HINTS ON PUNTING TO FOWL 251 



and a sport, as far as shooting is concerned, implying no par- 

 ticular skill. 



The art of calculating distance with the eye cannot be taught 

 here. There is no fixed rule except that of sighting the punt- 

 gun at a mark, a known distance away on the water, and so calcu- 

 lating from this as you approach fowl. Practice alone can teach 

 a man to judge distance. With regard to a suitable range for a 

 punt-gun, much depends upon circumstances. Seventy yards is 

 a good range. Sixty is better if fowl are thick and your shot 

 is not too heavy. Shots may be taken up to a range of 

 a hundred yards ; but further distances than this are better not 

 attempted. Long shots frighten and scare fowl, and never 

 kill many. Remember, it is unsportsmanlike to fire long shots, 

 and, moreover, is known to account for the wounding of many 

 birds which are never retrieved. We may know that a punt- 

 gun firing heavy shot will kill an odd fowl from two to four 

 hundred yards away, but that is no reason why shots should 

 be taken at such distances. 



Before going into details on the above subject, some slight 

 reference to the many ways in which punt-guns are mounted 

 should be made. The various methods employed to fix large 

 guns ready to fire from duck-punts have, of course, been pre- 

 viously discussed, though attention is again drawn to them, 

 so that explanations may be better understood. There 

 is only one thoroughly practical means by which a punt-gun 

 can be used. This is by having full lifting control of the gun 

 by what has been termed the elevating gear. We here make 

 no allusion to the recoil mechanism of large guns. The other 

 devices by which punt-guns are fired are generally simple forms 

 of the full control gear — of course, being imperfect in lacking 

 many advantages. The requisite movement of a punt-gun 

 when mounted should be such that the gun can be bodily lifted 

 or lowered and balanced, so that by pressing on the breech- 

 end, the gun can be tilted and moved, so that the muzzle has 



