252 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



marshes of large extent few snipe-shooters, be they 

 endowed with illimitable stores of energy and en- 

 thusiasm, would have patience enough to retraverse 

 miles of once beaten bogland in order to resume their 

 down-wind progress on the strip of unbeaten marsh 

 alongside. 



In addition to the twisting or rolling flight already 

 mentioned, there are other reasons why snipe are so 

 difficult to bring down. One is, that on springing from 

 the ground, these birds almost instantly develop their 

 highest rate of speed. Very frequently also they are 

 rising rapidly in the air during the whole of the time 

 they remain within gun-shot, and thus, all too often, 

 the shot is sent whistling harmless beneath them. 



Shooters are not in perfect accord respecting the 

 proper time to fire at snipe. Some contend that the 

 best time to take them is at the moment the bird 

 springs into the air. Others, on the contrary, prefer to 

 wait until the rolling flight is ended, and the bird has 

 settled down into a more even and steadier mode of 

 progression. In the first case it is not every gunner 

 who can display sufficient celerity of movement to 

 insure getting on to his bird in the remarkably brief 

 space of time at his disposal ; in the latter case it may 

 be urged that a wild-rising snipe will be out of gun- 

 range ere he assumes a more level style of progression. 



One thing a snipe-shooting tyro will do well to bear 

 in mind is to aim well over his birds, and as a help in 

 this direction the use of a straight-stocked gun is to be 

 recommended. The 12-bore is the best gun to use for 

 the general purposes of the snipe-shooter in this country. 

 In the hot swamps of India or Burma, possibly, a 4^ Ib. 

 28-bore may have much to recommend it, for in such 



