132 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
chance. By the puntsman’s craftsmanship, perfect knowledge 
of the habits of the birds, and their every-day movements, at 
some opportune moment he may eventually steal a march and 
come in touch with them, though at all times only by dogged 
perseverance. With so many things against the fowler afloat, 
who can envy him his triumph when he does succeed? And 
success under difficulties is the essence of gratification to a true 
sportsman, and, without doubt, no other form of shooting can 
afford this better than punting. Here, also, we might add, 
the perseverance, courage, excitement, nerve strain, coolness 
in action, and the true temperament of a man can never be 
better tested than when pitted against the wary wildfowl of the 
British Isles. 
Success in wildfowl shooting does not generally come all at 
once. Much time and patient study must be gone through 
along with that bitter, yet best of teachers, experience, before 
we can hope for good results. No more could a man shoot 
the moon than set out in a punt and assail a company of wary 
mallards on an open shore, if he had never before attempted 
such atask. And this is tosay nothing about the actual shoot- 
ing to be done. That is quite another art. Far from being a 
large gun, and not requiring much skill to use it (as many 
persons would have us all suppose), a punt-gun needs equally 
as much care in alignment as does a prize-winner’s rifle com- 
peting at the range (probably more so) if good returns are to 
result. We make statement of what may be thought a some- 
what elaborate description of the practice needed to become a 
good punt-gun shot, chiefly because so many shooters who are 
totally ignorant of punt-shooting seem to think, and even 
preach to the young idea, that it isa mere bagatelle as far as 
accuracy of aiming the gun is concerned. This we have tried 
to make more clear by referring to and criticising an actual 
printed paragraph of the fact. Shooting with any fowling- 
piece, fixed steady and aimed at an object, is not any proof of 
