xiv INTRODUCTION 



really, we cannot doubt the wisdom of such application, 

 for, of a truth, the sportsman of to-day is much more 

 of a gunner than were his predecessors in the shooting 

 field. A knowledge of the gun, the intricacies of 

 hammerless actions, of single triggers, of barrel boring, 

 of the behaviour of nitro compounds, cartridge loading 

 and shot velocities, is much cultivated in these times ; 

 thus the game-shot becomes more than ever a gunner. 

 But this does not quite convey the whole of what is 

 implied by the modern term gunner, for the shooting 

 man " shooting man " also is modern, and it, too, is a 

 distinctly good term in this connection, as, strictly 

 applied, it conveys much the same meaning as " gunner " 

 has developed more and more into the mere gunner. 

 A clearly-defined line of demarcation might be drawn 

 between sportsmen of the old school and sportsmen of 

 the new. The former take as much pleasure in the 

 searching for and circumventing as in the actual killing 

 of their game. With the latter these are quite secondary 

 considerations, for they expect to have the game brought 

 up to them ; thus in the latter case the handling of the 

 gun, the actual shooting, is the paramount consideration, 

 and the hunter's true instinct remains largely uncultivated. 

 The remarkable improvements made in guns and 

 explosives during the past quarter of a century are to 

 some extent accountable for the increased interest 

 taken in gunnery, and for the fact that in this particular 

 direction the education of the sportsman has consider- 

 ably progressed. But this, perhaps, is not the real 

 reason why the sportsman of to-day shines more as a 

 gunner than a hunter of game. The chiefest cause in 

 all probability is to be found in the altered conditions 

 of sport, the modern tendency being, as remarked, in 



