HOH^ TO HOLD. 505 



If the gunner has with him a companion who has 

 been trained to watch the course of shot, he may re- 

 quest him to watch it and tell him why his charge 

 misses. For be it known that the trap shooters, men who 

 spend much of their time shooting at targets and gaug- 

 ing the flight of shot, declare that it is quite possible to 

 see the charge of shot flying from the muzzle of the 

 gun toward a target, and to determine just where this 

 charge goes with relation to the target. This acute- 

 ness of vision is said not to be peculiar to a few men, 

 but to be common to many trap shooters. The ob- 

 server stands behind and a little to one side of the 

 shooter, and looking at the target, sees the puff of 

 smoke come from the muzzle of the gun. This rushes 

 out about ten feet, and from it darts forward what 

 looks like a long shadow composed of many lengthwise 

 strips; the course of this flying shadow — which is in 

 fact the charge of shot — can be followed to and beyond 

 the target, and we are told that it is the common prac- 

 tice for a trap shooter, when he finds himself missing 

 his targets or his birds, to ask a friend to stand near, 

 him and tell him where his shot is going with relation 

 to the target, whether before, behind it, or over or 

 under. 



It is rather startling to be told that a charge of shot 

 can be seen by the unaided eye as it flies from the muz- 

 zle of the discharged gun ; but since we all know that 

 the charge of shot fired from a gun has been photo- 

 graphed, it appears reasonable enough that the trained 

 human eye, under favorable conditions, should be able 



