448 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
their lives to shooting, and are as skilful as any men 
can be; yet, in fact, it is the rarest possible exception 
when these men make perfect scores. 
I suppose that there is no shooting practice so good 
as to take the gun, say twice a day, for five minutes 
in the morning and five minutes in the evening, and 
throw it up to the shoulder, aiming at different objects 
near at hand, and trying to catch the sight as quickly 
as possible; in other words, to try to throw the gun 
up as nearly as possible in the line of sight. If this 
is done often enough it will prove the greatest aid in 
shooting, and will tend to make shooting more rapid 
and more accurate. 
Upland shooting may be divided into two branches, 
open shooting and snap shooting. In the first you see 
your mark clearly, and aim at it; in snap shooting you 
use only the “eye of faith,” shooting at a shadow, a 
sound, or a moving leaf, and trust to Providence that 
your gun is so aimed that the bird which you know 
is there shall fly into the circle of the shot. Obviously, 
open shooting grades into snap shooting, and no hard 
and fast line can be drawn between the two. Some 
men, who are especially talented, practice snap shoot- 
ing at all times, in the open as well as in cover. 
In open shooting, as, for example, where the prairie 
grouse are found, or quail are scattered in the open 
fields, there is almost always plenty of time to take de- 
liberate aim and kill your bird before it is out of reach. 
In the brush, however, where snap shooting must be 
practiced, because the game is hardly seen, and its 
