The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-09

with water at all seasons of the wear are
the magnets which attract the AQUATIC
game fowls that in former years made the
marsh lands bordering the San Joaquin
and Sacramento rivers their Headquarters
during the winter season. This is the
principal reason why WHO ducks are not so
plentiful near at hand as they formerly
were. The second reason why the birds are
less numerous is the increase of men who
shoot for market. Thousands of fine ducks
that are shipped to this city in the early
months of the year are dumped into the
bay as unfit for table use. The weather in
September and October is generally very
warm and game will quickly spoil in tran
sit to this city. Market shooting should
be prohibited during the first two months
OF the open season.
A good story is now being told of the
veteran sportsman, John Stack 1t APP
pears that Mr. Stack was very great lover
of duck-shooting few years ago and sell
dom returned from the great quacking
grounds with less than a small wagon-load
of game. One fine day as the great pellet
puncher of aquatic bipeds was returning
from the chase he met the leader of a
family of bovines, who Immediately
charged upon Mr.. Stack, compelling
him to seek protection from a good
stiff horn on the summit of a
rock, which, fortunately for the sports
H.,
nimble neither eXtremities. The bull
kicked and beloved, and defied the hunter
to come down from his high perch and do
battle. Mr. Stack grew angry, as the pros
pect OF spending a cold night on a mossless
rock looked very promising for the sports
man. Finally patience ceased to be a
virtue, and Mr.. Stack warmed the sides of
the king of the herd with No. 6's. The
bull kicked up a frightful fuss when he
felt the sting Of the lead, and started on q
run for parts unknown. And now the
sportSman's friends are mean enough to
say that the animal is running yet. Mr.
Stack will never forget, however, the day
he was ''treed" by a bull.
Among the sportSmen who engaged in
blue-rock shoot last Sunday at Alameda
Point was "Painterboat" Casey, who made
clean record during the past year by not
having killed single duck. Casey is by
no means disheartened, and if practice
will III any way improve his shooting he
should be able to break at least half a
dozen blue-rocks out of twenty-five before
the season finishes Last Sunday his
score was four breaks out of twenty-five
birds shot at which is not bad for an anna
teur who had handled a strange gun.
Billy Murdoch says that he will make
Casey better shot on duck than Super
visor King before the opening of the next
game-shooting season.
George Roupe, well-known sportsman,
returned from the Columbia Mountains in
Washington recently with a number OF
beautiful elk horns, two of which have
been mounted and attract considerable at
tention among spOrtsmen who visit the
Pacific Kennel Clubs headquarters on
Kearny street. Charles Ladd received re-
Gently from Alaska the head of an elk
which puts everything in the way of elk
heads in the shade. The horns are i'm
mense, one branch bearing eighteen prongs
and the other sixteen prongs. Several old
sportsmen who have seen Ladd's latest Gu
riosity from the far north pronounce the
horns the most wonderful specimen of their
kind they had ever seen.