THE SPORTSMAN WHO NEVER FAILS TO HIT. 105 



THE SPOKTSMAN WHO KEVEK FAILS TO HIT. 



HAVE heard of sportsmen shooting who never failed 

 to hit, but I must confess I have never seen such a 

 sportsman. I have shot with sportsmen who had 

 the reputation of killing twenty-five Partridges out 

 of twenty-five shots, it made no difference where the 

 birds were found, and with others who had killed every 

 bird that would rise. I have shot with some who had 

 the reputation of killing every time they would fire, and 

 again with those who have said they could kill nine 

 Partridges out of ten all day long, one day after another, 

 the season through, in cover or out of cover. I have heard 

 such romancing a thousand times, and I have always found, 

 when the experiment was tested by actual experience in the 

 field, that the sportsman who had the reputation of never 

 failing to hit a bird was always a slow, miserable, poking 

 shot. Where he would kill one bird, a good, quick, expert 

 sportsman would kill and bag a half dozen in the same 

 time. It is impossible to kill every Partridge you fire at. 

 vSome times the shot spreads widely and the bird escapes 

 being hit, it matters not how perfect your aim may be. At 

 other times you may have perfect aim, and by a slip, or a 

 stumble, or by the sun getting in your eyes, or a bush or a 

 tree intervening, or the bird darting or turning off just at 

 the moment of drawing the trigger, you may miss. When- 

 ever you hear of a sportsman who can kill twenty-five 

 Partridges out of twenty-five shots, and can kill such a 

 number without missing, and he can prove it by some of 

 his sporting friends, you can rest assured that, if he is tell- 

 ing the truth, the way it is done is by picking out in the 

 open fields all the slow flying, easy, and certain shots, and 

 refusing to fire upon all birds that he is uncertain of kill- 

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