314 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
owing, no doubt, to the fact that many men, owning 
but one gun, must use it for all kinds of shooting, and 
in other instances to the further fact of thoughtless- 
ness concerning the proper requirements of the sport. 
Short barrels, too, are desirable, the difference in the 
handling of a 30-inch barrel and a 24-inch barrel in 
cover being far away in favor of the latter. 
Woodcock shooting is largely a matter of snap 
shooting; therefore, a wider range at a much shorter 
distance is a requisite if one is cultivating success in- 
stead of nursing a fad in respect to the use of choke- 
bore guns for all kinds of shooting, whether the guns 
be fitting or otherwise. In the shooting of quail or 
chickens or ruffed grouse—to a lesser degree with the 
latter—a certain degree of deliberation and quick aim 
can be practiced, but in woodcock shooting the oppor- 
tunities for deliberation are the rare exception; hence 
the need of adopting an. open gun to meet the require- 
ments of quicker work and short ranges. Light loads 
and smaller shot can be used successfully, some noted 
shooters using dust shot exclusively. With a short 
cylinder-bore gun—a true cylinder bore, not the modi- 
fied choke bores, which are often called cylinder—such 
a pattern can be secured at 15 or 20 yards as will 
insure fair success to the average shot and the best 
of success to the good one. It might be said that 
such a gun and load are too murderous, and indeed 
they would be in the hands of a man who could shoot 
with any degree of precision if he could exercise de- 
liberation; but as in the greater number of instances 
