out by the x

tion c o mp anies f o r use in regular big game rifles .

e o e t 0 . 00 f ur grooves , 4 inch de p , n urn in This barrel is secured by a threa ded tenon receiver which is channelled to take the provided with two cammed locking rece ba a ain s t wh ich rrel breech , a safetyshoulder:g a third lo ckin u a g l g on the bolt takes its be ring, and on which also are mounted th esa fety and magazine cut - o ff de vices , and in the bottom of this receiver is a long c th e slot, called the magazine well , up through whi h F r . . o cartridges are fed rapidity of loading, mili

’ ' tary cartridges are furnished in brass clips o f five each, two clips to each pocket of the ammunition ban 0 d o lier carried by the soldier over his shoulder . T load , the bolt is drawn back and a clip pressed down on the follower plate of the magazine by the right thumb . The cartridges slide out of the clip and ar range themselves in a double row in the magazine , in three cartridges on the right and two on the left, o f stead one below the other as ‘in box magazine big '

. c as ts awa c game rifles Closing the bolt y the lip , and rotating it by the knob handle cocks the firin g a m pin , when drawing it b ck per its the first of the cartridges in the magazine to come up under the ex ‘ h o o k o n tractor the bolt . It is then shoved forward into the chamber by closing the bolt , and rotating its knob downwards brings the sear notch into operative e position with r spect to sear and trigger . Pulling the

fir latter draws down the sear notch , releasing the ing pin and striker which is attached to it, and the latter is driven forward by the coiled mainspring on th e firing pin until it projects out of the bolt and c s takes it ba k and to ses it out of the receiver , leaving th e e ic i s spac free for the next cartridge, wh h prompt

o o i ramp and up under the extractor h ok . Sh v ng the bolt forward an d closing th e action by rotating it o u fiv r loads the weapon, and so n, ntil the e ca tridges k d d are gone , when it can be very quic ly reloa e by push d e t ing in another clip . The recor sp ed wi h the bolt ac tio n s o fiVe , | far as I am aware, is aimed shots in th e e aimed ' s h o ts 5% seconds ; that of . l ver, five in 2 / n o 4 5 seconds . O e w uld say that the modern box

' magazine lever « rifles have all the advantages o f . c o n ‘ tin uo us fi re with clip cartridges plus th e d o uble speed r i ff r of rapid fire , if necessa y, but in mil tary a ai s it h as been found needful to limit the speed of fire to

10 s 2 00 to 00 . 0 hots a minute for 4 yards firing, 7 5 , f r 00 0 r s 800 o 5 to 70 ya d , and 5 shots , to all o f which are Well within the capa city of , the bolt action .

A diagram of the Springfield action, in position to fire , is given herewith . Note the position of the striker , drawn back in the bolt ; the bolt lugs , locked in their recesses in the receiver ; the short safety lug, backed solidly against the safety shoulder on th e r e c ei ver frame ; the sear notch of the firing pin en gag is ing the sear ; and, note also that the trigger pinned to the sear, with its upper bearing surface touching the solid metal of the receiver bottom . It is obvious that if you pull the trigger this bearing will pus h p r ec iable distance befo 0

i n . g training and military shooting training . For with ’ t r ai n s the hunter s trigger release instantaneous , the

c c ~ ing must be in prompt trigger release , in exact ordination with the eye aiming through the sights; the instant the latter swing on the mark, while in military training the sights are to be h eld on the mark r o ff r while the trigge is squeezed , and the trigge mechanism is d esigned to meet this style of shooting. “ It is all set forth at lengt h in the Small Arms n ” Firing Ma ual issued by the War Department , a ‘ s 2 0 f book of ome 5 pages , written partly by my riend ,

Lieut . (now Captain) Townsend Whelen, U . S . A . To make good shots out - o f th e greatest number of aver " age recruits with the least expenditure of time and ammunition is the aim of this manual . The course begins with aiming and position drills with the rifle empty . These train the recruit in the proper tech nique of sighting and holding in the various positions 1 of standing, kneeling, prone and sitting, in each of “ which he goes through a long course of sighting and squeezing o ff the trigger properly under competent

12 3

trigger muscles are properly hardened

- into c o ordination with the eye . For a

practice is also invaluable, in fact, I never omit hold ' ’ in g d rills all through the closed season ; a f ew ncnin O n e utes nightly keeps the muscles in trim . gets so ” used to calling the shot, that is , noting just where t the sights were when the hammer came down , hat

the bullet hole in corroboration is hardly necessary . The Army course follows with gallery practice at

0 e . 5 and 75 yards, kn eling, standing, prone and sitting The loads used are generally the armory charges of 1 e about 5 grains of powd r , reloaded in used cases ,

and are entirely accurate at indoor armory ranges . This is followed with Windage and elevation drills

with empty rifle , the corrections for the service rifle being 3 points on the gauge windage to move the 100 point of striking one foot at yards , points at

- 2 0 I 00 . 0 , point at 3 , etc Then, for elevation the cor rection necessary to raise the point of striking one

8 18 : foot is 4 5 yards at the hundred yard range , 5 yards 2 00 10 00 0 00 8 00 at , 5 at 3 , 7 at 4 , 4 at 5 , etc . The rear sight of the Springfield is a “leaf or ladder with graduations from 100 to 2 800 yards an d it has both U and peep sight h oles in a movable bar on the lad r is der . When the leaf is flat a thi d U exposed, on n o w the edge of the sliding bar , which is lying flat “ ” on the sight base . This third U is called the battle S sight, because the trajectory of the pringfield is

so flat that , at all skirmish and open battle ranges n ’ the da ger zone of the bullet s flight . The fr e is fixed and immovabl , being pinned to “ l e swaged to the barrel . The front leaf itse f can b taken out by driving out the pin in case of breakage

o n th e i = and, march , is protected by a spring steel s g ht r r o f gua d . The rea edge this front sight is a vertical a black face, making an ide l combination with the black rear U when held on a white target paper with the ’ bull s - eye just centred above the top of the sight and a thin white line showing between it an d th e bo tto m mo dific a of the bull ; but , for big game, I find a good tion to consist in filing a 4 5 degree flat across the sharp “ ” . h r nose of the sight top , t is bright mirror , as it we e , ’ i reflecting the skylight into the shooter s eyes . Th s gives a bright square bea' d which can be seen against s dark and grey , objects in all lights , and is vi ible earlier in the morning and later at night than an y

t . o her sight And , unlike beads , it does not shoot away

from the light . The r ec f uit is then introduced to the open range h e and to full service charges . If his scores show

has not profited by his holding and aiming practice,

back he goes to that kind of drill again . But , as a h r ac rule , he s ows good proficiency, and the gallery p ar tice has helped some, though open air conditions e

f 2 00 - quite di ferent . He begins at the yard range , and shoots in all four positions until he qualifies in the “ ” lowest grade in known distance practice , as shoot f e ing at known ranges is called . All o fic rs and men o n s must qualify thi course, of all branches of the fi service . The methods of aiming and ring are uni

12 6

10 i - s 0 by g ves 4 quarter point ,

and XI being about 4 5 degreesacross your a windage of one—half the results given formula . A rise in temperature causes the bullet a V 0 high ; decrease ice versa , due to change of the a i r and consequent alteration s is tan c e and trajectory of bullet . heat waves, easily seen through the bright sunlight . They show the direction and or of the wind, and the waves go straight up in a calm . When there is a wind blowing do n “ in a boil , for there is certain to be a drift will land o ff the bull

Army rapid fire , equivalent to the hunt n s h o dtin ing g , is done by a rapid squeeze of 0 ger, as no quicker release can be construction of the sear . The rifle is no 1 between shots , but held to shoulder with the while the right manipulates the bolt . The c lc e u at d is to catch , the aim quickly and hold O u squeezing as rapidly as possible . bvio sly perfection can be attained as with the h un ti but very good rapid fire scores are ma

Army and Guard . Ten seconds per shot i ” fire r in milita y usage , while in hunting two is ample , and three seldom used . During n 3 00 d . Ta rg e t A . Fo r S le w Fl r e a t 2 00 a d y

' l n Fl r e a t 5 00 Te n e t B . Fo r s lo w e n d M a g a z e a n d S lo w Fl r e a t 6 00 y d e .

r 0 a n d 1000 d e . Ta r g e t c . Fo r S l e w Fl e a t 8 0 y . m a y a l s o h e n e e d i n Fr a c t l o e w it h Te l e s c o sae S lg h t s a t ra n g e s o f 1000 y a rds o r m o r e

Ta r e t D Fo r Re ld Fl r e a t 2 00. 3 00. a n d 6 0 0 g . p

y a rds .

D D M L Y R E S U ED BY HE s A M T T T U . STA A I ITA S . R Y NATI NA GUARD N R R A G , O L NATIONAL RIFLE AS SOCIATION

W I ND CLOCK

FOR AN OUTDOOR RIFLE RA NGE

S Getting back to the pringfield itself , a o f minor parts should become well familiarised by \ ‘ " all citizens who wish to be posted on the use of a.

military rifle . The rear portion of the bolt, called o the sleeve, is that part f it behind the safety shoul I t t h e r der of the receiver . is part carrying the sea notch which i s moved backwards against the pres ‘ sure o f the mainspring by the cam of the bolt in the

action of rotating the bolt and cocking the piece . The sleeve is screwed to the bolt and held from unturn in g by a small catch, which you press to release in e m cleaning the bolt . As a good deal of powd r gri e “ i accumulates in the bolt during a lot of firing, it s necessary for every recruit to know how to clean

the bolt . T0 get the bolt with its sleeve out of the —o ff receiver the cut , as the small catch which regu ‘ m a az me lates the g is called, is placed in centre notch

: an d the safety lock turned to a vertical position . ‘ Rai s m h g the bolt handle to vertical position , it can t en we r e be withdrawn , and can unscrew the sleeve by

leasing the little sleeve lock mentioned before . The an d s t r iker sleeve brings out with it the firing pin , n and to get the latter apart , let down the te sion of

the mainspring by turning th e safety lock down . to

the left , press cocking piece against your breast , and draw back the firing pin sleeve which will release r e the striker . The parts can then be cleaned and ff . o assembled To get the extractor the bolt , turn it to the right , forcing its tongue out of the groove and

‘ i ao RI FLES AND

' th e latter is .pulled back after the last car e t e been fir d , thus telling h soldier that his

1

is o n r th e w r t ecord, and this arrangement of follo e was designed to prevent such episodes h i e . This about completes t descr ption of our U . S M n a d b . ilitary rifle, except for the sling strap the utt

plate . The latter has a covered trap door of steel , letting into a recess in the butt containing a wooden x o spare part container , with an extra striker , e tract r and firing pin for use in campaign ing - in case these

parts wear o ut in the stress of continuous battle . A final ‘ dismounting required of the recruit is m a a z me that of the g . The floor plate is first released by pressing on its catch with the bullet end of a h cartridge through a hole in the plate for t e purpose . The rear en d o f the first limb of the magazine spring is then raised to clear the recess in the floor plate and C the same is done to release the follower . lean and

replace the reverse of the above, inserting the follower

and spring into the magazine from below , catching the tenon of the flo Or plate in its recess and th en th e

lug in its slot on the guard , when it can . be snapped home by pressing the rear end of th e floor plate for

ward and inward . Of S The three firing positions Prone , tanding and

Kneeling follow . Sitting position is given more lati

tude , in general with both heels in the ground, body o mt upright , left elbow on left knee, the p of elbow in I UT WH N IN TH FO U R M I I TARY H TING P ITI N L E . ELE E L S OO OS O S

k n n S n . o o m : o n s a n n , i , T o p t o b tt Pr e , t di g eel g itti g

132

c n o ti mg the points mentioned . o c S If p ssible , get some experien ed shooter to ho w you just how to take these positions . Then practise until they are natural for you .

The Standing Position The picture below shows the proper standing posi tion . Stand sideways with your right foot at the back and turned towards the right . Keep your left foot straight and hold your left arm against your body, using your body as a rest to support the rifle . e The better you begin , the bett r your final results ’ will be . Don t let your eagerness to shoot lead you to neglect . practising the proper shooting positions until they become second nature to you . Work at them until you take them naturally every time you

‘ aim a rifle . How to Aim After practising the position in which you are to m going shoot until it becomes co fortable and easy, you are ready to take up aiming . The first thing to remember is to bring your ai m as quickly as possible upon the“ target and then imme dia tely press the trigger with the first joint of the

finger . Do not shoot wildly without stopping to learn e where each shot hits , becaus that does not develop your marksmanship and makes you only discouraged

an d careless . 133

' h an d n ot see w ere it hit , if it is ' and a good hit, try to decide why not what you can do to Overcome th e fault Do not get your eyes too near the rear sight or

' it will become blurred and bad shooting will result .

Rest your cheek firmly on the butt of the rifle , raising th e rifle high on the shoulder instead of lo wer ingy o ur head to meet the butt .

Figure I shows h o w a good aim with an open sight looks . The top of the front sight is just below ’ ' h e - o th e t bull s eye . At the right you will see h w ’ bull s - eye would appear if you could look at it through the barrel when t h e s ight is in the position shown at the left . Figure 2 show s how the sight looks when th e tip Seems too low through the notch of an open sight or r e too low through th e circle of a peep sight . The l is su t shown in the illustration of the target at the. o . l w right The sh t in both cases goes too o . In Figure 3 you will see the result of shooting with the front sight too high . The bullet naturally u goes above the target . If yo do not hold the sight on the centre of the target the bullet goes to the right ’ - or left of the bull s eye as the case m ay be . Figure 3 shows how the sights appear under these conditions F A with an open sight , and igure 3 shows error of the same kind with a peep sight .

Figure 4 shows the correct method of sighting.

Always aim just below the centre of your target . This ' You will have a b etter chan ce of seeing how th let strikes . You will also avoid the natural ten

f o r at the mark and not at the sight . This makes O n more accurate shooting . e of the most common

“ faults in aiming is keeping the eye on the front sight instead of on th e mark . i Never t p your rifle to one side or the other . This “ ” 1 3 a fault known in shooting as canting the rifle . The ff remaining pictures show the e ect of , tipping your rifle one way or the other . Hold your breath while aiming and do not aim “

n . n too lo g If you do, you will become u steady and your eyesight will become uncertain . If you do not aim quickly bring your rifle into good , take it from your shoulder , rest and aim again . Do not look at the target any more than is necessary . When not

. aiming, rest your eyes by looking down on the ground . i t . Do not yank or pull the trigger . Press gently

The above represents , in condensed form , the army o requirements in military rifle instructi n , and has been

done into vest pocket booklet form by the U . S .

Co . Cartridge , to whom we are also indebted for the

diagrams on sighting . While much of it is useless

' bi ame in g g shooting, it all forms an excellent ground — o work , just as a good course in trap sho ting forms a groundwork f o r snapping feathered game in the e woods . Tak this book into the fields with you , and go through the three firing positions in person until you kn o w them for mere book instruction is easily wh er eas a s forgotten , , little actual practice fixe the

1 5

t the si h an d A end of the stalk, you are still out of g t‘ ti s S ec ted t n u p , and have plen y of time to assume the fi o ring positi n that will insure a hit , and this the mili tary prone or kneeling does for you . Yet, I have known many a hunter wh o never had taken the trou ble to learn these positions an d so used ones of h is o wn r th e , probably already tried out and disca ded b—y military authorities because of inherent faults and he therefore missed ! And the chagrin of mis s mg a em , g . standing , shot with your uide looking on cont p tuOus l a s and y, is gall Wormwood compared to a fair miss at galloping game in thick timber . The military rifle is equipped with a sling strap ; f 3. t u se i n healthy , husky a fair , long enough o be of i t an d o act d r scal ng rampar s , als to as a stea ie of your aim . Unlike the plain single sling, slipped under your left elbow as described in my chapter on rifle sights , this military sling has had a system devised

' for b it in the Regulations, which system ena les whole “ ” flocks of possibles to be garnered by it s continuous '

. o wn use Unlike my big game sling hold, in which the left elbow is simply dropped through the loop and the fore end grasped with the strap coming down

le t - o f t e th e across the f hand side h left wrist , sys " tem devised by . Uncle S am gives an extra twist to the strap where it passes up from the elbow to the ‘ ' — s o th at r i h t fore end, it passes the g side of your left 13 6 ‘

f two d wrist instead of th e le t. Try the hol s it is seldom that you have time enough to Wind up f m e th e your le t arm into the ilitary sling hold, whil ’ i s i plain hunter s sling hold nstantaneous , but: the military scheme d o es give a trifle more steadiness th i eprone position . Using e ther of them in that posit ' I tion , can lay the sights on a mark apparently much t s e smaller than the top of the fron ight , and hold th m there without a t remor for a considerable time . If I ' were shooting a match I would use the milit ary e t sling hold , for that trifle of xtra steadiness migh ’ - n result m the one extra bull s eye that wi s the match .

The sling also aids ln both kneeling and standing pos1é a 1t tions , particul rly the latter , where compensates for the lack of steadiness brought about by modern , short ,

' li h ba r r el t s . g Take the old deer rifle of the forties , .

- a marvel of a venison getter . You plant its heavy bar t c an rel on any hing that you see , and can go away h and it th er e leave , so to speak, it lies so steady in your

a . h nds Not so the modern light barrel , which soon w abbles and dances about any small mark , no matter how you hold , and , in a heavy cross wind this tend ency gets so bad as to make you miss a lot . The sling corrects this fault , there being practically no diff erence in added steadiness between the military “ ’ ” I hold and the hunter s hold , as have dubbed the plain loop in distinction to the military double twist .

c- o . s they uld do For the re t, there were two fine

» 12 2 0 man doubles , a and a ; a fine ater 12 a pe g . ; a Mauser bolt rifle mm . ; a Steven s

- s a 2 2 i s single barrelled g . trap gun ; a couple of r fle ;

Right n o w the cabinet holds three principal guns, a ’ ' a - . . a 12 a . 35 cal Winchester model 9 5 rifle , Parker g ’ f c r 8— o e s . . shotgun, and a Colt fi model 3 cal . revolver

To a r 2 - 2 0 n d these e added the . 3 for Eastern deer a

- 12 small furred game shooting ; the Belgian , saved for the Kid when he gets old enough to shoot it ; and 2 8 h e . I the single shotgun , which is using now made

a clean sweep of all the rest, and am now humbly ' trying to learn all about the ! three r emammg guns I which am using constantly .

I Perhaps a br ie f explanation of the reasons for

cleaning out the rest may be of interest to shooters , after which w e can look over s ome of the progress ' made in krio wing the guns that I have settled down ‘

. with for the rest of my shooting days . To begin ‘ with the bolt rifle . A fine, accurate weapon . Made a perfectly rotten score with it the first match I ever a went into , missing bear as big as a cow three times — ’ out of five at 100 yards a feat that I couldn t dupli

- F 2 2 0 m . cate with the . 3 with y eyes shut ront sight two turned out to be loose , making the rifle shoot feet

high and a foot to the right . Sighted her in , and in the next match at the same bear tied Jack Hessian on a score of 33x 50 and won the match against 70 other o o O n shooters . S far s good . real game in heavy

timber she proved far too slow and clumsy to operate , et h bolt , and mighty easy to g suc a one , . too , xc itemen t of reloading a bolt gun with the gamein plain sight galloping away from yo u. And

- ! o — slow Lord S I kissed her good bye . Th e two Sauer double guns were beauties and — a made like a watch made so fine , in f ct, that the first breath of salt air in the locks gummed their safeties

' i h o fiXe and t cost t ree dollars a throw t get them d . ’ yv u You didn t have to get the guns ‘ et ; j st take them ‘ ' d o W n to Great South Bay or Ba r n eg at an d the salt wrack would d o th e rest . Impossible to get at the d mn e a u d . s feties to oil them, too Moreover, neither \ ‘ ’ 12 2 0 I the nor the fitted me , and couldn t hit a little T . r as bit with them y I would, by no possible scheme could I d rive my trap score abo ve 1 3 or 14 with the 12 2 0 x2 th e , while with the I did just 3 5 with it first ce time, and then , after three solid years of practi with 12 h 2 0 on u the , I t ought of taking the with me an p

- 1 land game shooting tr p and gave her another tryout . . t— x2 1 1 lo' w Resul 3 5 Try as would, hold high , hold ,

a . shoot fast, shoot slow, she refused to hit the cl ys Needless to say t hat gun did not go with me on the F exa s upland game trip . inally, after a particularly ‘ ' 12 w n perating day afield with the , hen I missed seve easy chances at quail and missed a rabbit coming right at me—both shots—I decided that we must 14 0

h id e 2 1 t at d fit me, and my scores jump d at once to

The Stevens trap single went because I do not care O n e to own two guns , one for trap and one for field . gets little enough practice as it is , and that very ex un m us t e an pensive , so that the g that you know lik ‘

. open book is your field gun, using its left full choked O e for the traps . therwise it was a fine little gun ; mad

2 0 z - a With it ; a trifle mu zle heavy for me personally , but very good for a beginner at trap - shooting who takes it up for its own sake rather than as an acces o s ry to field shooting . The repeater was something -i i . t of a surpr s e Three times I had had out afield , a a ml s s m a lw ys g abomin bly with it, until finally , when

I had scored twelve straight misses on black- bellied plover with it , I went back to the old Belgian and peace reigned once more . The gun stayed in the 3 1x exas cabinet for years , when one day , in a fit of p er atio n at making a couple of sevens with the Gers s man double , eemingly having dropped back with it ’ ’ 1 1 s l s from and g instead of making progress , I took

. . 1 x 1 the repeater down to the gun club A score of 3 5 , 2 1x2 followed by a 5 , was the pleasant surprise that h e this g un gave me . S was specially bored for trap

- shooting, with an extra tight choke, as patterns made

14 2

because of its power an d th e fact t hat 8 h mentary cartridge takes the . 3 short , whic e a fits my revolv r . I have seen much big game th t ’ 0 required a whole lot of killing with the . 3 Gov t a s a but rule one shot from the 35 tells the story, ’ it do esn t ' m ake much diff erence where you place it either . As to weight , all modern rifles weigh about alike ; a half a pound more o r less one way or th e , other I S mapp r ec iable on the trail ; nor is th e alleged kick noticeable when really firing at big game . Tell me the hunter who even remembers whether his rifle kicked or not when the moose went down ! As a o ne matter of fact , twenty shots from the 35 kick 2 0 h 12 —a — I S about the same as shots w1t the g . which certainly no great matter ! All this talk about a man carrying a “cannon ” just because he prefers a large 0 bore is based more on theory than fact. The . 4 5 i h t l er . is , in fact, quarter of a pound g than the 35 , e because b r ed out of the same barrel, and both of 0 them are but a trifle heavier than the . 3 ; while the — - 0 . . 44 4 , 33 , etc . , all large bore rifles , are exceedingly — — light much lighter than small bore guns purporting,

' i Giv em w a s u er o r . e to be in every y p a good punch , th e e and ability to land that punch , at any rang up — to 300 yards and any speed up to full gallop and you can keep all the other rifle advantages for mili tary range consumption ! The real thing to do is

' kn ow d o 1n s tead to the one rifle that you settle upon, of theorizing around with a new rifle every year . ’ 8 o ffic er s As for the . 3 model revolver, I preferred ’ it to any form of automatic for the r eas o n th at the 1413

p roducing capacities than by any theoretical quick

- , fir e f , o fensive defensive qualities . Where can you find a revolver that will pick out the bull at fifty to

' one hundred yards or snake a grouse out o f a tree ’ any more neatly than the 38 o ffic er s model with -long

- ? o u et s ” (z inch barrel And, if y g to clo e quarters u r nexpectedly with a g izzly, you will not make him v ' peevish with your revol er fire, as you most certainly 2 & . . W . would with the 3 S , the supplemental cartridge ’ ’ n for the 30 Gov t 06 . O the trail you cannot go loaded ’ bo th r ifle—it t down, with revolver and just isn done — by practical people since also a belt - axe is essential in . as part of your equipment But , the Rockies , one. ’ be shouldn t without either one or the other weapon, On e no matter what the season . experience of run n ck ! ing into a flo of grizzlies when armed with , noth — ing but a trout rod, as happened once to a friend of mine, will go far towards curing the disarmament l 8 theory in wi d country . And, as the . 3 met all the

r . above conditions , I chose it for my evolver There was a lot to do with those three weapons before the next hunting season set in . I had to get kn ow acquainted with all three of them , and what they would do in the various propositions supposed edic m to be good m e for various conditions afield . , R m— . aw u The rifle came first and Christian , just as she was , with the factory sights on her, I took her — up to camp an d made three disgraceful scores with her : a wild 2 1x50 offhand on the military target at 100 18 yards , an on the disappearing bear , which 14 41; RI FLE S

tervals an d 1 d eer x wh , a 7 on the running , hit him once in the shoulder an d once in th ’ ’t ing him three times . Didn t know my gun ; didn know a thing about her . Besides , she was smooth and ‘ ’ n o n u checked, so that one s sweaty fingers slipped ‘ the fore - end and tang ; she had no strap ; and her

sights were a joke . F . r irst, the sights I wanted a tang peep, not a e c eiver I S peep , because the latter so far from your eye t hat in dark or dismal light your eye cannot see through it . The folding tang peep , usually sold for b a this model rifle, is so placed y its base on the t ng l as to just avoid the—bolt end when the ever throws it back . Very nice for the bolt . But no thought ’ seems to have been expended upon the shooter s eye , into which the peep is sure to kick and put the optic out . Result, the salesman assures you wisely that “ we do not recommend a tang peep on our model ’

5 d es . 9 5 , and p his best to sell you a receiver peep

But Lieut . Whelen had told me of the tang peep on 0 his . 4 5 , which he had ferreted out from among the ’ - sight makers products , so I gently but firmly led that young salesman down into the cellar and made him go over with me their full stock of flexible peeps . We found what we wanted ; a peep set well up on the ’ m ef r eme b . tang, the model 94 type , if I correctly “ The salesman shook his head . Bolt will run into ” “ ?” it, he declared sagely . What if it does I retorted , “ ’ ” ! o that s what the flexible feature is for , man S we put it on and returned the one usually sold for the ’ ’

s . model 9 5 . Even at that the 35 kicks back far

n ing a 34 with the ru ning deer ( two hits in shoulder , two a 0 t in lungs , one cle n miss in front) , and a 3 wi h a . s n the ,bounding antelope, which mean three hits d ' Th i e s t two . s b a misses is some hard to hit, for his rump is only about eighteen inches in diameter and he bobs up and down at unexpected intervals , and you can fire your five shots at wi—ll , taking as many cracks at him at a time as possible for yo u may no t see him again ! With the same rifle I lost out on 00 the Mountain Sheep event at 3 yards , because I

—v wa s i e . still prone to hold as in military shooting . , ’ — with the bull s eye showing above the sight . Hunting rifles are sighted to hit where held on big game, and ’ if you lift the sights into the ram s body yo i1 blot him o ut almost entirely at that range . I chose to hold under him, firing at the last instant as the sights rose on his the result of putting the whole group ’ under the animal s belly . However , I was beginning

. r i fle to feel somewhat acquainted with my , and now started in on the supposition of unknown ranges , t e drawing coarse or fine , as h case might be , and targeting the peep so as to learn just what one of its divisions meant in inches of elevation at v ar l ou s n O f ra ges . course, there is no time to do this sight c l n th e hanging game fields , but an accurate knowl e edg of it is useful when , say, you have completed a stalk on sheep or goat, are still out of sight, and have plenty of time to set sights for an estimated range of from three hundred to three hundred and fifty yards . — Up to that range the old timer s 1mply draws ” e a leetl coarse, as he knows by experience just what h is rifle will do with varying coarseness of The next study was the s

- are two of them made for the . 35 , the brass chamber 8 supplementary, shooting the . 3 long, and the steel supplemental with a clip up near the top end, which l 80 o ut be ho ds the . 3 automatic . I tried the first, cause its cartridges would go i n my revolver with out necessitating taking along another breed of am fin e— munition . The groups were four inch es at — 4 0 yards off hand shooting and I won a grouse shoot

n O . with it against good old j oh Dietz , of lympic fame A lo n g a bo ut the third box of cartridges the extractor came out, bringing with it the h ead of the supple a ! ’ ment ry cartridge Now , then, you re out in Wyo

- ming, eighty miles from a railroad, and have just . shot a grouse with the supplementary . Its head com ing o ff has put the big- game rifle out of commission " and you are to g et out the rest of that headless shell with such tools only as are found about camp . I confess to having a fairly complete assortment of small tools with me on the trail and I tried them all . At the end of two hours that supplementary wa s stuck

th e f r ifle r ul n ed tighter than ever and I was all in , with for the rest of the trip—Know your gun ! A friend e of min had this very thing happen , also , and it cost ’ to et him four dollars at a gunsmith s _ g the barrel o ff and the shell removed by heating the barrel . As ” 1418

me had the Marble Arms Co . send their “ ’ n 8 on lem n t e . s s u e ta me tary, since h 3 l g bras pp

l “ it x h a w r l s e d . as of This st ong and sure , the who e body of the shell being hard steel with a firing pin 8 down the centre . The . 3 automatic cartridges ( rim less) fit in the end of this shell , which places them t r 1 well into the rifle lands of the . 35 . Using the pearl

angle leaf sight, I got group after group with it at

’ 0 ar s 4 y ds not exceeding three inches, and the noi e of

18 . the cartridge quite insignificant For grouse, rab bits and ducks along the trails in the Rockies it will s O n 8 be fir t class . my last trip I used the 3 revolver

and armory cartridges in the bolt rifle for this work, 3 both of which were rather n 01sy though accurate

Turmn n ew f ew g to the shotgun, a tries at the traps with standard loads showed that I was on the 1 1 right track, for my scores at once jumped to 7, 9 , 2 0 2 2 wa s —o f and once a , which an unheard feat for me . I had one day afield with her up North , when

everything went lovely, and then I took her down

S o . to , outh Carolina on a quail and woodcock sho t x r l n Before g o mg I made one e pe m e t with her . As

sold over the counter both barrels were tight choked, "

- as revealed by t ry1n g a ten cent piece on them . It looked bad for my right barrel on the rise of the wa s covey, but there no time to have the right bored

0 this contention out . During the rest

' o ften rms s mg with the right because th e covey bird

in 2 - lets a 4 inch circle at thirty yards , made with the f - ull choked left explains this . The gun shot s far closer than I could hold at this di tance , and thirty two pellets in the 5 - inch bull showed that I Would

a . o have minced the bird, nyhow S , on my return to c the ity, I proceeded to get still further acquainted with my shotgun by having her right barrel bored 10 out to medium choke . As roughly measured by a l s cent p ece , thi widened the barrel to a scant inch more than the diameter of the com—just about the same as both barrels of the old Belgian double .

it 0- Patterning , I got 353 No . 7% pellets in a 3 inch c 1r cle at 30 yards twelve of which found the ’ - - m ff . te o 0 e 5 inch bull s eye S pp g to 4 yards, I gav

th e - o f her full choked left , with the result 337 pellets — in the 30 inch circle fourteen of which found ’ — o mt the bull s eye . Incidentally , I might p out that ' the brush shells gave 2 57 pellets ( 5770 ) in the 30

1 0 inch circle at thirty yards and 187 ( 4 7 ) at forty . fi Would that medium bo r ed right be good medicine with doubles at the traps ? The answer to that came at the next tournament I went into, where I scored

' 2 2 x2 ev en t h i h es t 5 at the main ( g score of my life, . 1 x 1 1x2 so far ) and 7 2 5 at doubles . Also , 4 at the BRU S H L OAD I N FULL CHOKED LEFT B RU SH LOAD FULL CHOK ED A T

3 Y D . 8 AT 0 AR S . NO SHOT 4 0 YARDS

' M EDI UM CHOK ED RI GH T A111 30- YARDS FULL CHOKED LEFT A T 4 0 YARDS 6 INCHES OF F CENTER HOLDING

FULL CHOK ED LEFT AT 30 YARDS M OU NTAIN SHEEP STANDING IN 2 4 - INCH CIRCLE TARGET AT 3 00 YARDS

fo r I n the excitement of shooting at wild g ame you

u co - nat rally, With no time for the eye or brain to r l l h i e r rect fau ts i n alignment . And t e result s that y a

a 1 r es en t t te o f “ and a clean m s s i s scored . In the p s a c 1n c at our game, parti ularly the North , the chan es

—A game a r e so f ew that not many ml s s es can be per . mitted without th e hunter coming home with an empty

‘ t h r evo lver t s a a bo ut h er f As to e , there is li tle to y l ' ' I nc e x 0 o made a fine score, 4 5 5 , with a cheap revolver

- N i at the yard range . ext morning I went out w th 0— the standard target for the 5 yard range , confidently

' expecting to repeat the performance . The score e showed , with the v ry same holding, an inclination on

' e r the part of the revolver to miss the target altog the , no r did fifty cartridges bring to light any further de tails except that the cheap revolver would sling its bullets two feet o r more o ff yo ur h o ldin g at 50 yards

" s i o m and wa absolutely unrel able . After g g over what I wanted my revolver to do for me on the hunt s ’ 8 o fficer s m ing trial , I bought the 3 odel and proceeded ' that revolver let the Kentucky plat e - shooters at 100 been shooting her my scores have climbed s teadily um n o w 6 68X I OO til they run between 5 and , on the stand

- — ard American 50 yard match target with 4 inch bull O ut ring. West she kept a camp supplied with fresh e grouse for thr e weeks , and occasionally produced a

the - rabbit , shot on the run . At man killing target 1 x2 2 x2 O she has twice scored 7 5 and once 3 5 . nly

' once have I doubted her and that wa s one year at a match where I made what appeared from the holding be but to three successive bulls, which were each greeted by a wav mg of the score stick indicating a ‘ th t e total iss of h target . At the third of these I lost

r n ~ faith in my . old f ie d an d proceeded to sight coarse i t two . and h gh , with the resul of fours above the bull An examination of the target found all the rest of th e the shots in the bull, which was evidently last place

- the score boy thought of looking for them , so I pro But tested the score and demanded a second shoot . that is not all of that yarn : while waiting for my turn n to come around again , at the tail of the processio , I n o e tered a quail shoot at the traps , tied my pponent ff t o and had to shoot o . Coming back the revolver

- range, I took up the good old six gun and started after ’ - ! th e l c e - some more bull s eyes , but, alas cold arm that was n ow was once so steady hot and quivering, shot ’ '

. ; N th e f i ano ther in shooting ever pull trap s lever O. ‘ ' th e sqnad if yo u are just g o mg into an important ev ent yourself in the next squad ; never shoot rifle or

‘ shotgun just before attempting a revolver score ; never run a race or indulge in violent exercise just f before going into a di ficult rifle match . You simply ul et t cannot get your body q , and it is a still body tha fi e a n e . makes possibl rifle score A strap helps a lot , — o is f v and, as many a big game sh t o fered after a io wa lent race or climb , the only y to avoid misses due to pounding heart and bursting lungs is to have a quickly set strap and train yourself to a st le of r ifle — y shooting that c o ordinates eye and trigger finger to let o ff with quick aim at the prec13 e 1n s tan t that the I s t e . bead on h animal The military style of firing, with gun on top of thumb and forefinger and trigger “ ” Off u wished while holding dead under the b ll, ex plains why so many world- renowned military shot s will miss a bear as big as a co w at 60 yards after a chase over mountain slopes and do wn timber that

would tax the lungs of an elephant . n ! O n e r 1fle Know your g u , one shotgun , one side ' W t c an arm , if you will , but know hat hey do over the whole r ange of their capacity an d how to get results ’ ’ “ ” - with them . It s the secret of the old timer s git thar ’ meat g un that comes home with the game and lets mighty few fighting chances get away !

156

- se a s h ts The bird ripped from the trap hou , fast traig a ft er ' t t h e W away, and just as he was going i , ind

” enough to make the scorer Call Laws t ! and break the winning streak . His next two birds were the meanest that can be shot out of a trap- hous e “ ” s . I O ur wild left quarters at the No position . trap e n shooter did not know that, being a novice , but h k ew Ol that he missed them both , and immediately that d ’ ’ - - - pep, that superb confidence , that just can t miss em, i ‘ began to evaporate . In spite of jamming h s hat down over his ears , the wind would still lift it just enough to make him nervous, and he tried so very hard for his

- N I fourth bird T a right quarter and easy from o .

- that he missed it also . For the fifth bird he had to “ ” ! the call Pull three times , drawing broken targets

“ two b th e first , so that y time the third bird finally got o ff ! , the strain of concentration on the rise had grown so acute as to make him miss a gain . 2 Disgustedly he moved on to the No . position , and this brought the Old Veteran alongside him again 1 at No . . 1 Missed every damned bird at No . , growled

M . the N . . , his ears going white with nervousness “ ” Bum work ; only 50 per cent so far . “ ’ s tabbin Yea , I seen ye the air full of holes , SCENE AT T HE GRAND AM ERICAN HANDICAP TRAPSHOOTING TOURNAM ENT

THE TRAP FUL LER A T WORK

TRAPS OF THE ASBURY PARK GUN CLUB o S ho o ting the c la y pigeo n s o u t ver the s u rf.

6 d . have to o to add up 9 In five squads ,

u e 2 2 sually in gusty w ather , you have to break 3 to 5 f o ur imes 2 t and make at least one 5 straight . Only those who have shot week after week at th e traps ’ h o Oh know w infernally hard that is to do . , yes ; it s

— “ just like jumping over a stick once in a while yo u — , might accidentally miss one ! Well try it !

- r ifle - h Trap shooting as a sport is one with s ooting, — - - a archery, bait casting, revolver shooting combina to tion of skill , nerve, and eyesight that enables you hit a chosen mark . Since the world began man h as

always felt a certain thrill and pleasure in striking a. distant mark with a missile ; he is the only animal on ’ earth that can do it ; it s his badge of superiority over an d c law oo tooth g , and the thrill is so deep in the bl d t fl tha it never fails , no matter if you pulverize the y u ing clay for the thousandth time , p ncture your hun d r ed th r - - u n h th ee hundred yard b ll , drive your t arrow into the gold, bean the centre float with a wooden plug, or shoot out the last bit of black out of the pistol — o u bull . You never tire of turning the trick when y do it ! This is at the ba SI S of the fascination of trap I i ’ shooting . it were easy to hit every one of em, the ’ sport would soon pall but it s not . The best man in our club is still reaching out for a consistent 2 5 straight . He gets one every once in so often gener r e 2 befo e h can nail it down, and so spoil his 5 straight ;

. r babl eed What he p o y n s is a little more speed . ’ ’ Another man worried along on 16 s and 18 s with out material improvement until he had his ' gun ' s He traightened and a couple of ivory sights put on . then astonished the onlooking world with a run of

’ 0 n o w out 2 0 5 straight, and is seldom of the class . 1 1 Yet the day before this was written he did only , h o w r o ff showing even the Winners have thei days .

Oh - , yes ; trap shooting is as easy as kicking over a ’ — stick ! This shooter leads em a mile according to “ ”

o wn two . his version miles In other words , he is ‘ slow in swinging ; wherefore a gusty day at the traps or field - shooting in brus h and thicket would be apt to im o ff h e knock h t Christmas tree . “ ” And , as for us dubs , among which is cheerfully ta le—we classed the writer of this y who have never, — never been guilty of more than 2 2 out of 2 5 we have “ everything the matter with us , from nerves to

- sloppy holding . Trap shooting is just like golf or —— any other game of skill f too much butting in of The

Brains will spoil any score . By this I mean that the action is far too swift for mental control such as one s uses in deliberate rifle fire, and to hit the clay con ist ently you must depend largely upon that subconscious “ ” training of eye and muscle called form . 160

e at stanc , measures least five tim s h e br aSs ie o wings t al ft ever so carefully, mentality concentrated o n every movement

th e t for his crutch , and net result is a badly mutila ed

- green and a 50 foot bounce for the ball . He is at tempting to do the impossible to mentally direct every ’ action of his muscles in driving that ball . It can t be

' done ; the action is to o swift and the mind rather i h er fer e t s than helps . Along comes the veteran ; he gives one glance “ at T ‘ e o . h i th er e . a ball , an ther at the distant green s graceful , apparently careless , upward sweep of the r club, a powerful , accurate stroke , and the ball soa s an d bum s over the field, p , skips, hops and rolls onto ! r . the next g een . Hole in two Easy No w th e , observe beginner at the traps . Intense mental concentration in every feature ; ears and lips ' gone white with nervousness . His turn comes to call “ ” Pull ! and the gun is jammed to h is shoulder and

- forcibly held over the trap house . Every ounce of

- will power he owns is looking over that barrel . What ? Oh ! ’ is he thinking about , everything He s worry b h is ing a out score, worrying over what kind of a bird ’ e th e he s going to get, worrying ov r his shells , fit of

his gun , and; more than all , just plain scared to death .

But , above all , his mind is determined to see that the m gun is pointed right at that bird, no atter where it

16 2

c collide . And the average man has just about as mah chance to shine with the clays that way as he has to

- scintillate as a pebble caster . ’

h a . T ird, good , f st timing I d rather miss the whole twenty- fiv e and get o ff every shot inside of one

second than get a few of them by pottering around . T 0 r h e clay flies about 3 yards in the fi st second . It

' 16 starts yards from your . gun muzzle , so that if you get o ff your shot in four - fi fth s of a second you will get him at 4 0 yards in a straight - away and 2 8 to 30 yards in quarter birds . If you potter around much — 6 i the straight away will be 4 yards away n a second , 54 yards in I % seconds ( and your chances of hitting ’ him are n ow as thin as frog s hair ) wherefore yo u t S mus t r . imply be p omp Get the habit of fast timing, even at the sacrifice of some accuracy at first . You have acquired good form when you can hold accu

r atel . y in good, fast , even time Having this drilled o into your subconscious muscular system, y ur brain

is free to exercise judgment on such matters as lead , windage, shot drift , etc .

As to lead , in quartering birds , suppose you reach '

0 . him in 3 yards Now, the velocity of your shot is — 0 —a about feet 33 yards second , so that it will — get there in one eleventh second . Assuming that you have learned to swing right along with your bird and ' by the ac COmpan yin g d iag -ram of a { blue rock hit at the end of the first second , angle of

flies f o u r feet to every one of your apparent lead ; dur ing the time the shot is getting there it will have gone i n eight feet, wherefore two feet of lead will centre it

your target . As you take the same bird from the an d other positions , the lead grows less less until you

l . ho d nearly dead on him at No . 5 The reverse is so

‘ N 1 C . o f right quarters taken from . 5 back to No . This diagram also shows pretty conclusively that with correctly swinging gun a—nd fast timing very little ap parent lead is necessary not over 2 % feet in even a ” “ ” wild bird of 4 5 degrees angle . I say apparent lead, because from trap positions you do not actually hold ahead of the clay, but to one side of it in the

” Oin as direction it is g g , will be noted from the diagram .

Having acquired form , the next thing is nerves , or ” nerve , whichever way you take it . Getting back to New the story of the Member again , his first move — after joining was to get into the little I o shot practice

NO 2 . squads which infested the . trap Nothing to scare c limbin ho e him there ; plenty of other dubs , all g p

fully, with maybe an old stager or two to brace them u p with a steady string of consistent hits . He gets be the glad hand all around ; his squad is called , and it ’ fore he knows he s out on the platform, looking jocularly over the barrel and “bustin every one as w akes up to realise where h e is and

.

body becomes rigid , breathless , concentrated, para

- lytic with self consciousness . Gone is that easy, mas ter ful ! swing that got him the six straight, and in its we place have an anxious, nervous human , trying ever 8 mi s m . s . so hard to get Nos 7 and , and g them both

Ten he lands by a broken chip, and goes out with

seven when he s hould have ten straight . “ He rushes back to the score window and enters

the next squad , determined to do a straight run or die, and by the time his turn comes to go out on the plat in N form he is a frenzy of impatience . He gets o . 5 — position and fir es his gun immediately after calling ” ! fo Pull be re the bird even appears at all , too nerv ous to notice th e pressure already on the trigger fin h “ ” . e ger Just about there blows up , as they say of f a baseball pitcher a flicted with the same trouble . ’ He s all on edge , all on tiptoes ; has the wobbles , wan

' o u— dering gun muzzle , lost shell , safety every known — disease that can upset a trap - shooter and he finally

sneaks away too ashamed to look his score in the face . l A p ain case of nerves . Shows what they can do

to a man wh o was just about to run Off ten straight . ’ — D h v e And the answer to it is Prevention . on t a

things to annoy and upset you . Get a good trap belt , h with a pocket for the box of shells, one side of whic i166

' an d g iv e you gun headache in the first string unless

of powder and 1% - ounce shot are plenty for c o n s is t s

neglect ear protectors or cotton wads in your ears . It makes a vast diff erence in your scores whether Or no your raw ear drums are being pounded by that in h Tr t e . cessant discharge of squad guns . y it and see I f you are using your pet double for trap shoot ing, find out which barrel has the heaviest choke and o use that exclusively . Learn to hold close en ugh to hit consistently with it , rather than use the wide scat ter of the other barrel . You may hit more at first r with the latter , but in the long run you full choke

i th e will give yqu fewest unaccountable misses , and even its pattern is none too close for the elusive clay . Be careful about doing other muscular work than trap - shooting when your squ ad comes up o ff and on ’ ’ all day . I ve seen a man s performance utterly ruined because he good - naturedly consented to pull th e trap

- during the absence of the trap boy . It is hard work, that regular swing of the levers and squeeze of the o ff release, and it put his shooting muscles so their form as to make him lose most of his next twenty - fiv e birds . The final jinx to chase out is the which - trap quan — an . dary . Modern clubs have but one automatic ' ‘ ’ é er W i s e you ll have to swing a matter of fo ur t féet fl before getting into the line of ight of your bird, and there is no time to do it . ’ ff o To the writer s mind , if you can a rd it , a grand way out of all these jinxes is to buy er trap grade gun and leave the field gun without any trap specialties . n r This is not so expensive as it lo oks . While wo de — ful high priced trap guns ar e to beh ad for from o ne d to three hundred dollars , for about thirty ollars you et e can g trap grade repeaters , especially stock d, bored

- and designed for trap shooting, and they are really splendid arms , too , many a trap tournament cham i n h i p o S p being credited to them . A s s umin th aLth e f o r e o in g . g g screed has awakened ‘ - o in , the reader a burning desire to hit the trap sh oting be o wn thing, your first move would to a trap yourself or join the local gun club . For yo u can buy a o o very go d trap, shooting all angles , hand l ading, and k 00 a barrel of blue roc s costs for 5 . All you n o w - an need is a shallow box , open field, and a friend to pull for you , and you are ready for practice . Be sure to peg your trap box down with stout stakes , for

I the rearward kick of the tr ap Will take all the drive out of the bird unless it has something solid to kick against .

S - hoot fifty straight aways , beginning about ten Yo u e ff i will find it . mak s a vast di erence which pos

from certain positions which will get away again an d: i wa aga n, and the only y is to shoot twenty or fifty of

. A them in a string, studying each shot ll of this spe c ial practice you cannot get at the club . I never saw a squad yet that would cons ent to shooting even ten o left quarters r right quarters exclusively , for the good of the practice . There is sure to be at least one man out of the five to whom that particular bird is “ ” and soup, it is not fair to ask him to spend his good money smothering ten of them . With the home trap you can work out any hard , bird until the muscles which swing on him get over their awkwardness . C Lone practice , however, is tiresome ompared with the fun that three or four good fellows can g et out of the same shooting, so your next move will be to look s up some kindred spirits , get together three trap and m fix some shooting dates . So e one loans the use of a On d field, or a beach or p shore is selected, and the crowd chips in enough to buy rough hemlock ”boards 6 for a screen . This should be 3 feet inches high and 16 n feet long ( the merchant le gth of the lumber) , and the screen should be double , with the cracks of one set covered by the second set . Behind this screen are the r th ee traps , screwed to three stout stakes driven into r n f the g o u d o r each trap . They are set four feet apart and the pull ropes led out through holes bored

' a t ut ' tele ra h w lever , with S o g p ire ‘ n c téd e e to the release catch . The puller mak s

- the trap inside the trap house , and then pulls back on h lever , thus putting tension on the spring. Meanw ile, the boy in the trap - house drops a blue rock in the ea r s “ ” ! th e rier . At the command Pull the puller squeezes “ a r m re release catch on the lever , which sets the a

- fl h e inside the trap house , and the bird ies out . W il

t the puller is reaching forward again with his let er , the boy in the trap - house changes t h e angle of throw of the trap and gets another clay ready . Such a tra p can be either hired or bought outright from two dif f er en t i n d compan es , a can be Worked as fast as a fi e Th e r . squad can , taking either singles or doubles s in éh house for it is be t made of yellow pine sheathing,

' nailed horizontally to the four corner posts , outside — ' of which is - inch tongue - and groove wainscoting r Oo f nailed vertically . The has a pitch of about 4 “ “ inches and is covered with I n dur o id or Rubber oid n l . d roofing A front oor of wainscoting, hi ged a ong ‘ t O ' the bo tom , pens out flat on the field in front of the

- trap house , and , when closed with a padlock up under ff the eaves , e ectually locks up the trap and the stored piles of blue rocks inside . Let me tell you the s to ry O f the organisation of a ‘ certain club that is n o w one of the strongest in the THREE CLA Y BIRD TRAPS SET BEHIND BOARD SCREEN ON THE SARGEANT SYSTEM

DOUBLE- TARGET AUTOM ATIC CLAY BIRD TRAP

INTERIOR OF TRAP HOUSE

s essio n of about $9 0 in funds

Permission wa s given us to use the beach in front of

i - m the pavilion tself as a clubhouse, shell roo ,

in ~ etc . Shooting captains were then elected and N ’ structed to get up a shoot for ew Year s Day . e The committe s then got busy and built , two trap houses and a screen for a third trap ; firing platforms were built of old lumber picked up here and there ’ n New t alo g the beach , and on Year s Day the firs

was . shoot was held . It a corker The membership had jumped up to over a hundred and every one

turned out . There were ten events of fifteen birds a nd n each, cash mercha dise prizes , practice events n all three trap s busy all day long. An old sa d pirate was o n hand in the upper floor of the pavilion with

v C e n unbeat-a huge ats of clam howd r , u limited pie, and — able biscuits all free on the club . Quite a gathering of ladies watched the shooting from the glass—enclosed

' an d upper pavilion, , though the day was blustery and

we . cold , had a great time After that the club held regular shoots W edn es

h o n a days and Saturdays , wit big tournaments all holi was — days , the largest of which the three day shoot

during the Easter holidays . The membership had 2 0 be jumped to over 5 , and the city of Asbury Park 00 gan to take interest , donating $3 added money to Boardwalk . A handsome clubhouse was made over to o t our use, and firing platforms built u beyond the n public raili g of the Boardwalk, with runways lead

- l ing from them out to the trap houses . We he d a

o - grand sh ot on moving day , and the trap shooting of our club is now one of the spectacular features of the

’ t s Boardwalk, one of the at raction of Asbury Park,

a . Th e o and alw ys draws a crowd pigeons g sailing I

” h s o out over the surf, you ave a good skyline to h ot ’ ‘ a s ol ag inst , and it s alway co and pleasant, even on t‘he

m . Sat hottest sum er day Personally, I never miss a i ‘ ‘ r d a h o t I n ev er win u s o . y used to anything, because ‘ my whole left side s eemed to be afflicted with creep a t ing par lysis, so tha if I got eight left quarters ( and — I g enerally did sometimes nine) my score was pretty ’ 1 sure to be 7 . It s my fetish , that left quarter thing, l x but I ove the game , knowing that some day the jin — “ — will be chased and then me for our 2 0 o r - better

' ! mad e it 2 0 squad And since this was written I have , 2 2 to is n o w my average . CHAPTER XI I

CLA v B I RD PRA CTI CE A FIELD

s To my mind the clay pigeon trap , properly u ed , is the only practical thing for training in wing shoot O ing . The utfit shown was evolved after consider able experimentation and consists of a blue rock trap

( Expert No . bolted to a shallow box 2 4 by 36 ’ inches, a small boy to pull the trap , a child s express un wagon , s dry packages of clay birds and certain

o . s b xes of shells loaded with 7% chilled I live , a do too thousands of other gunners , in a section not crowded, yet within town limits , so that it is at least — a half- mile to the open fi eld s too far to carry a heavy trap . Various attempts at field practice i n likely spots near my house simply resulted in stirring up a m nest of anxious and indignant farmers . An aut o o but bile would have solved the problem , being under a vo w to live and die a poor man , heaven bless you , I

. t have none Besides , the car can go where the auto — cannot along woodland trails , out into rough fields and the like . A little thought will convince you that the practice to be had with the clay pigeon trap much more closely approximates real wing shooting than any scheme for firing with swinging gun at a stationary mar k or at such marks as tin cans thrown in the air . Neither 174

“ n you eed to swing ahead and pull ,

h o w h and why you hit and how and w y you missed . The flight of the clay pigeon gets slower and sl ower as it falls , and it will still be in range when it alights, that you have ample time fo r the second barrel if you miss with the first . This method teaches you quickness in th r o wmg your gun into alignment upon the flash of the birds into the air, steadiness in taking f o r time enough an intelligent aim , and form in gun i swing ng, not stopping as you pull , but swinging along the line of flight s o that the second barrel can follow the first immediately in case of a miss . If a beginner i O ff s l s persists n snapping half cocked, take his he l away from him and give him twenty - fiv e birds with empty gun until he learns to take time enough fo r an i intelligent a m. Having acquired proficiency and steadiness at an d close ranges slow birds , the next step will be what “ ” ” is called the Quail Shoot. Choose a field for this full of brush and scrub pines . Conceal the trap be ‘ hind a bush and lead o ut th e pull string straight be o N hind y u . o w walk up o n the trap with ready gun and the bo ywill pull when you are about six yards

th e . from bush The angle will be unknown, but you 1 ar o n yards away when you e it, leav ing yo u half a second to putter around with your aim

practice at doubles can be h ad from the Quail

The tyro should n o wbe ready for standard trap t s work . In spite of the sneers of ve eran wing shot , clay bird shooting is not easy, particularly for begin ners. I have known many of them to drudge along for a hundred shells Without doing over six or seven “ ” - fi in deads out of each twenty ve . To get practice for regular squad work, conceal the trap behind a bush as before and take your position sixteen yards to the rear , with the puller behind you . Line up your iec e ~ c ar e full - p . y, holding directly over the bush , and “ ” call Pull . The bird will rise from behind the bush th eli Of and you follow up ne flight, swinging the gun s fa ter than the speed of the pigeon , and, just as you see that little disc swimming over the sight , pull . ’ You ll get him . Why ? Because your gun is swinging fasterthan the bird is going, and during that instant that your hammer is falling and the trigger releasing you have a swung head and automatically got your lead . If you halt the gun you are lost . The whole secret is speed . ‘You have no time for change of angle of swing, nor for a wabbly second sight . In one second the bird is out of range . It is a tiny object, only four - » 178 R I FLE S A ND S HOTGUNS x

and 8 t flies , beyond 3 yards even the pat ern twelve opens out so that your chances of getting th e ens than one pellet on saucer are slim, while sixte and twenties are out of the question except to those

’ - fi fth s h Within four of a second from t e. time a bird appears above the trap shed . The saucers are br oken 18 2 2 th e at to yards from the trap , which gives ex a treme range that an expert will uniformly kill at, t from 34 to 38 yards th e n Knowing importance of time, you will the endeavour to swing accurately and let o ff promptly ‘ — when yo u c atc h your birds no wobbling or pottering ‘ r but Or to verify you s ight , strong, decisive work, hit

. e miss Better a miss than a bird . caught on a fluk out of range . Your previous practice with slow birds and short ranges should have got some gun speed into in you, combined with your acquired steadiness and n tellig e t aiming. Try fifty birds straightaway and

fifty right and left quarters . If you are not hitting

ten - fiv e more than out of twenty , better move up to twelve yards until you get the hang of it . When you arrive at a consistent twenty birds out

- five 16 of twenty , unknown angles , yards , go and join the nearest gun club ; and before you go let me wh is per a few precepts of trap form in thine ear : First of all provide you with a leather or canvas shell box holder . It is simply a belt with a square pocket in front , — o ff which just fits a box of twenty fiv e shells . Tear one side of the box exposing the upper tier of cartridges

m R 1 eo n o . p g g g another esult, a wobbly aim , a halted

Wherefore be sur e and keep track of the traps and

you calls Pull !

If you are going to do much trap shooting, better take your gun to a smith ’ s and have two ivory beads l h t and put on, the arge one in place of the front sig

- the small one half way down the barrel . Align these h o l n o u . d to show but one bead whe y over your trap , leaving you nothing to do but follow up and smash “ ! ” your bird when you call Pull Enough , in all

conscience.

If these white beads are good for trap shooting, why not for field work ? The answer lies in the same basket with why 7/2 chilled only and whythe gun at shoulder when calling “Pull —trap shooting calls

for very accurate sighting on a very small target. There is no time at 16 yards from th e traps to get your g un to shoulder and still have time to find that infinitesimal speck an d kill it before it gets out of ’ th m is o n d étr range . In the same way e e of 7% — chilled it is the one pellet that will give the densest possible pattern with the heaviest shot that will surely break a clay saucer if two of them hit it . The size

was w . , as it ere, invented especially for trap shooting I . 8s Two No will not do it with any certainty, and ‘ have pic ked up many a pigeon with a neat hole in it haven t a chance with fours unless your saucers ar e 8 12 6 d an d as e h ts something the of a mallard uck, for § I once knew a w1n g shot who horned into a trap

’ - m . 85 u squad with a twenty bore loaded with No soft , der the impression that h is smaller shot would , com k fi pensate for his smaller bore . He bro e his rst three straight , and we all sat up on our hind legs and o u n n flopped up r ears, for here was sure a wo der g — u n s - two poi ter , but as he lo t the remaining twenty did 1nterest birds ( some of , which really hop) , our ml c 1 Fan n e ac ad e . m mer ly became aga n Jack g , who , W h was present, remarked that ith suc a load he could l hardly have done better himself, eights being too sma l to break a saucer with any regularity , and soft shot iv in t 0 en o o , not only g g _ , p a pattern , but losing such a high per cent of the pattern through deformed pellets .

In field work there is no time to align ivory beads , nor is your gun at shoulder when the game gets up , so the matted rib and the brass front sight are your

F : . or main dependencies the tyro the first thing to . do is to see that his gun fits him and then train his arm muscles to bring the gun to s houlder in true align — r ib ment every time that is , with the lying horizon

' tal to th e eye and the sight fair an d s qua r e centred r with the rib at the b eech . Practise gun alignment b » 01n tin y p g at this , that and the other mark, and do it again and again half an hour daily until it becomes r b eech and have to raise your head to catch the front.

o r e until fitted, , if you must have that one , ; the gun smith can fix it for you by bending and cutting th e

Ha u o ff m1u d ving gotten the lay of yo r piece your , N the next step is to go after freedom of vision . o man can judge distance with one eye shut, for it is a principle of optics that a lens throws all objects into a

flat plane , and the eye is no exception . Neither can you half s ee what the bird is doing with one wing of ff h your vision shut o . If you want to be master of t e “I 1 1 n 1 1 11 s tuat 0 t . 1 , you must put both eyes nto You W — a find, on putting the two eye aim into pr ctice, that the gun and its muzzles are more o r less of a compound blur , but that the front sight is tolerably distinct , since

. ar e the master eye, your right, is on it You now in the hands of the Lord as regards alignment of your 1s gun , as your eyesight concentrated on that bird scorching along out in the field ; but you are still con: scious of that gleaming front bead, and, if your pre

' 1 t r a1n 1n 1n 1 u v ous g laying the p ece has been faithf l , all will be well . To my min d this is the ideal form for wing shoot

18 4i

’ o ffic er o d el 8 r efi s m 3 , with all the latest n i f a w r r you will get th t .old a gun of you s ” fi - bate the matter on my fty yard range .

’ muttered something about Hain t never shot this

. , yere gun at no such range , nohow I stepped up and made a mediocre score—there — was two s ev en s a fiv e . a nine, , six and a and then the _

' ki bat He o ff h i d came to the . flashed s string just we about as quick as the gun could be pulled , and ’ - rushed forward to garner the bull s eyes . Alack and alas ! There were but two shots on the target ; one in b each upper corner , y courtesy in the three ring ; one lodged in the tree trunk above , another hit the billet h e of wood which held down t bottom of the target, while the fifth h ad gone from amongst us forever !

__ I fo rbore to put him up against the same targ et at

- five a v twenty y rds , but made the mental reser ation that those beer - bottle tops had been hit at twenty fiv e feet ! “ ’ L S ix- l s to l i I we et s see that p , son , sa d when — 1 go t back to the fi fty yard range aga n . I laid it on “ 13 the bull . Man alive ! your front sight three times as broad as the who le bull . Now take your time and centre your sight carefully on the bull before you o ff let . s c o r m He did, g an eight and a seven , showing ’ t 1 o f that the Colt produc of 7 , after forty years use

2 or five at 5 yards .

" 1ns id e the woods and shoot the p l g eo n s out into th e '

field . The shooter walks about on the alert , and o ne s 1z z les when of the yellow saucers out, your stunt “ 18 s w1n th e o f h to come to shoulder , g along line flig t pass the bird and let o ff when you think you have lead enough . It is fast work, and you need not be

m1 . 0 s s es . a ashamed of 5 per cent The trap , as usu lly

” s et o th e a t 2 o c an , thr ws clays 5 yards a second, but y u n u tighte p the spring to do 35 yards , which is some O f swift duck . course you stick to shot for this k — —i a wor , you are shooting at a 4 nch blue rock s ucer,

2 - l n ch n not a 2 duck. Your general positio should be about ~ 2 0 yards from the line of flight and a bout o o ff I 5 from the edge of the woods . The b y lets war m n I u without g as you walk about , and fo nd the average kill to be 2 8 yards from th e place where th e shooter stood when firing to the nearest fragments of 1s broken target . ‘Another variation where a hedge two th erri divides fields, and you put the trap in one of while you flourish around in the other , snapping the a c las s 1c 1n c om 1n head of him ( the miss with g birds) , a and the willet will set all back, jump three or four

feet, and make a swerve before continuing his flight . In either case a ready and accurate second barrel is I S 1n c o m what is wanted, and the best training for it e ing quartering clay pigeons with the fi ld trap . Make up your mind that you are quite likely to m1ss the critter with your first barrel , so be prepared to wheel and give him the other as he flies past . Brush shooting 13 the supreme domain of the swift 0 and spiteful twenty . Her pattern is as dense at 3 o f — 0 yards as that the twelve gauge at 4 , with penetra s u er 10r - tion slightly p , and you are lucky to get a sight of a bird ln the brush more than 30 yards from your gun . In spite of much advice against a light gun , I would say the lighter and shorter the better—some

2 6 - thing between five and six pounds , with inch bar rels . My own specimen weighs pounds, and I have shot fifty shells in a day ’ s shooting with it with out my shoulder ever knowing there was a cartridge in the gun . You want speed in the brush ; something that you can carry all day without being aware of it, and something that will fly to your shoulder with the

’ quickness of pointing a cane . As a matter of fact, - wildness . Most of those that

- or a hatful of shot from a ten bore, which is still thick enough to garner him after being combed thro ugh 40 yards of twigs . ‘ to h e However , get back to t trap and the twenty, drive in three pegs anywhere in a suitable patch of Th woods and screw the trap to them . e peg s should be at least three feet long to get enough grip on the ‘ o f D r 1v e f rest duf to stand the kick of the trap . m a h e semicircle of low bushes, concealing the trap , and t n let your boy note a similar circle of trees and bushes N w h im i ten yar ds from the trap . o let conceal h m s a t e - o elf behind tree with h pull string taut and y u, f r r s t t o . walk up on the rap looking t ouble The in tan , ' you pass one of the ten - yard trees or bushes he p ulls the trap ; but your fi r s-t intimation of somethingdoing will be the sudden hjkr r r ! of the trap an d a small

- - yellow and black saucer sailing out of those bushes. flit s It through the trees and behind branches, and, ’ h t 2 s believe me , if you don t smas it in the firs 5 yard ’ ' — you haven t a chance ! The I 6 yard range is hope less—too big a handicap on the twenty and six more I O yards of trees between you and the trap , but yards

is the only essential part of it, as far as , l n I p g eo s is concerned . By that mean saucer holder and bolt it th rdugh

1 I x 1 sling for s u rp r s e fire afield . Get a stick of

ash or hickory a yard long, whittle a handle on one e d n o n and leave a nub. three inches lo g at the ther , ‘ which you drill for the bolt of the target holder .

Whittle a springy golf - stick taper on the shank and you will then have a sling which will throw clays by hand . With it you can work nearly all the stunts a th e of the fixed trap , with the ddition that thrower can walk out in the country with you, firing a pigeon at unexpected times and places an d o th ee is e en deav ‘ “ r n ou i g to g et your goat . A mis s entitles him to the in gun and you to the s l g r This trap is known to cata “ lo g ues as the ping pong trap and a second variation of it is the spring band trap of which more later in

our chapter on snap shooting .

A - well known trap shooter handed out this , as it kn u et we were, gg of knowledge , one day when were consuming a pipe befor e the Travers Island , Club “ house fire : Do you know what I do when I get a

' n er vo us man afield and he persists in s n appin g h is ?” birds demanded the Expert . “ No ; I presume you frisk him with playful little ” I n discharges of dynamite , ve tured mildly 190

until o n e day we were out at field practice

i “ e e portable trap , and , for reasons unn c ssary to state, we still had a c o uple o f dozen whole picked - up targ ets left after the last shell had been fired . Some one ’ 1n vi suggested silent practice . It didn t sound very t

was ! out ing, but it great Everybody got in the field , a e with empt shells in his gun, and presently y , pig on n sizzled by like an express tram . Five gu s pointed into the air and five triggers snapped . “ ! ” h Got him sure announced two triump antly . ” “ ’ Gee ! I was rotten ! carolled a third . I wasn t ’ I o ff an within a yard of him when let . Let s have ” other . “ ’ a I wasn t just ready, explained fourth , and I ” le ll wo bb d a over the lot . “ was I slower than running molasses , growled h “ t e fifth man . I had to swing half a turn to my ” right to get on him at all . Give me a goose egg . o ff two o u We set the whole dozen, and y would be surprised at the number of times you could be s ur e — wa . s you would have missed, and why It the best e practice in the world , and we gathered all but thre 1 eo n s of the p g , still whole , where they had fallen among the goldenrod . And so a busy hour passed l n before dinner time , an hour full of good practice swinging and gun pointing that would otherwise have gone p r o fitles s . The same pigeons went through the

CHAPTER XIII

SH OTGU N M ECHA N I CS

ABOU T 1630 the original flin tlo c k was developed by the gunsmiths of Madrid . I have seen one of these ’ é d A r tiller ie in s originals in the Mus e Paris , where i assembled the largest collection of firearms m the

s. world, about pieces arranged in five great hall was This original lock named the Miquelet , and it had — the Whole works assembled outside the lock plate , with ff To a safety bolt to keep it from going o unawares . this day the . Miquelet lock is still to be found flo ur ish n ing i the rustic districts back of the Sahara , where the devout Mohammedans are still unaware that th e Moors were run out of Spain some time back ; but the rest of lh e world was not content with the Miquelet so lock in its original state of dishabille , and the s French , with their inborn sense of the eternal fitne s of things , turned it around and sunk the works of the t lock into the s ock, where they have remained ever since This lock was the parent of all the mo dern shotgun en locks in use until the Anson Deely lock was gott . ff out , di ering radically from it in that the side plate . was eliminated entirelyand the lock placed under th e barrel in a slot in the frame . To this day these two locks give the types used in Our various hammerless 19 2 19 3

o u .a mam s r m Y had hammer , a p g , a sear , a sear spring, and the whole thing was s wa rd s yo u had to cut away wood in the tang to ac ~

m . a d com odate it If it went forward, the side plate mam s p r mg was tucked away in the frame under ge ff . t barrels In any event , i made little di erence, as far as the lock was concerned , whether the firing appara n er cus tus was a flint and powder pa , a nipple and p s l o n cap or a pin and the primer of a centre - fi r e car

’ But when the hammerless 1dea came to the fore h and the hammer simply had to go, our gunsmit s were at once up against the proposition of how to find n room for a hammer also i side the side plate , or else devise a new lock which could be located under the barrels in slots . A few of our makers clung to the ! — side plate ; others adopted the s o called Anson Deely

" ' o f wh ich lock, the finest , as found on certain Eng lish g uns, can be picked out by hand from recesses under the tubes .

- a In addition to the lock problems , the breech lo d ing gun has quite a complicated set of stresses to counteract in the explosive force of the charge . With the muzzle- loader you had a solid breech and thick walls to the tubes ; there was no other way fo r the

t was . explosion to go but out, and here an end But w - ith the breech loader your solid breech disappeared, and you had two alternatives : either use a sliding bolt with locking lugs , as in repeating rifles, or swing repeating shotguns followed the i doubles went to the hinge, s nce a

h in e o f you have a g , the rearward pressure tr id e n g , whe exploding, must be equally a thrust against the hinge, since action and react are always equal . If the pressure of the explo s mn 1s s1x to ns t o the square inch and the area of a twelve—gauge car t r id e g is half a square inch , it is easy to see that the rearward thrust on the breech “and the forward thrust

' h e h in on t g e is three tons . This is a heavy stress to be exerted in a fraction of a second , and it requires a given area of steel to withstand it ; the more the bet

I S . a ter , as far as shooting loose concerned For ll looseness begins w1th the compression of the steel in the hinge, due to the constant battering of the thrust of the cartridge in firing . For that reason “ we see Several standard makes of shotguns with d ou ble - fir ml a ain s t under lug, fitted to close y g a stop m o a s o m in the fra e , s t take so e of this forward ff s a thrust o the hinge itself . Still a further feguard ’ consists m a doll s - head extension rib or a large bolt

- r d . to th ough the rib , usually tapere so as take up or ‘ compensate for wear . If you have ever handled much steel with ma

' o b chine tools , testing machines , etc . , you will have served how very like cheese or molasses candy mild

' l u it ? steel I S 1n t S action . Po nding batters so as to change its shape ; heavy stress squashes it ; a sharp least freedom permits side play and upward which can only end in the g un shooting shock makes its infinitesimal inroad on the steel , and, as mild steel has little ff e ect is cumulative . As the stresses double when they have room to move in and can become kinetic

' t un o n c e 1t as well as static , it follows tha a g , starts r to go, will make rapid progress toward the sc ap a heap , unless there is compensating scheme to take up wear provided for by the maker . A few minor requirements of a good double gun and we are through with the outline of what she ought toxbe mechanically . The safety should be easily o ff operated, yet not so light as to come or jar back . from shooting or brushing with the hand ; it must not become inoperative if a little damp salt air gets into the gun, making it a trifle rusty ; it must go on automatically when the gun is opened f o r any cause ‘ ev er th m whatever , and it should block y g when the " be gun is open . The hammers should be capable of " ing snapped on the empty gun without danger of the pin snapping o ff through crystallisation ; the ejectors should be positive and guided firmly so they cannot wabble and get under the rim of the shell ; if auto matic , only the one whose shell has been fired should

un and b th the g is apart, which is pressed do wn y e

tion pushing the cocking hook , into position to en mams r m I S gage the slider . The p g a coiled spring, ma m s r i n s o n n as are most of the p g m m der actio s , No t that it really makes any diff erence in th e life l o r m of the o k . What breaks a s p g is continuous use i f up to the capacity of its stretch , as you may know yo u have eVer used springs much in machinery that s must run all day long . In such a ca e we try to get the spring as long as possible , so as to use but little o 1 l of its p s s b e stretch . In the same way a coiled

' m ain s r t m a l n s r m p g or a flat, ben p g are both made of s uffic ifie t length so that their total motion is small O f compared I with the length of the spring . course , the gunmakers all guarantee their m ain s p r mg s for ? ! ' ever No matter whether flat or coiled, when one

in . does go , it is not wear , but defect tempering

- Against the latter it is well nigh impossible to guard . When I was ln active mechanical engineering we had e e oft n thousands of springs to make and t mper , and though our old toolmaker was a shark at tempering —one of the best in the country—even one of his springs would occasionally fail . To release the Parker hammers there are sears 1 9

gun shoves this safety block into position so

1 b p ece with them . This would e an element of break

' ability from the pin s crystallising were it not that t o s trike the shape of the hammer is such as g the frame on the broad face of the hammer at a point some distance below the area of the pin base . The ham r ebo un din a s mers are g h hammer tirrup coming in c ontact with the hammer screw , thereby stopping its movement . —1m o r tan t m th e Parker In the all p atter of strength ‘ is well provided . While some makers prefer to put their greatest strength in the locking of the extension rib, on the principle that the farther from the hinge th e stro nger mechanically is the resistance against

u - an d - I S opening by p down stress , there room for an f honest di ference of opinion here . If the principal strength is put in the direction of resisting the di ' rect forward thrust of the cartr idge itself and the

is i - th e a gun thus rigid aga nst that , all second ry m stresses become of minor i portance , as they do not get a chance to make themselves felt . So we find in the Parker generous metal area in the hinge joint r itself, backed by a second large esisting area in the forward edge of the second lug. This same double r e bearing is also found on the Ithaca . A further plied at the extension rib at a comparative th e h in e an d radius , but, as g lug resisting r th e very large compa ed to other designs , th bolt is ample . To compensate for by the in c essant pounding on this I n hard steel is dove - tailed m and held er m 1ttin which can be driven out , p g a 15 o ssihié to be inserted, so that after years of use it p to make this feature as tight as new by putting i n the n ew bit . It may be argued that no machine fitting that will l work mechanically smooth will allow two surfaees a f hi b to a like the nge earing and the lug bearing, b ht ‘ resist the stress of discharge at once . Blackening either one of them will show that both of them can;

n t - an not be i absolu e contact at the same time , but y testing machine will show you that under stress the in fin i 1m all th e part first attacked yields te8 y until sect r bear 1n bf ond part also comes unde g , taking its half i is ic t t . h r the stress When same relieved , its elast i y e turns both parts to normal and th emechanism is . free two s tomove . This is what happens with the bearing ; of the Parker under lug when the cartridge is fired . To take the p1ece apart the trigger guard is first

2 01

m un manner we now co e to a g ,

n ff a entirely di erent route . The Lefever , which forms

n lock, a comparatively small hi ge bearing, and much

strength of metal is put in the extension rib . When you open the gun the first thing that strikes you is

the absence of any under lug an d under locking bolt . o There is a small link, leading d wn to the interior of

' th e an i n s ec frame, which , as you will note from p ‘ tion of the working drawing, is the combined cocking

lever and extractor cam . The hammer has no firing pin forged integral with it but strikes a pin in the

breech base . It can therefore be snapped without f . 1s injury The sear a long curved device, hung rom above th e hammer and engaging a notch on the ham mer head instead of near the main pivot pin as in " u most g ns . The safety blocks the trigger heads ; just why it has such a ' small bearing area that is only

“ Th e operative at one single point is not apparent . v s o safety must be fully on or it is inoperati e , one must be careful with it and see that no ina dvertent h an dbr us h moves it slightly to the rear , or it will ' m am r m 1 . s 3 fail to engage The p g of the flat type, we a as which , as h ve shown , is quite as durable the i r coil type ; and visible ndicators , p ojecting through h the side plates of the lock, show w en either hammer

is at cock . n o w d es 1 n er s Turning to the points of safety, the g , against which th e bottom lug

so we find that shape o f the bottom lug such that when the gun is clos ed it bears bo th against the frame at

th e us ual e the point F, and , further, has reverse bear fi ing found on all double lugs that fit s n ugly in to a pocket in the frame when the gun is close d . This reverse bearing is essential to o tak e care of the back ward thrust o f the tubes when the shot leaves the ba rrel . O therwise it would all come on the tube ends where they butt against the standing breech, thus introducing crushing strains which would eventually O a pen up - crack between the barrel ends and the

( . breech , ag 1 thus let in motion for end play You o th at s e will n te the extension rib is of generou siz , c ut to fit the radius of a circle struck with the hinge a éen t r e s , and fitting into a corresponding recess in

- the frame . This adds considerably to the fore and

u — - aft bearing surface ; and, for p and down play, a notch is cut in the extension into which a rotating bolt

’ a r 1 fits with taper d aw . The act on is thus tight, and can be kept so by manipulating the bearing screw in b e . to the hinge The p lever olt takes care of its lf , simply r equiring replacing of the bit of steel which ' forms the bolt as it wears and allows th e lever to close l out of ine . ative at the same time would be 1mpo s s ible

c s asW e l ac ount of the flexibility of metal under stre s ; , l claim that the three bear 1n g s of an engine do no t all O m perate . Black leading will show that one of the m us t t e be out of line, yet , when h engine runs , all three bea r 1n g s do their share and any o n e ‘o f them w it ithout oil will promptly heat up , which of course th e would not do if it was not carrying its load . In s ame way we may have no hesitancy in feeling as sured that the stress of discharge is evenly distributed to all three bolts of this gun .

At the same time , no extension rib bolt is ade

. hea r in th e quate of itself without ample g at hinge . I have seen foreign guns with a small pin neatly fitted u t e thro gh h extension rib , yet it can easily be shown

- that , without a proper hinge or under lug bearing , the force of the cartridge would shear this pin like o ld a piece of twine . In fact it is a survival of the muzzle - loading custom of running a pin through the e xtension into the wood of the stock to hold the bar rel in place . Such a pin had only the miscellaneous outside stresses on the barrel to counteract ; it never u th e came nder direct rending force of the powder , 1n s yet we see this pin persist to this day foreign gun ,

so conservative is the craft of the gunsmith . th e Yet , if this pin is made of proper size , and

2 06

s and fa t .

of the designer pinning his faith to the s 1n gle hinge m 1n ex en 1o n bearing and a large through p the t s rib . ‘ Th l S I S made extra long to enable a thick , rather flat bolt to enter . Evidently the designer intended it more to resist vertical movement than the end thrust o f c the artridge, for the metal left at the rear of the r o f Ho w rib is by no means equal to the a ea the pm . ever , this has been taken care of by an ample bear h n l ing for t e one u d er ug . The designer has also utilised the extra length , given by the curve of the radius struck from centre of hinge through the end of the extension rib, to get a ledge on which to rest a second bolt, adding to his resources against vertical s tram .

S o much for strength . The locks are of the side plate type with flat mainspring an d hammers cocked by roller cocking hook . Safety blocks the trigger

s - head . This gun is specially sold in one trigger, though all the other makers can give you o n e if yo u

- wish it . After one learns to shoot it, the one trigger gun h as the advantage of requiring no shift of the trigger finger and no displacement of the holding wrist . It is , however, a specialty, and, like the auto matic ejector, a bit of mechanics rather outside the limits of this chapter . All makers have one or another scheme for an automatic ejector , and, if you are get careful and experienced designers with all of them

' that those who condemn one whole class of guns , such as the under lug, as being mechanically unsound,

S imply have not studied the conditio n s thoroughly . For the main stra in of the tending thrust o f the

“ cartridge, it is simply a matter of calculation of the stress an d of the metal to withstand it ; where to dis pose of this metal the best is a matter of the judg h ma ment and p references of t e designer . It is a t of ter distribution and compromise . All kinds of talking p o mts are made by salesmen on th e different ’ ’ o f th e 3 e features designs , yet one individual pref r enc es must be g uide d mo re by the subtler points of th e h in tastes ang of the gun your hands , the boring an e d pattern its r cord shows it can make , minor points

a . of e se of handling, etc , than by any broad claims of n wn . o a superiority of desig Why do I a P rker, while m Le y assistant editor swears by the fever , the crack shot of the Field an d S tr eam o flic e has an Ithaca that d ’ money coul n t pry him loose from, and the head o f the mag az me shoots three different makes of Ameri ? W e all a e can guns h ve our very definit reasons why, — but a close analysis shows themall to hé - just ! prejudice , mere prejudice “ S NA P S H OOTI NG

f ru fed g rouse, is responsible for the material of this To e h with c o u m . t er s g , , chapter ' his the woodcock and h is t e - little brother, h bob white, he is the bird which ,

- wo n more than any other , sets all your hard trap honours at naught and makes you offer vainly a mil lion dollars for some ability to snap shoot . Given a skyline or a covey shot at either quail or woodcock, and you can draw on him, swing, lead , and get him as you would snipe or duck ; but how often in a d ozen ’ chances does Mr . Pa tridge give you more than a o ut fleeting his royal self , as he Whisks e brush ! The Kid and I were recently on a trip into the mountains where we put up partridges thirty- two ’ ~ O f x times in d a s . bu s i three y hunting all these, t u were really good pokes , where a fellow , not a snap a shot , would have some chance for his ag te , and of these six we made good on three . Some upstate difli c ult hunters , who never shot anything more than rabbits in their lives, gave us the grand laugh , but — we failed to be ashamed w e were no snap shots ; w e had to s ee him for at least a second to do any dam “ h o w . S age Yet, with long, lean , tall utton along,

2 08

i an a tween two forested mountains, mak ng rea of

thick brush over rich black ooze . for flight woodcock from Canad s rai ed right in the swamp . The very first a d z an d e o en woodcock in it, , believ me, birds can give t hree sportsmen a world of fun be t they lie too close for even the dogs to find them . I

wa s fi r s t with and. a regular battle at , . the bang of guns “ the shouts of Mark cock sounding through the still , u . S t k , me frosty air stood bac ‘ of me so as to give h l e t e wo r d a s ue . On all chance in the , I was his g st " after another three ' cock jumped or flew overhead ’ from our friend s position, and I tabbed a barrel at each of them without drawing a feather . They were too quick and sudden for me—over the top of the brush and gone in an instant ! “ ’ ” For Pete s sake Cap , growled the exasperated you aren t going to hit anyof those birds ’ s h o o t a l I m goin to begin to —. I could have had l and we three of them easy, , say want some to take home ! ” m r ific i n i o t at o m s s m . Well , you all know the of g r There is nothing to do but take it in silence . I e called sharp - tailed grouse shooting with Frank Stick in Montana , where they rise just outside of poplar draws , whisk over the brush and are gone in a flash

' Here I had not fired a shot , just gaping at them with

m S ' astonish ent, while tick, _ with one poke of the little

2 0 - gauge for each bird, had knocked three of them

— - - fi r s t cold his thirty ninth , fortieth and forty con g s ec ut

’ ’ Warner s and a veteran quail shot, has n 2 al tryi g to score 5 straight, but usu ly

- drops one at or before his twenty fourth bird . O n this woodcock shoot both of the others had

dogs , but it was my lucky year , and I put up twice

as much game alone as either of them with their dogs . And three times that day I got a nice skyline shot a at cock and killed him stone dead . But this could

n o . t heal the wounds of numerous snap . s hot misses

Finally, a recent mountain trip for grouse developed such a tremendous proportion of pure snap shots to e o c o uld s ee open on s , where y u really the bird for we h ad a time, that, while we banged away, just no

chance at all .

While snap shots are often born , I am convinced a that they can also be made, and I decided to tr in

' th e I f id i n th myself and the art, retaining all e pro ' fic ien cy for swinging and leading that we already

. n had . And the implement to learn on would be u

- — doubtedly the clay pigeon hand trap . While, as ordi ar il y handled, the trap man being alongside of or

- behind the shooter , the hand trap is a comparatively

easy proposition , when you put him at a distance from you an d let him shoot the clay birds at an angle with the brush it becomes a great deal harder and r e

' - c e quires a lightning qui k snap shot . W decided to

an d - take our guns , a bag of blue rocks the hand trap out into brush country- Hog Swamp and Brier w for trouble , hile the other, about twe in s away the brush , would p

' it— a t r e n , p o was just aimi g the bird which v‘ d to be ! Yo u at h im our undoing do not want to aim —, any more than you would throw a stone a t him poke in ahead somewhere so that your bird will fly into your charge of shot . The tendency to aim at the w s bird and follow through , swinging ahead , a almost irresistible , we found, and it accounted for most of our misses with snap shots at birds in thick cover . n There is no use aimi g at the bird , for he will not be there when the shot gets out to him ; nor can you

o r e . swing ahead on him , f there is no tim Through r b ush , behind trees and crash into some branch the ’

s . pigeon goes , and it s all over in less than a econd If ‘ ’ ff you do n o t pick himout with a swift snap it s all o . We thought that twenty - fiv e cartridges would be ’ ’ enough for the first afternoon s practice . It wasn t . ! enough by three boxes All were gone in , it seemed, ten minutes , though we were actually shooting for o n e nearly an hour our first lesson , and consum d two hours at the business , first and last .

r trap game, and had always done well with

- w wildfowl , ell , I hit just three out of ! s eVen o f fi f teen shots The Kid , who did out

' teen with his twenty - eight at the re gular trap stand es and always beats me in beach shooting, more pe

iall 12 - c y since he has graduated to the gauge double, —h e t got jus one bird, and that on the second shot F o r . of a double . , of course , we used both barrels

It is part of what this hand trap training is for, to remind you that you have another barrel and to use it, often forgotten in the infrequent chances of actual h bird s ooting .

e . And thes were not really hard brush shots , either

They were the easiest we could devise . The hand o u —fiv e trap man was abreast of y , only about twenty feet away, and you knew just where the bird would

w . come from and here he would go But , unlike the F hand trap work at the Camp ire Club , where the

' birds ar e thrown against a skyline and you have time

.wa s to pick him up and swing, this work all pure snap h e lo w v s . hooting T bird whizzed past, o er the brush i t . between the trees , and you just chucked to him ’ W e couldn t understand our continuous misses . “ s ur e Why, I was I had that one, Pop would come the Kid ’ s chagrined cry —and my own observations on my shooting are best left out of print entirely ! t The first box of shells wen all too quickly, and we would have given two prices for another box or so . Eked out with some extras from our last hunt ing trip, we had fourteen shots apiece, usually two . an d we 6 7% chilled, were using the 5

pieces o f the birds hit were picked up at 35 yards from ' th e t r a s p , showing very slow shooting, and they did not appear to be thrown from the trap nearly as fas t t as quail or grouse make their ge away . O ut Of t e to h welter of misses , two facts seemed s tand out clearly ; we were not pointing the guns where we an d n at we thought were , we were still shooti g the bird instead of keeping cool and using some judg ment to drive in our shot somewhere ahead of the clay in the direction h e was going when the gun got ‘ r on him . Mo e than anything else, we could not clearly

and fired Now this is all very well for a natural o we born snap sh t, like Sutton , but were learning

by hard practice and close analysis of each move . O n e o mtin Point , whether we were really p g the w we we gun here looked, decided to test out on the x e i ne t l sson with a s ta t o n ar y target . Suppose you an d hang the pigeon in a bush thirty yards away, load wi{h cock your gun your back to it, whirl and fire h o w near would you come to hitting it without any

“ ? t conscious aim If the gun fitted you, you ough to t a t smear it every ime , with a bit of p r c ice, as the pat

abbits

shot ,now we were going

’ to a course in snap shooting wouldn t more than r e

. O ur t pay us very first experiment showed us a fac , f often brought out in print , but not realised su ficiently — to take strict account of in practice field guns are sighted to place the charge about eigh t in oh es high 0 s ee r at 4 yards , so that you can your bird ove the , u no t tad barrels , and sho ld be careful to cover him c t close or you will overshoot . A areful rifle sight a d the paper silhouette , at thirty yards with the me ium choke barrel , showed the centre of the pattern 7 inches high above the silhouette, which , nevertheless, had eight pellets in it . The diameter of the pattern proved 2 6 at this range to be inches , and a raise of 4 more o inches w uld have brought only one pellet in the bird , though up to that point it would have gotten six or, I — 1 seven , anyhow . Rule . A ways see your bird well o ff above the barrels before you tab . z — Experiment No . Can you hit a stationary clay 1 eo n u 0 p g , t rning your back on him , at 3 yards , whirl a ? ing and firing with a sn p poke Answer, you can

‘ not any m o r e th an with a flying bird . Time and th e again we whirled about , swinging gun on the clay m with no halt, only to find a clean miss ; so etimes a

no t . hit , but often, nor with any certainty This was undoubtedly due to the swing of the barrels carrying ”2 17

s so little, o as to get a fleeting glimpse s r your sight as you pre sed trigger ,

— ’ e . t r l er pell ts . Rule II Don t press gg until you really s ee c o ml n en e l the bird g over the barrels , not in the g g neighbourhood of him . This rule is more important at than it seems , least to me , for I have found the ' — same thing in all my trap shooting and wild fowl shooting, you have to see the bird , properly placed v kn ow o er or behind y our barrels, and that he is so , ‘ if e . you exp ct to score a hit . But there is no time to — as a t do this in snap shooting a rule , your first tempts will be wild pokes with no very clear r ec o llec tion of just where the bird was 1n relation to your barrels, except that he seemed to you to be just what you were pointing at . I In a word, do not believe that mere gun point l u 1 g s enough . Fifteen inches out of true in forty — yards means a clean mlss can you point at anything that far away and point it as closely as within fifteen inches ? O ur snaps at stationary marks would seem : — — mus t t in to say No, decidedly not, you get hat s tan t wh en kn o w c o mm _ you the bird is just g over your sights . S h hall we , then , find our bird, follow throug and — for . it swing lead, as with sky line work, only do ? quicker I do not think so . O ur next attempts with the hand trap demonstrated that yo u have no time for anything like that . It takes an appreciable time to find where the bird is and where he is going ; an e o was lin of fire , nly it so hard to

’ aim a t ! l A n d m1s s ed it him when you , was “ o with the surprised exclamati n, Why,

b Dou tless true, and also doubtless the very cause ! T ' Ki of the miss But we were creeping up . h e d

. o ff started with a fine smash , then a miss , a hit, two

' a hit misses, a hit, a miss , a hit , another hit, a miss , , “ two —6x1 n 0 t! misses 3 ,, or early 5 per cent ; better tha a all ” the verage brush shooting, but then these were

’ easy birds , and you knew too much about where they o would rise and about where they would go . Some f m the isses were explainable, some rabid mysteries ; three of the hits were clean smashes , showing a well had l centred pattern, three of them but one pe let th e in pigeon when picked up , and a wabble was our ‘ ' c l o wn 2 only ué to a hit . My score for Lesson was two misses, two hits, two misses , a hit, a miss , a hit ,

' - x 1 0 er . a miss , two hits a miss, a hit 7 4 , or 5 p cent e e Four of the hits were el gant smash s ; three , one or wo Out t pellets . of the lesson you got two facts ; ‘ you hit when you picked up the bird smartly and a c c ur ately and kn ew that he was wh iz z mg into your line of fire .while you swung . You missed if you poked

. blindly at him , with no sure, sight of him over the barrels ; or if you planted the gun on him and pulled ; also if you forgot to hold under him . In this lesson was we dispensed with th e second barrel . It a

n r ahead , without any i te mediate step , m u the trap artist was too far away from Calling the Kid over to about ten feet — sent them away at all angles and I straight ! Why ? Because you were now enough hind each bird to swing along his angle without much gun motion , and had more time to find

O n - bird . his turns the Kid did about half and a e i n with the s me sch me, that is , w th me firi g the w not over ten feet a ay from him . In fact , ‘it - wh almost as easy as the regular hand trap game , ‘ o r s the trap man stands behind alongside you , as hown an d awa in our third illustration , fires them y from o u v ar l o us y at angles , usually with open skyline , as shown . But this was not what we were after ; we wanted c r o s s m we the ability to hit g snaps , and had found Wa f ar ; out the y to do it, for , by progressively moving ther and farther away from the gun , the shots got

m 1s s es . harder and harder , and the climbed up again But w e had the right scheme ; all you had to do was to keep at the limit distance until it got easy and then mov e the trap farther away .

This consumed a whole morning of practice , and ~ our next step was to introduce the standard trap , w screwing it down on top of an old tree stump , ith

spring led back into the bush . The one who set the So trap also changed the angle , that, while you knew 1 where the bird would rise , you did not know which he would go . At that , it was not as hard as cross e b cause you were behind the bird, and so he went

The reader may not imagine that this chapter is to end with a triumphant record of the production of

two finished snap shots , with long strings of clean n kills behi d them . That takes time and practict in ex en s xee lots of it . What we have devised is an p i working system to teach snap shooting ; something

that any one with a hand trap can follow out . It is

a good winter sport , and really necessary for the m us— I onv ajority of for, as am firmly c inced, while a - ar e few snap shots born, the majority of them can ) be or have been made . I T cannot be too forcibly impressed on the rifl

“ that the cartridge, not the rifle, is his mai tion in selecting the arm for the kind o f r expects to get . Most popular big game rifle c a tr e n r v and r w re desig ed for ce tain ser ices , the ifles made by the v ar l o us manufacturers to handle thes th to cartridges, not e cartridges fit the rifles O ur chapter on rifle mechanics should give the student some idea of h o w the various problems were met in iron and steel b y the designers ; we will now 1 look over the trajectory tables of the cartridges to get some well - d efin ed ideas on what the latter are intended to be used for . ’ ’ 8o s o s i During the and g big game was plent ful, and in the Rockies the grizz ly bear wa s still lord of ' 3 brute creation and prone to charge and attack man . The Indian was still hostile and to be reckoned with and so we find the cartridges of that day to tend to r s wa ds stubbine s , so that plenty of them could be put in the tubular magazines ; heaviness of bullet was needed 3 to give the greatest pounding power ; both of these l qualities being at the expense of accuracy and range . O f these cartridges the ideal for deer was the 2 2 f 2 2 1s . 8 o 5 , that 3 calibre, 5 5 grains powder , and a 5 1m

side the bear and tear him up so as to knac k hi

c e the same trajectories for the same ranges . In a eu curacy they were rather poor . Li t . Whelen ,

- 0 0- 1 10 puts the . 4 5 7 and . 5 in class D, grouping 3% 100 s 12 2 00 an inches at yard , and inches at yards, d

8 - in - 100 . the 3 55 he puts , class C, 3 inch group at

- 8 2 00 . a yards and inch at This means th t, if per

f ec tl e - y held, the bullets will vary insid a 3 inch circle 100 at yards (which is as close as any hunter can hold, an d plenty close enough for practical shooting) a nd

8 - 2 00 , h vary inside an inch circle at yards whic i_ s

- n o t close enough for good long range shooting . ’ W h elen s tests were made with .many hundreds of w rounds, ith all classes of rifles, and have never e been questioned . The muzzle velocity of all th se sh o r t c ar tridg es was around I 3 to 16 hundred feet

per second, and their striking energy equal to those

an - l of y rifle to day, n fact for woods shooting they

are still favourites . Later they were all loaded with high grade smoke u less powders , p to the limit of accuracy, that the bullet

“ would stand . This flattened their trajectories about

2 0 0 n 2 70 7 , and increased their striking e ergy 5 , and a ll these cartridges to - day are sold both as originally “ designed and as H . V . (high velocity) , and this represents the maximum perfection that they can at

tain , for if you attempt to drive these stubby bullets 2 2 5

e v locity their accuracy goes to the winds .

o as a w odchuck and fox rifle, was turned into

2 - 0 but good as the old . 3 4 black powder, and than the Kentucky pea rifle with which thou

o f T , deer were killed in our pioneer days . he

2 - 2 0 f tages of the . 3 in handling three powers o the sain e rifle have been sufficiently h r ug t out ea lier in this work . The need for greater accuracy at longer ranges

e to the bringing out of longer cartridg s, with more and a longer bullet t o spin serenely under lo c ities i t , thus keep ng the s riking power the yet flattening the trajectory and in c r ea s mg the

2 - 0- 16 acy . Such cartridges were the . 3 4 5 , the

a nd 0 - 2 for deer , the . 4 7 for mountain sheep and s tl 100 2 00 y shot, even then, at ranges of to

- 0- 00 and the . 45 9 3 for moose, elk and bear . ' all had about 2 % inches trajectory for 100

- I O for 2 00 0 00 . inches yards, and 3 for 3 yards l V. H . oading improved these trajectories about and gave them all striking power equal to th e

- military designs of to day , so that you will find

- - 0 00 . brought down with the . 4 5 9 3 H . V

- day, as its muzzle energy is foot lbs . , making la r s i plenty powerful enough for all the g e t b g game .

Then came the modern military cartridge, in which necking down the shell we were able to get a big e behind a long, sl nder bullet, and

very high velocities, getting about

energy in spite of its small bullet , i - r o o 16 e d by oves ho oting ; the 3 4 5 drove out the . 4 5 7 n n o t 00 e a d a d . 0 e u 5 for moos elk, and the 35 4 5 drov

- 0 0- 1 10- 00 e . . . the 4 5 . 9 and 5 3 These changes se med made t e to stay, as h cartridges of the later rifles were much lighter, their trajectories much flatter and in general they seemed about ideal for the purpose intended .

Then came the automatic rifles , in which a number of rapid knock- down shots were wanted quick at sno rt ' r an e an d u g , so a whole series of rimless st bby car tr idges fyvith rather long heavy bullets and plenty of steam m the shape of dense powders, was gotten out e to work in the various automatic rifles . Such wer 1 0 1 the . 35 Remington, the . 35 and . 4 Winchester, the

80 . . 3 Colt, etc They all lacked accuracy at long

e . ranges , but for the purposes intended wer very good e The trajectories were flat , and inch s

- 0 1 2 0 s . for the Wincheste r . 4 5 being typical of the clas ’ All except th e Remin g to n landed in W h elen s Clas s s D , the Rem . getting into Class C, or 3 inche group 10 at 0 yards .

'

c o mm . A U . The g of the S rmy Springfield, par

f These acts, which are beyond dispute, and aga1n under my experience for many

th e further facts that many and many gone down n ever to rise again from one of the extra high velocity rifles;

' m any hunters to stick to th e s o combining comparatively high velocity bullets and big shocking power—and that 0 controversy rests at this writing. Many 1 experienced hunters are returning to the with its greater quickness o f fire and its b eav n lets, havi g been through several seasons of ence with the high velocity bolt actions ; oth more than ever convinced that the latter a d a vance that has yet been made . And the 1 1 5 Savage is bo th a lever action an d a gun, and withal a light, quick handling n ic i l n e l tt e . ammu ition, a mighty , gun cannot a im with it with any great success is too light to hold properly . In s r then, a number of elements must be considered ; you persona l build and temperament ; the game you ex peet to go after for the most pa expect to shoot in, whether open mountains or w ridges ; whetheryou expect to use a supplement small game or no ; and how many rounds you ar e to need in the entire time of your hunt . A s of the following tables will give you much mat to aid in determining your selection .