290 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



and his gun in the other, the spring of the plank caused 

 him to miss his footing and take a veritable leap in the 

 dark. Luckily, he was nearing the side, and so just 

 managed to stick his toes into the farther bank, and 

 so escape a bad ducking, which, truly, would have been 

 a most unhappy ending to a successful evening's sport. 



Wigeon-flighting is right merry work. Wherever the 

 birds are plentiful, and access can be readily obtained to 

 their feeding-grounds, the shore-shooter is certain to have 

 some sport if he makes wise choice of a position. A 

 hammerless gun with cartridge-ejecting mechanism will 

 prove the quickest and handiest form of weapon for this 

 sport, and the sportsman armed with a gun so easily and 

 quickly manipulated will, all other things equal, obtain 

 bigger bags of fowl at flight-time than will the man 

 using a gun of slower movement. When wigeon are 

 thoroughly on the move shots occur with frequency, and 

 the energies of the gunner are sometimes severely taxed 

 to take every fair shot that is presented. 



A fully-choked gun is thought by many to be indis- 

 pensably requisite to due success in duck-shooting. In 

 flight-shooting, certainly, a close-shooting gun is too often 

 out of place, however well it may suit for the general 

 purposes of wild-fowl-shooting in the full light of day. 

 Ducks at evening flight are frequently shot at no greater 

 distance than 20 yards, and wigeon at even shorter 

 ranges. I remember once meeting with a phenomenally 

 successful flight-shooter in my rambles along the coast. 

 This man was a villager who obtained a goodly portion 

 of his living in winter by standing for the flight, morning 

 and evening, at various suitable places down by the shore. 

 He was head and shoulders above his competitors in the 

 neighbourhood, both as regards ideas and armament. 



