The Wizard of the Wetlands 47 



shot is difficult, but because they have not learned 

 how to make it in other words they never have 

 mastered the highly important points, allowing a 

 fast bird plenty of lead and pulling trigger with- 

 out checking the steady swing of the gun. Unless 

 one is holding a tremendous distance ahead, to stop 

 the swing of the gun means to miss through shooting 

 behind. Quickly as shot travels there is a fractional 

 loss of time between the beginning of the movement 

 by the trigger ringer and the arrival of the pellets 

 at any point, for convenience say thirty or forty 

 yards from the muzzle. During that interval, brief 

 though it be, a snipe will travel a certain distance, 

 and that distance is precisely what the gun should 

 be ahead of him when the trigger finger starts to 

 pull. 



Those who have not actually experimented with 

 the pattern of guns and the matter of leading fast 

 birds according to distance, might with advantage 

 make a few patterns at twenty, thirty, and forty 

 yards, using a thirty-inch circle upon large sheets 

 of paper. The results will show a spread of pattern 

 as the distance is increased, and let us hope an even 

 and fairly close distribution of the pellets, for that 

 means a useful field-gun. The twenty-yard pattern 

 will show the shot so closely bunched that no snipe 

 within its circle could escape instant death. At the 

 distance, then, the one necessary thing is to get any 

 part of that pattern on him ; but correct shooting 

 would demand his being exactly centred. To insure 

 this the gun would have to be held just ahead of 

 him and kept swinging at exactly his speed and not 

 stopped as the trigger was pulled. At thirty yards 



