262 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



I would just add that fourteen fruitless attempts had been 

 made to outwit these mallards before toll or remuneration for 

 toil and time could be demanded. This, of course, is a brief 

 account of a successful shot. We need hardly describe the 

 reverse. Had anything (to say nothing of shooting) occurred 

 in the form of a "swing off" at the critical moment, or, 

 worse, another run aground, most certainly the bag would 

 have been nil. Missfires are now of rare occurrence with 

 well-designed modern punt-guns, but with muzzle-loaders they 

 were, generally speaking, frequent, and cruelly disheartening 

 also. 



Shooting with a swivel-gun from the bows of a rowing and 

 sailing-boat gives the best returns if the fowl are taken on the 

 wing. Sitting shots with big guns from row-boats, if close 

 ones, prove few birds and dead kills. This may be seen when 

 we think of the height (mostly three feet) above water-level at 

 which the gun is laid on a boat, which, though it cannot be 

 obviated, is too high to kill many fowl sitting on water, 

 as firing a shot from such a height plunges the shot at any 

 distance within good killing range. Fowl shot sitting on 

 water with a punt-gun fired from the bows of a row-boat will 

 be struck on the head and back. Any shot which is not going 

 directly to the fowl will dive and do no harm ; that is to say, 

 none of the shot which fails to strike fowl directly will ricochet 

 or glance off the water and kill others, but will be driven 

 uselessly into or under the water. A punt-gun cannot be 

 mounted low on a sailing or rowing-boat, and therefore can- 

 not be expected to shoot well, i.e. good numbers of fowl at 

 a discharge, unless, as we have said, the shots are invariably 

 taken as flying ones. 



Our remarks are here drawn out to emphasise that it is 

 useless to fire sitting shot after sitting shot at birds with 

 a duck-gun mounted on a row-boat, in the hope that you will 

 some day shoot as many fowl as though the gun had been 



