HINTS ON PUNTING TO FOWL 251 
and a sport, as far as shooting is concerned, implying no par- 
ticular skill. 
The art of calculating distance with the eye cannot be taught 
here. There is no fixed rule except that of sighting the punt- 
gun ata mark, a known distance away on the water, and so calcu- 
lating from this as youapproach fowl. Practice alone can teach 
a man to judge distance. With regard to a suitable range for a 
punt-gun, much depends upon circumstances. Seventy yards is 
a good range. Sixty is better if fowl are thick and your shot 
is not too heavy. Shots may be taken up to a range of 
a hundred yards; but further distances than this are better not 
attempted. Long shots frighten and scare fowl, and never 
kill many. Remember, it is unsportsmanlike to fire long shots, 
and, moreover, is known to account for the wounding of many 
birds which are never retrieved. We may know that a punt- 
gun firing heavy shot will kill an odd fowl from two to four 
hundred yards away, but that is no reason why shots should 
be taken at such distances. 
Before going into details on the above subject, some slight 
reference to the many ways in which punt-guns are mounted 
should be made. The various methods employed to fix large 
guns ready to fire from duck-punts have, of course, been pre- 
viously discussed, though attention is again drawn to them, 
so that explanations may be better understood. There 
is only one thoroughly practical means by which a punt-gun 
can be used. This is by having full lifting control of the gun 
by what has been termed the elevating gear. We here make 
no allusion to the recoil mechanism of large guns. The other 
devices by which punt-guns are fired are generally simple forms 
of the full control gear—of course, being imperfect in lacking 
many advantages. The requisite movement of a punt-gun 
when mounted should be such that the gun can be bodily lifted 
or lowered and balanced, so that by pressing on the breech- 
end, the gun can be tilted and moved, so that the muzzle has 
