5o6 DUCK SHOOTING. 



to detect the passage of a charge of shot through the 

 air. At all events, the matter appears to be one of 

 common knowledge among trap shooters. 



Skill in shooting is not born in any one. Just like 

 reading and writing, it must be learned, and, like read- 

 ing and writing, the more practice one has, the more 

 easily and the better it is done. Many a professional 

 gunner, who is a wonderful shot, would find it labor of 

 the hardest kind to sit down and write a four-page let- 

 ter; and many a business or professional man, who 

 goes gunning perhaps once in two or three years, finds 

 that killing the fowl that give him shots is something 

 that he cannot accomplish. Many men have noticed 

 that sometimes at the end of a season they can shoot 

 very well ; and then, if for two or three years they do 

 not go shooting, they find that they cannot hit anything, 

 and have to begin at the beginning and learn it all over 

 again. They have perhaps forgotten how to hold on 

 their birds, and, beside, their muscles, through disuse, 

 refuse at first to act with the brain as they formerly 

 did. This reflex action, so called, can only be regained 

 by practice. 



WHEN TO SHOOT. 



No one can learn how to shoot by reading about it in 

 books. The only way that the art can be acquired is by 

 practice. A few hints and suggestions, however, may 

 make this practice more profitable. A common error of 



