142

OCTOBER 15, [1887?]
LAND AND WATER.

MISS OAKLEY'S PIGEON SHOOTING.

SIR,-In reply to your editorial note contained in your issue of the 8th inst., respecting the match for this lady to kill thirty-five birds out of fifty of the very best blue rock pigeons at 25 yards rise, shooting with the 20-bore breech-loading hammerless gun, with 2 1/2drs. of powder and 3/4oz. of shot, you suggest "there is a certain amount of cruelty in shooting pigeons at the distance of 25 yards with so light a gun and charge. It is a fine performance from a gunnery point of view, doubtless, but it involves the principle of shooting at birds which rise at too great a distance to be killed every time, even with the most perfect aim. At 15 or 20 yards rise, Miss Oakley would only have missed when she did not hold straight. At 25 yards the case is different. No such charge is powerful enough to kill with certainty at such a distance."

I certainly fail to see where the element of cruelty can suggest itself to you, inasmuch as her score of forty-one kills out of fifty birds shot at, clearly demonstrates to my mind the splendid killing powers of these guns and the loads used therefrom, and I have pleasure in saying it was the general remark of those present at the match, how very few birds moved on being shot, they having been killed so clean ; whereby the dog had no trouble in retrieving the birds, picking them up where they fell.

The distance of 25 yards was fixed as being a fair handicap, assuming that this lady had been shooting against a competitor using a gun with 4drs. of powder and 1 1/4 oz. shot with a 12-bore pigeon gun, standing at 29 or 30 yards ; and, from my experience in the witnessing of pigeon matches, I do not think there are many gentlemen who face the traps who could beat this lady's score, or even equal it.

To enable you to witness that what I write is correct, I have the pleasure to invite you to be present at my private shooting ground on Tuesday morning, the 11th, at 8 30 a.m., when Miss Annie Oakley has made an appointment for the purpose of practising with these 20-bore guns under precisely the same conditions as before, when I hope we may be able to prove to you that there is no more cruelty than where the killing of live birds by shooting them takes place daily in all parts of the world. CHARLES LANCASTER.

151, New Bond-street, W.

[This event was courteously put off until Wednesday morning to suit our engagements. At 10 30 we arrived at Mr. Lancaster's ground, Miss Oakley being already on the spot and ready to commence operations against as good a sample of blue rocks as Lincolnshire can produce. We may say at once that Mr. Charles Lancaster has built Miss Oakley a pair of guns out of which as fine as possible shooting can be obtained as with anything of equal weight and giving as little recoil. This latter item has been the [?] with which Mr. Lancaster has had to contend in [building?] guns for a girl of eight stones weight. To say that Miss Oakley can use these weapons is merely to repeat what has been said a hundred times ; she is an extremely beautiful shot, and does extreme justice to her guns, which are decidedly suitable to her figure and weight. Having said so much, we have only to explain our remarks of last week by an appeal to the admitted fairness of the handicap principle, and our observations of the shooting confirm our opinion that 25 yards is not the equivalent distance which places these guns on a fair footing with 12-bores carrying 1 1/4 ozs. of shot and any amount of powder which can be got into a 3-inch case. Who would for a moment believe that the gigantic frames of Captain Bogardus or Dr. Carver behind 5drs. of powder and 1 1/4 ozs. of shot have no greater command than 6 yards above 2 1/2drs. of powder and 3/4oz. of shot ?

We freely admit that the little charge is good enough for the first barrel, which is certain death to the pigeon if some accident does not prevent an accurate aim; but such accidents do happen to all shooters, and for this reason the handicap should be based upon the second barrel. Before the shooting began we asked Mr. Charles Lancaster how soon Miss Oakley got in the second barrel, and his reply was within 20 yards of the birds fight. This statement, we believe, to be as near the mark as it is possible to get. This 20 yards added to the previous 25 yards demands a second barrel, which, if held straight, is certain death to a pigeon at 45 yards, in order to avoid the certainty of mounded birds. The opinion we expressed last week was based upon out belief that 2 1/2drs. and 3/4oz. of any shot could not be made certain death to a pigeon at that distance by any known system of boring, simply because the shot must be to scattered if large enough to give the necessary penetration to effect certain sudden death at such a distance. If this view was correct, the 25 yards handicap was unfair to the lady, to the birds and also to the gun. We took every precaution of satisfying ourselves on this head. With the consent of Miss Oakley and Mr. Lancaster, we saw the gun plated at that distance with No. 6 shot, and out readers will be able to judge for themselves whether the result was good enough for the purpose. The right barrel gave 126 No. 6 pellets in the 30in. circle, at 45 yards., and the left, under similar conditions, 119 pellets. Miss Oakley, whose good shooting was chronicled in these columns by Mr. Lancaster last week, commenced by killing eight consecutive blue rocks, and the ninth and tenth were both heavily struck, one of which was afterwards gathered out of bounds. The eleventh got away without being hit, as far as we could see; the twelfth was killed by the first shot; thirteenth hit; fourteenth got away, hit hard; fifteenth killed with second barrel; and sixteenth hit. Of these last four misses two were gathered only just out of bounds. The formal score stands as follows, the asterisk denoting the use of a second barrel: -
Miss A. Oakley, 25yds. 1 1* 1* 1* 1 1 1* 1* 0 0 1* 0

One of the second barrels was unnecessary, and three of the misses were gathered just out of bounds. We may say that we do not think Miss Oakley was off her bird with both barrels, except on one occasion in the sixteen shots, and, consequently, if the second barrel had been equal to the distance, she would have killed fifteen out of sixteen. We have since recieved a letter from Mr. Charles Lancaster pressing us to mention that we, at the request of himself, tested the little weapon at half-a-dozen blue rocks. The shortness of the stock of the lady's gun and the 2lb. pull of the trigger, gave us. no chance to do the shooting of the gun any justice, and we wonder, therefore, that Mr. Lancaster should wish out very poor performance mentioned. Before sharting to shoot, we thre up the gun once or twice, and found great difficulty in taking any sort of sight, and therefore decided to snap at the birds. This we had to give up after the first shot, for both the bird and ourselves were quite unconscious of the direction of the charges. The next four we killed perfectly dead with the first barrel, and the ladies' 2;b. pull-off defeated our efforts at the sixth bird coming overhead, as the light pull made us shootbefore enough swinging in front had been effected. It will be seen that our own shooting throws no light on the question at issue, as it only goes to show the effectiveness of the first barrel, which no one has ever doubted for the range at which a first barrel is required. In our opinion, fairly handicapped at twenty yards, the little American lady might give Bogardus and Carver a lesson not only in shooting pigeons, but in preferring a London gun to the makers patronised by those shooting giants. Miss Oakley is, by the way, the first American performer in this country who has patronized on old established London firm, and the result has been that she has packed her American guns back to the place from whence they came.