As new guns were designed, the numbers denoting the powder load and bullet weight were omitted from these guns and the bullet or bore diameter was the only identification. This is the true caliber. Some of these guns were designed to handle cartridges of different bullet and powder combinations. This fact is seldom recorded on the gun, but is usually found on the cartridge container.

Some of the modern guns are marked with a number which does not express the true caliber, but serves to identify the gun. These guns are so near the caliber indicated that the difference is not important.

With modern guns, modern powders and modern bullets being used in almost endless combinations, caliber is not as important as it was fifty years ago. The newer small caliber bullet traveling at great velocities will do more damage than the slow-moving large-size bullet which was considered necessary in the black-powder days. I think that the best way for a beginner to select his gun is for him to follow the crowd. Find out what caliber is the most popular in the area to be hunted and select a gun in that caliber. If he is not satisfied after a thorough trial, he has a gun which may be easily sold or exchanged for one which is better suited to individual preference. Gun popularity is constantly changing, but the change is gradual and is due to changing hunting conditions and to new developments. At the present time the swing is towards the smaller calibers and higher velocities.

In Maine, the black-powder gun was the .45/90. This gun gave way to the .38/55, the gun which has probably killed as many Maine deer as any other caliber. The .30/30 superseded the .38/55 and now this gun is, in turn, losing favor. What its successor will be is not clear at this time. The 270 is a possibility, but it will probably be one of the high-power guns in .30 caliber.

The gun which I have carried through most of my hunting years is a .38/55. My selection of this arm was not the result of a well-considered choice, but was more or less accident. My economic condition at the time had quite an influence on my decision. I knew that the gun was a dependable killer, within its range, and I have always been satisfied with its performance when I have used it properly. This does not mean that I would select the same gun at the present time. That gun, a full-magazine rifle, seems to gain weight as I grow older; and, while the nine-shot capacity seemed little enough in those days, I have never used over six shots at any one time without the opportunity to reload. A carbine would have served me as well, unless the shorter sighting radius caused more misses.

As for the caliber adequate for hunting in wooded country, it does not throw a bullet far enough, fast enough or hard enough for open country hunting. I would not go so far as to choose one of the ultra-high-speed guns of any caliber, but would probably settle for something like the .35 Remington caliber. This bullet performs about the same as my .38/55 in brush, has about the same effect when it hits a deer and has the advantage of extended range in the open country. If I changed guns, I would probably continue to reach out for those deer which are fifty yards beyond effective range, as I do now, and as I would probably do this regardless of the gun that I was using. My gun has served me well, but I feel the need of a gun which will reach a little farther and save me the time and effort of stalking the game which is just beyond range of my .38/55.

The best way to select the gun the beginner hunter is to find out which caliber is the most popular in the area to be hunted and select a gun in that caliber. And after that he can go for the trial and get experience on which gun will be suitable for him and for the purpose of the hunting.