34 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



be made by two who are merely shooters and not well-broken 

 sportsmen. 



Notice also the great number of double shots a finished 

 gunner will kill, for he will always try for the bird rising- 

 farther away from him with his first barrel, and thus he 

 secures an easy chance with the second, at the one that has 

 risen nearer him. The duffer, however, will kill the nearer 

 and easier bird first, and so allow the wild rising one to 

 become a long and difficult shot, and usually it flies off unhurt. 

 The author has always looked back with pleasure to a score 

 made in 1881, whilst on a visit to his old friend the late 

 Mr. Henry Spencer Lucy, at Corrour ; shooting side by side 

 and over dogs, "in twenty-three days, eight of them very 

 wet and only half days," so says the game-book, we bagged 

 902 brace of grouse, 26 brace of ptarmigan, and 1 1 7 various, 

 or 1,973 head, and during that time neither of us shot simul- 

 taneously at the same bird. When dogs are pointing, do not 

 go up to them faster than your companion ; many shooters 

 will do this, and then stop and wait. If birds are sitting well, 

 this proceeding will have no other effect than to make your 

 friend come up panting, and thus, when the birds rise, he will 

 not be able to shoot his best. If, however, the birds are wild, 

 they will be off at once to the single gun, and so the companion 

 will get no shot at all, while in each case the bag suffers. We 

 have often heard this racing up to a point apologised for by 

 the excuse of " Young dogs, you see, and they are not quite 

 steady " ; but if you are out to shoot grouse and make a bag, 

 dogs ought to be steady, and continually racing up and 

 shouting to them will hardly make them more so. Of course, 

 if one goes out with the avowed purpose of schooling young 

 dogs, that is quite another matter, for then you are dog- 

 breaking and not seriously shooting grouse, and the circum- 

 stances are entirely altered. Try to mark the birds that 

 fall, reload directly, pick up quickly with as little noise as 

 possible, and get to work again at once. On large moors 



