354 FIRING A PUNT-GUN.' 



line of aim, while your cheek gently grazes the back 

 of the hand. Put all the fingers of your right hand 

 before the trigger, keeping the thumb out of the 

 way ; and be careful not to let your knees come in 

 contact with the timbers of the boat. By observing 

 well these directions, a child might fire this gun with 

 as much safety as the smallest fowling-piece. 



In firing a punt-gun (without any stanchion) from 

 the shoulder, you must lean hard against the upper 

 part of the padded but ; and have the gun as top 

 heavy as you can possibly overbear, by which means 

 the friction of the stock against the "gunning-bench" 

 and the check of your shoulder, prevents the gun 

 from running too far under your arm. Never attempt 

 to shoot a barrel so short as six feet in this way, as 

 it might fly up and hurt you. Always try these 

 guns with a quarter of a charge first ; and increase 

 the loading with an ounce of shot each round. By 

 this means you avoid the risk of a recoil, as you then 

 gradually ascertain how much ammunition can be 

 fired with perfect ease to the shoulder. 



If you are so fortunate as to get a line of birds, 

 shoot rather beyond the first of them, which will 

 then be taken by the lower shot. You may thus 

 (with mould shot) sweep the water from one to two 

 hundred yards, and possibly kill some of them all 

 the way, from one of these distances to the other. 



The advantage of a stanchion gun over a shoulder 

 duck gun is far more than that of the latter over a 

 common sporting gun ; and so generally has this of 



