How to Shoot Birds on the Wing 



You aim where the bird isn't, so that he 

 and the bullet meet at the intended spot 



By Edward C. Grossman 



THERE is one great rule in success- 

 ful shotgun shooting — don't shoot 

 at the bird; shoot where he's going 

 to be. There are exceptions of course, 

 but as a rule shooting directly at a flying 

 object with the shotgun means a miss. 



SMoot Here ,_ 



Don't shoot at the bird. Aim at 

 the spot where he is going to be 



Probably the most exasperating set of 

 figures in the world, and the most useless 

 in actual practice, are those which pertain 

 to the time of flight of a charge of shot; 

 the bird's speed and its exact distance 

 from the gun. Mathematically simple is 

 the problem of putting the center of a 

 shot charge precisely over a bird flying 

 at a given distance and at a given speed. 

 It is simple enough to calculate the dis- 

 tance a bird will fly in a given time and 

 then to calculate the time the shot 

 charge takes in getting to the bird, and 

 so the distance the gun must be pointed 

 ahead. The little joker lies in the fact 

 that in real life at least two unknown 

 quantities enter into the problem — first 

 the distance to the bird, second the speed 

 of the bird. So quickly does the whole 

 thing happen that the shooter has no 

 time to find out the distance to the 

 quarry, while the speed of birds varies. 

 So successful shooting becomes a matter 

 of experience, governed by a sort of sixth 

 sense which is eventually acquired by the 

 veteran scatter-gunner. 



If the bird is a crossing bird and 

 flying 40 miles an hour at a distance of 

 40 yd., then he's traveling in round 

 numbers 60 ft. per second, and in a 

 tenth of a second, 6 ft. A charge of shot 

 of size used for upland birds, takes .14 sec. 

 to travel 40 yd. In .14 sec. our bird 

 travels 8.4 ft. There is also a slight de- 

 lay after one's brain signals the finger 

 to pull, which amounts to one .01 of a 

 second and up, or say six inches more 

 travel by the bird. So the hapless wight 

 firing directly at his bird, misses him by 

 nine feet, less a foot or two for the spread 

 of the pellets which might have gotten 

 the bird had the charge passed within a 

 foot or two of being right. 



So comes the necessity for either hold- 

 ing ahead or swinging ahead of any bird 

 going at an angle to the line of fire, and 

 the necessity for throwing the gun muz- 

 zle ahead of the bird regardless of its 

 direction, distance or speed. The spread 

 of the pellets — giving a killing circle 

 35 in. across at 40 yd. in the case of the 

 full choke gun and more in guns not so 



^ ■ 15«^>- 



iSnoot here 





Where to aim at a bird that has ap- 

 proached and is passing the hvmter 



much choked — takes care of some error 

 in holding, else few of us would ever hit 

 a bird; but the man who depends on 

 the spread of his shot to connect is going 

 to believe after a bit that his "pattern," 

 the spread of the shot, isn't much wider 



143 



