HOW TO ATM, AND SHOOT. 4' : 5 



ments and good shooting to bring them down. These are 

 difficulties that good judgment alone will overcome. At 

 some seasons of the year most shooting is done in word 

 and thicket in thick cover through which you can scarcely 

 force your way. This kind of shooting requires consider- 

 able practice. One half the time you are not able to sa- 

 vour game, and you cannot judge correctly their position 

 ui id distance, but you must learn to guess at it from all 'the 

 cif; -u instances. To kill birds under these circumstar. 

 requires a quick eye, a clear mind, and a ready hand. The 

 sportsman will have to serve an apprenticeship at the btlSi- 

 ness before he can attain the art. Shooting birds in open 

 fields on the wing, is entirely different from shooting birds 

 in thick cover, such as you find in the mountains and hills, 

 swamps, densely grown-up clearings and thickets. In open 

 ground you can see the birds, you can judge with \Vhat 

 velocity they are flying, you have no bushes, trees, of 'oi>- 

 st met ions to interfere with you in taking aim. You will 

 have more time to judge the distance they are off at the 

 time of drawing the trigger. You will therefore perceive 

 that shooting birds out in the open on the wing will adini't 

 !' taking more deliberate aim than shooting under thick 

 cover, because you have more time for deliberation. -Yon 

 can close one eye in taking aim with ease and shoot very 

 accurately when a bird rises in open fields, flying in certain 

 directions. But when shooting in woods, bushes, and 

 thickets, or difficult places, you have no time to lose in get- 

 ting aim. and the only plan to pursue to be successful,' 'isrtb 

 shoot with both eyes wide open. After years of exper:- 

 en-ce in the field and in shooting all kinds of fast-flying, 

 and running a'ame, I offer you my method of shooting 1 and 

 aiming where game is found in different locations and un- 

 der certain circumstances. When a bird springs in a thicket 

 and flies straight off through bushes and hanging branc'he'k 

 pitch your gun quickly to your shoulder, cast both eyes < n 

 the !ur<i. draw the trigger and fire, without an instant's 

 deliberation. When a bird springs in thick cover and' flies 

 to the right or left behind bushes, pitch the gun quickly to 



