SCR00007.188

ENGLISH SHOOTING NOTES.

London, England.

EDITOR AMERICAN FIELD:-On September 21 a party of shooters from the United States started to have a little sport at the inclosed grounds of Mr. T. Brown, at Munhead. The day was miserably chilly and a stiff wind blew-which made it very disagreeable. The following were present: Mr. S. K. Hindley, manager Bullard Repeating Arms Co., Springfield, Mass.; Miss Annie Oakley, the wonderful lady shot; Mr. Frank C. Butler, T. T. Cartwright, Mr. T. Brown and Master Tommy Brown, aged nine years.

The shooting commenced with Miss Oakley shooting a match at 25 starlings, which left the trap as if they had a special agreement to beat the telegraph. Miss Oakley was not in as good form as usual and that with the cold raw day and high wind made shooting very difficult. Miss Oakley succeeded in grassing 18 out of 25, using her 20-gauge gun with 3/4 ounce shot, at 25 yards, from five traps, five yards apart, Hurlingham rules. The outcome of this match is that Miss Oakley is backed to kill 40 blue rocks out of 50 at 25 yards rise, 5 traps, 5 yards apart. The birds will be the best that money can buy and the little wonder will have all her work cut out; but her friends are very sanguine she will accomplish the task and some heavy bets have already been made.

A team match was shot, the contestants being Miss Oakley and T. T. Cartwright against Messrs. Brown and Butler. After a very exciting contest Miss Oakley's team won. Mr. Brown then backed himself to kill eight out of ten, but failed, only grassing seven, two of the others dropping dead out of bounds, and the third the retriever ran out of bounds and caught less than two yards from the line. He shot at 28 yards rise. Master Tommy Brown gave an exhibition of his prowess with a gun, using a .410 bore. The objects were glass balls, thrown in the air about ten yards. He succeeded in breaking ten out of twelve. Mr. Hindley then threw up a penny, when the nine-year-old at the first shot sent it spinning into the air with seven shot marks on it. A six-penny silver piece was then thrown up and after two or three attempts Master Tommy also sent that flying. When it is known that a six-pence is the size of a ten-cent piece, it will be seen that Master Tommy is quite a shot.

Miss Oakley is meeting with a great deal of success, socially, here, and several titled ladies are very apt pupils of hers at shotgun shooting. Miss Oakley will go to Germany as soon as her engagement her closes. She has also had very flattering offers from France and Spain and it is highly probable that her many admirers in the United States will not have the chance of seeing her again for a year or more.

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that Buck Taylor, the king of cowboys, has so far recovered from his accident as to be able to appear in the saddle once more at the Wild West show. He received a perfect ovation on his first appearance in the arena after his serious accident and when one of the squaws had the misfortune to fall off her horse, Buck was the first at hand to help her up and such an ovation as he received when he dismounted and assisted her to remount I never witnessed.

T. T. CARTWRIGHT