The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1878-04-10


was present, but the number that took
a hand in the matches was somewhat
limited. Some good guns were on the
ground, and some good shots, notable
among whom were the Davises of Pc
troleum Centre and jake Graham and
Derby, of Erie. Davis is the cham
pion Of we don't know how much ter
ritory, and wears a badge denoting it,
and Graham is the boss wing shot Of
Erie County,-or at least the holder
of the gold medal. Graham, however,
did not do as good shooting as was ex-
pected, on account, be said, Of his
shells not being loaded for trap SHOOT
ing, the charge of powder being too
light. lie knocked feathers out Of
nearly every bird hc shot at, but didn't
hit some of them hard enough to make
them drop within bounds. Derby did
better execution, and carried off seve-
raj prizes. The Dav@es had a ham
merless gun, heavy piece, which they
loaded with six drains of powder, and
shot in proportion when they hit a
bird it didn't go sailing aronnd out Of
bounds and wandering off in the woods
to die;- Oh, no it simply threw up
the ghost and sought the bosom of old
mother earth. But that gun had a
rebate, a drawback, or rather a push
back that was not good thing 10
brace up against; we know, because
we saw one Of the men who used it
wiping the fresh gore off his fore. finger
every time after shooting it. There
were several chaps on the island who
probably came to town for the purpose
Of taking a chance in the match, but
who were undoubtedly scared off by
the crack shots of Erie and Petroleum
Centre. These parties, and several of
oui town shootists got out on the out
skirts, outside the boundary, and gave
those birds which escaped the gunner
at the trap several more shots as they
flew over. Quite number of birds
were killed by these "felders."
The strap" is box formed like a
pyramid, four.square at the bottom
and terminating in point at the top.
1t is about fourteen inches square at
the bottom and about foot high, set
up on hollow post perhaps eighteen
inches high. Each side of the pyra.
mid is door, which opens outward,
in one of which is circular hole, suf.
ficient in size to admit pigeon, which
is opened and closed by means Of g
wicket. The base Of the pyramid is q
movable platform, attached to a roc
on the bottom in the centre, which roc
plays in the hollow post. By means
of cords and pulleys the platform il
thrown upward something over foot
which moti0n, of course, throws oper
the four side doors and sets the bird al
liberty. The doors are made of heavy
sheet iron, and their weight keeps
them in place until the platform il
thrown up. The beauty of the busi
ness is that "no fellah can find out
what direction the bird will take after
the trap is sprung, and consequently
there can be no premeditation in re
gard to the spot where you are going
to point. The butt of the gun mus
be below the elbow when the trap il
sprung-after that you can get your
gun up and fire as quick as you please
The dead pigeons belonged to the
parties who shot them, but quite {
number were killed that couldn't b.
accounted for; it was therefore evi
dent that some party or parties got {
big mess of pigeons without money ant
without price. No alterations or mis-
understandings marred the meeting
The shootists conducted themselve
like gentlemen, and the crowd was re
spectful and orderly.
The neatest thing we saw was thu
killing of two birds sprung from tn,
traps at once, one with each barrel o
a gun. This was done several time
and looked like skillful work.
This match was all that was needed
to set the boys crazy on wing shooting