4IO 



The American A nobler 



scribed, I have heard forty or fifty birds 

 o-o off in a rough day before very steady 

 dogs without getting a shot ; by adopt- 

 ing this plan I have often had sport. 



In shooting wild duck on rivers or 

 brooks, keep well back from the shores 

 when they run straight — crawl care- 

 fully into the turns, so as to command 

 the next reach. 



If you come on ducks suddenly in 

 small ponds in the woods, they are apt 

 to tower up nearly perpendicular, and 

 if you are not aware of this peculiarity, 

 and on your guard, it is five to one you 

 will shoot behind them. 



In shooting wild fowl to stools, fire 

 above a rising and below a setting fowl, 

 and a foot before the tip of his bill at 

 thirty yards, and six inches more for 

 every ten yards further. 



In ver}' strong weather I have killed 

 both geese and coots quite dead, when, 

 I am sure, I have shot five feet before 

 their bills. 



No rules can make a good shot out of 

 a bad one, but attention to rules will 

 make a tolerable shot a thorough sports- 

 man, remembering always what Pliny 

 says in his chapter on Black Duck, 

 quoted by the lamented Cypress, Jr.: 



" Lcgcre et scribcre est pedagogic scd 

 opt i me collincare est Dei.'' 



To read and write comes from the 

 schoolmaster, but a crack shot is the 

 work of God. 



Hoic to Buy a Gun. — Don't buy of a 

 hardware man at any price. 



Don't buy a very cheap gun of any one. 



No gun — double gun — can be made, 

 safe, soiind and fit to shoot with, for less 

 than $25 ; no single gun for less than 



Sis- 

 Go to any respectable gunmaker and 

 look at his own guns,w4th his oxvunmue, 

 which it is of course his interest to keep 

 engraved on them ; or to any respect- 

 able importer, also a guuu/a/ce?-, and ask 



him to show you a good gun at such a 

 price which he can recommend. 



Either of these methods will do if 

 you are in such a hurry that you cannot 

 wait ; but rely on it that you will get a 

 better gun, by fifty per cent., if you 

 order one built direct, by a thoroughly 

 good maker. In choosing the gun, unless 

 you are a great judge, which I am pre- 

 suming you not to be, you will be able 

 to ascertain nothing but the external 

 finish, and the glib, smooth and easy 

 working of the lock — this you will ar- 

 rive at by drawing the lock very slowly 

 to cock, letting it down, catching at the 

 various bents, not snapping, but seeing 

 that there is no grist, and Jiearing that 

 it ticks clear, sonorous, and like the 

 ring of a sound bell, not with a thin, 

 sharp, wiry creak. 



This is some criterion, moreover, as 

 to the whole, since good locks, which 

 are proportionately the dearest part of 

 the whole gun, are not used to be put 

 on bad guns. 



Still for quality, you must rely prin- 

 cipally on the vendor's word. There- 

 fore, deal with no vendor whose name 

 is not a sufficient guarantee for his 

 word, and no mere gun-importer's or 

 hardware man's name can be such a 

 guarantee, since he knows nothing about 

 the quality or nature of what he sells, 

 but what he knows by his invoice ; and 

 he has no name to lose, for he is not 

 responsible for the nature of what he 

 sells. 



Therefore, you must rely for quality 

 on the price of the article and the hon- 

 est)' of the vendor, your only guarantee 

 for which is his own good name as a 

 gunmaker. 



On and after January 1, 1897, the Ameri- 

 can Angler will be exclusively devoted to 

 angling and its cognate themes, and the 

 subscription price will be reduced to ONE 

 DOLLAR. 



