75 



[Cu.vp. XIV, 

 PAKvs. 41 «fc 42.] 



repaid if lie visits tliese occasionally when on leave Home. 

 Even in this conntry, thongh, one can buy a clay-pigeon 

 trap and "pigeons" pretty clieaply and one can even 

 practise iiuhjors, or out, swinging and pressing the trigger 

 with spring cap dummy cartridges. 



The writer, at the beginning of the season, has white- 

 wasliod marks put at a suitable height on a wall in his 

 garden, as below : — 



Scale 8' 5' 3' 3' 5' 8' 



I inch = 1ft. O O O O O O O 



O 



O 



O 



O 



O 



O 



O 



O 



o 



o 



o 



o 



o 



o 



Each circle is supposed to represent a bird in flight. 

 The circles on the extreme right and left are each 8 feet 

 from the centre (zero) circle, i.e., the forward allowance 

 which one ought to give for a crossing shot at forty yards ; 

 the vertical distance between the marks on any one vertical 

 line is one foot, to assist the estimation of allowance for a 

 rising or dropping bird. On the ground, distances of 

 twenty and forty yards are marked. Kanges and allowances 

 are thus stamped on the memory. Standing at the forty 

 yards mark with one's eye on the. twenty yards mark, one 

 notes the " law " that should be given a bird if one does 

 not wish to " plaster " him, and the figures '6 and 5 

 accustom the eye to the allowance to be given for ranges 

 of less than forty yards. " Covering," i.e., the open-eyed, 

 instinctive pointing of the gun with both eyes concentrated 

 on the mark, swinging, and trigger-pressing without check 

 of swing can all be reduced to a sort of drill. Thus, for 

 practice in the crossing shot, the shooter will pick any 

 two marks and swing from left to right, saying to himself, 

 ^^ cover and fire, swinging, at 5," etc., etc. He then 

 reverses the direction of the swing, picking any two marks 

 on any of the three horizontal lines, and firing the second 

 barrel. He may next imagine that he is taking an 

 ascending bird. He will pick any two marks on any one 

 of the vertical lines, saying "bird at lower" and then 

 swing up and fire, one barrel after the other, swinging, at 

 the middle and upper marks. Similarly, for tlie dropping 

 shot, the command will be " bird at upper," and he will 

 swing down on the middle and lower marks. Firing the 

 left barrel in immediate succession to the right without 

 taking the gun from tlie shoulder should be practised. 



42. Almost superfluous though it may seem, Cleauino. 

 scrupulous cleaning should not be neglected. Many men 

 who shoot in India have their ofhcial duties, so there is 



