The National tribune., 1902-04-17
PROBLEM OF THE SHOTGUN.
A Battered Old Weapon Which Modern Skill
Cannot Duplicate,

The modern shotgun of American or
English make is thing of symmetry and
effectiveness. 1t is light, durable, simple
and beautiful. -.s
Sometimes it is full-chOked,. sometimes
modified choke, sometimes cylinder-bOred,
all depending upon the idiOsyncrasy of its
purchaser. 1t is made of all drops, from
four inches to half an inch. 1t may have
a matted rib to keep the sun glare from
the eyes of the shooter, and this rib may
run to Il fine line near the muZzle. 1t
may have isinglass windows in the locks
to show the positions of the hammers.
Much time and money and brain have
been spent on it. 1t has caused hot words
and hard feeling, because two shotgun
cranks discussing their favorites are a
shade crazier than two bicycle cranks.
American manufacturers believe that
English guns are the best in the world
except those of their own make. English
manufacturers simply change ends and
believe that American guns are the best
i'll the world, except those of their own
make.
The fathers of men now middle-aged
used muzzle-iOading shotguns of 10, II or
IA gauge, which were, of course, cylinder
bored. They were loaded with black
powder and brown paper wadding. Oc-
casionally a man had a wad-cutter, with
which he would chisel wads from paste
board just as his wife used Il tin cup on
dough when she was cutting out biscuit.
Still more occasionally an enthusiastic
sportsman would send into big city and
get some of Ely's wads imported from
London. These were uncommon refine
mentS, however.
With these guns so loaded our daddies
used to kill ducks 90 or 40 yards away
going down wind; they killed quail and
Jacksnipe right along just inside of the
J0-yard mark; they lambasted prairie
chickens at from 30 to % yards; down
South they slew their deer ut 100 yards,
using either blue-whistler or low-mold
buckShot.
Are the modern guns as much better as
they are handSomer and more convenient :?
Are they any better? OF course, our dad
dies in telling of the way in which they
used to shoot may unwittingly, as it were,
stretch the yards slightly, but not much
On the Mississippi River below st. Paul
lives George Hudson, trapper and hunt
er, who has been at the most delightful
business in the world for 80 years. He
fishes all Summer and shoots and traps
all Winter, and has come to have a pretty
fair acquaintance with firearms. He has
owned Il dozen guns and has kept but one
This was brought to him by his brother
in 1860; his brother went into the civil
war when it began and got out when it
stopped. 1t is, or used to be, an En-
field rifle, apparently one of the very first
plucked from the vine.
The riiling disappeared long ago and it
Is now single-barreled shotgun, and, in
its owners hands, big medicine. 1t has
taken the cOnceit out of lots of city chaps
and is not for loan or sale. Several tubes
have been screwed into it, and it had
new handspring 10 years ago, but the
barrel is still there and will be there prob
ably when Hudson's youngest boy has
This gun in river island duckstand is
a terror and brings birds down out of the
clouds. Charged with BIB shot it means
in the lodges of the wild geese.
For more than 30 years il has wrought
destruction among ruffled grouse, prairie
chickens, jacksnipe, woOdcock and deer.
1t has killed ID black bears: it has killed
20-odd female wolves. With No shot
its favorite distance is 40 yards, and at
that range 1t patterns in n twO-feet circle |
so that sparrow could not escape
A popularity of this weapon is that it |
takes not much more than half the load |
Df an ordinary 12-gauge-say two drains |
IF powder and three-quarters of an ounce |
IF shot. IL more ammunition is put in it |
shoots badly.
Its barrel is 40 inches long, and how
is owner swings it on ruffed grouse in
thick woods is a mystery TO every observ-
er, and probably to him also, but he does
t. Just what is the secret of its boring.
ust how this battered and uncouth arm
came by its wonderful power and accu-
'acy, nobody knows, nor ever will know.
Like meersehaum pipe, it appears to