. GROUSE SHOOTING (PART F//7), ' DRIVING' 369 



ling is more likely to cause a headache than 

 grouse driving in warm weather if you employ too 

 liglit a gun, or fire too heavy a charge. For this 

 reason you will find in an ordinary 12-bore 6|-lb. 

 cylinder, or slightly choked gun, that 40 grs. of a nitro- 

 compound (or 2J drs. of black powder) and one ounce 

 of Xo. 5 shot is the best load to use. It is true this 

 charge would not make a first-class pattern on the 

 30 in. target at the regulation 40 yards; but then, we do 

 not shoot driven grouse at 40 yards, but at ranges aver- 

 aging from 20 to 25 yards, and even at 35 yards an 

 ounce of Xo. 5, propelled by the charge of powder I 

 recommend, will drop r/vr// bird as dead as a stone if 

 you aim correctly, and with no recoil to speak of. 



A choke-bored gun, save it is slightly choked, is 

 an absurdity to use in grouse driving, and, from its 

 small killing circle, only makes every bird flying to 

 you more difficult to kill than it need be. 



You might as well almost fire a bullet at a driven 

 grouse at 20 yards, as fire a charge of shot from a 

 full-choked gun at the bird. 



A gun that makes an average pattern of over 150, 

 at 40 yards on a round 30 in. in diameter target with 

 1 J oz. of Xo. 6 shot, is merely a handicap to your 

 success in hitting driven grouse, unless you are a really 

 brilliant shot ; and even tln-n there is no advantage 

 whatever in using a gun that throws a very close 

 pattern, or one which, of course, gives the bird a better 

 chance of being missed by the shooter. 



n BE 



