Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/769

 Popular Science Monthly

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��A Practical Shotgun Sight for the Trap -Shooter

MOST shotgun sights are a delu- sion and a snare, for the reason that in shooting at a flying object, there is neither time nor tendency on the part of the shooter to see anything but the mark and a flash of the gun. There is no analog\- between the shot- gun and the rifle. Most inventors of shotgun sights fail to realize that.

However, any one sight that makes the muzzle of the gun more easily caught in the quick glimpse from gun to bird, is worth while. Many experienced sportsmen use a large and plain ivory bead at the muzzle, the better to define the muz- zle on the mark in the rapid process of alining the barrel. A smaller ivory bead placed back along the rib and acting as rear sight is a good thing to check up one's "holding," in practice with the empty gun; but never seen in actual shooting at moving marks.

A. G. Flickinger, a Pacific Coast man with much trap-shooting experience, has patented and tried out in actual shooting, a front sight for single-barrel shotguns of repeating and other varieties. It is a practical shotgun front-sight, consisting of a ring to slip over the muzzle, with a bayonet form of catch to engage in the factor^' brass-bead front-sight.

This steel ring carries on it a ring-shaped bead of ivory or some such white colored material, easily and quickly picked up by the eye, and more easily seen than even the largest of the ordinary ivory beads mounted on the barrel rib at the muzzle.

The inventor of the de- vice cla'ms that the amateur using it will find his mark- manship so much improved that very soon he will be justified in considering him- self eligible to the title of ex- pert shot in the ranks of the experienced trap-shooters.

����The balky horse is shocked in t±ie flanks to spvir him on. A refusal to turn when desired is met by a shock on the head

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��The steel ring sight with the bead of ivory or porcelain is slipped over the muzzle

��Cure a Balky Horse Press a Button

ROM out of the West comes the electric tamer of balky and runaway horses. Press a button and a fractious horse is brought to a standstill.

The essentials are a small shocking-coil and its batter^'. These may be carried under the carriage seat or in a belt strapped on the body of the driver. Electric wires run from the shocking-coil to four strap- ivonvREAo keys on the har- i^^ness reins. Other wires lead from these ke\s to vari- "^2u°cF^ous points on the '^ horse's body.

If the horse gets balky and refuses to move, key num- ber one is pressed. The two wires which lead from this key run to opposite points on the horse's flank. He gets an electric shock which will certainly start him. If he should refuse to turn when desired, one of two keys are closed to give him a shock on the proper side of his head. Should he start running away, the last key will stop him. Wires are run from this key to a belt fastened around the top of the left foreleg.

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