74 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



he may resolve to learn something about the sport and renew 

 his efforts. In most sports with the gun, especially driven- 

 game shooting, it is most essential that the sportsman 

 must be a good shot. This is no less true in the par- 

 ticular form of shooting under discussion if the gunner 

 would excel, though in comparison many more items of 

 importance are indispensable to the skilful shore-shooter. 

 Amongst his quarry are some of the wariest and hardiest 

 species of birds, which can only be secured in numbers under 

 the most trying meteorological conditions. These circum- 

 stances require the shooter to be sound in every limb and 

 constitutionally equal to the occasion. Shore - shooting, 

 especially in winter, is not a sport for the weak and delicate ; 

 indeed, it would be very harmful. For the strong, shore- 

 shooting is one of the most hardy, invigorating, and interest- 

 ing classes of shooting that a healthy man can indulge in. 

 Broadly speaking, there is in our islands no kind of bird- 

 shooting equal to this, when the sport is good. All manner 

 of shots may be presented to the marksman, from the 

 busy, bustling teal, to the heavy and comparatively labour- 

 Jngf gffey goose, intergraded with the smart little redshank and 

 the stately-moving curlew. The flight of all these birds is 

 so different that the shore-shooter must be a skilful shot 

 to account for all. This involves keen and accurate sight, 

 and a practised knowledge of correctly judging distance. 

 These are but a few of the primary qualifications of the 

 shore-shooter. 



Preliminary lessons at shooting schools are of inestimable 

 benefit to the beginner, but the art of shore-shooting can only 

 be practised and perfected on the shooting grounds which are 

 the homes of shore-birds and wildfowl. It is of importance 

 that the gun "fits" the shooter, or good results in shooting 

 cannot be expected. Any respectable firm of gunmakers will 

 gladly build a gun to suit any gunner, but it must not be 



