THE SHOT-GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT 323 
I do not believe any man who systematically shoots, 
one might truthfully say, instinctively, as a snap-shot, 
can ever make a thoroughly successful duck shooter. 
To be sure, there are places he will —jumping them 
from creeks, from rice, from willows. or shooting them 
over decoys ; but when it comes to taking them as we 
find them, on cold blustering days, the wind howling 
and b.owing the shot out of its course, where time, dis- 
tance, speed and all the combinations are against him, 
I don’t believe he can overcome such obstacles. No 
man can become proficient in duck-shooting unless he 
isa good judge of distance, comprehends the velocity 
the bird is flying, how high it is, the allowance that 
should be made for the wind and for the falling shot. 
The laws of gravitation must be considered and practi- 
cal experiments show that shot drops 8.05 inches at 40, 
and 19.85 inches at 60 yards. Taking all these things 
into consideration, how a snap-shot can overcome them 
all, and the hunter bring his gun up, just in the right 
spot, to kill ducks regularly at 40 and 50 yards, is 
beyond my comprehension. Some of the prettiest and 
best shots I ever saw at the trap and in the field were 
snap-shots, but I have not as yet met them on a duck 
pass, when the wind was blowing a gale, and single 
ducks were flying 40 to 60 yards high, and fully 100 
miles an hour. 
The beginner should study distance, not only on the 
marsh at ducks, but at home in his daily walks, so that 
at from 30 to 60 and even 75 yards he can estimate 
space, to tell where two and four feet are from a given 
object, that he may know how to judge the flying ducks. 
Study their flight, that he may learn how to hold on 
them, always remembering they are farther than they 
