368 LETTERS TO YOUN& SHOOTERS LETTER 



can you fire the gun without moving the safety bolt, 

 which maybe done instinctively, just as you are about 

 to aim. You thus eliminate all such risks as a hammer 

 slipping from a wet thumb, or the possibility of a loader 

 giving you a gun in an insecure condition, as, for 

 instance, at full cock. 



You generally have plenty of time before a drive 

 commences to go through a little practice in the 

 matter of changing guns with your loader in the 

 privacy of your shelter, and very useful such exercise 

 may be to you both when the grouse begin to arrive. 



GUNS, POWDER, AND SHOT 



Any ordinary 12 -bore will serve for grouse 

 driving ifii is not much choked. As you do not carry 

 your gun about all day, as you would when walking 

 the heather with pointers, use a fairly heavy one, 

 because a light gun is apt to jump and recoil in very 

 unpleasant fashion if the firing is pretty fast and the 

 day hot. The warmer the weather the more will you 

 feel the recoil of your gun when firing with rapidity 

 in the somewhat contracted space of a grouse 

 shelter, besides which you will now and then fail, 

 when shooting quickly over the top of a shelter, to 

 place your gun properly home to the shoulder, and a 

 light one may, as a result, give you a nasty knock on 

 the cheek or else a bruised finger the latter a mis- 

 fortune that may easily destroy your pleasure and 

 accuracy of aim for the rest of the day. 



