TO UJ OURS PERDRIX' 97 



hitting 498, and proud he was to show you the cutting 

 out of the local newspaper which reported it. A 

 really remarkable performance, especially considering 

 that it was years before glass-ball shooting or Dr. 

 Carver was ever heard of. Hirst only died a year or 

 two ago. He must have been a great age, and I am 

 told that to the last he used to talk of how he taught 

 me to shoot. I am sorry he did not live long enough 

 for me to have sent him this book, to show that the 

 pupil did not forget his first master. 



I have often been asked whether pigeon-shooting 

 from traps is likely to improve a man's game-shooting. 

 My answer is, Undoubtedly, just as I am sure, and 

 have proved to myself, that practice at the running- 

 deer target is good for deer-stalking. In both cases 

 the standard of accuracy necessary for a first-rate 

 performance is forced upon you ; and one of the 

 most common drawbacks to the average or moderate 

 shooter is that he has no standard of accuracy. He 

 does not know what ought to be done, still less what 

 can be done, with a gun or rifle. If he brings down 

 a pheasant or partridge, he is content ; whereas 

 broken limbs, and a mass of tail feathers, or a strong 

 running bird, distress the first-rate man so greatly that 

 he would almost as soon have missed altogether. 

 The latter knows the bird was not in the centre of the 



H 



