296 PHEASANTS 



the high bird, missed directly overhead, 

 should be so markedly insensible to any 

 attempt to retrieve the position after it 

 has passed the perpendicular. It is 

 satisfactory to find that the tests prove 

 this bird to be almost impossible, and 

 better left severely alone. 



Sir Ralph conducted these exhaustive 

 experiments — for which he deserves the 

 gratitude of all the pheasant -shooting 

 world, so difficult to devise, so trouble- 

 some to conduct, must these tests on 

 aerial targets have been — with every 

 variety of the 12 -bore gun and its 

 cartridges, and arrived at these interest- 

 ing conclusions. 



In shooting at high birds, there is 

 little advantage to be gained from any of 

 the special expedients usually considered 

 suitable by those who shoot. Thus the 

 full-choked gun has no advantage over 

 the modified-choke or indeed the cylinder 

 gun, any increase of penetration being far 

 outweighed by loss of regularity in the 

 pattern. Any shot of a size larger than 



