198 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



SHOOTING IN WOODS AND THICKETS. 



Fast flying shots and running game 

 Shoot without closing either eye to aim. 



SCHLEY. 



|HE gun for shooting in the woods and thickets should 

 be a short barrel, No. 12, 13, or 14 guage. The length 

 of the barrel should not be more than twenty-nine 

 inches. A short barrel gun of this description can 

 be handled very easily, and quickly, among the bushes, 

 whereas a longer barrel would baulk the shooter by catch- 

 ing against the branches of trees and brush wood. To be 

 successful in shooting in the woods and thickets, the sports- 

 man should take advantage of all and every chance, that 

 offers a chance to be hit. Never refuse a fair chance, under 

 the hope of getting a better one shoot if it is only where 

 you expect a bird, or animal to appear, or close to where 

 one has disappeared. By practicing this kind of shooting 

 in the woods and thickets, if you have a keen, quick eye, 

 and quick action, you will acquire the art of killing birds 

 and animals, even after they have passed entirely from your 

 sight, behind the thickest foliage, and you will get the knack 

 of pitching the gun to your shoulder and stopping your bird, 

 or animal, in the thickest woods or thicket, at the moment 

 you hear the sound of their feet, or the flap of their wings, 

 without knowing how you shot them or whether you saw 

 them at all when you fired. If your dog points a Pheas- 

 ant, Woodcock, Partridge, or the like, into brushwood, 

 briars or laurels, and you are close on the game, kick the 

 brushwood with your foot, tap the briars, laurels and the 

 like with the point of the gun. If the game springs and 

 darts off' though the bushes, or hanging branches, and you 



