INTRODUCTION xix 



of his immediate environment for the time being. As 

 being myself a keen wildfowler, wildfowlers will ever 

 have my keenest sympathy and fullest considera- 

 tion. In their service I have endeavoured to convey 

 in this work instructions respecting the best guns and 

 ammunition to use for the shooting of wild-fowl ashore 

 and afloat, as also for the general prosecution of the 

 sport. Still, having given somewhat minute directions 

 as to punt-guns, gunning-punts, and the shooting there- 

 from in a previously published book, Practical Wild- 

 fowling which I am pleased to add was favourably 

 received by both press and public, and so has em- 

 boldened me to proceed with this new book on shooting 

 I have in the present work refrained from specialising 

 on those points. 



In these times of new guns, new powders, and many 

 other innovations connected with the sport of shooting, 

 it becomes more than ever imperative that sportsmen 

 should move with the times, and take due note of the 

 movements around them. Otherwise, they will be badly 

 left behind by those shooters keeping themselves well 

 posted up in the march of events. Vastly important 

 as are the improvements effected within recent years in 

 the matter of guns and ammunition, a glance around 

 at once reveals the foct that the makers and purveyors 

 of these important items in the equipment of the shooter 

 have themselves kept pace with these improvements and 

 the general trend of events. Assuredly, the foremost 

 gunmakers and powder manufacturers of this day bear 

 but slight resemblance to that same class of tradesmen 

 supplying the needs of sportsmen fifty years ago. The 

 leading gun and ammunition makers of the present time 

 have not been slow to discover, that in order best to keep 



