ON GROUSE-DRIVING 179 



average lies somewhere between 40 and 

 50 yards. But it may be regarded as a 

 hard and fast rule that it can never be 

 right for butts to be more than GO yards 

 apart. Even at that distance it takes a 

 very good shot to deal satisfactorily with 

 birds coming half-way between him and 

 his neighbour, for, conforming to the 

 angle of safety, he will never get a chance 

 at such birds under about 40 vards. 



With butts wider apart than the above 

 limit no gun can be expected to do him- 

 self justice ; half the birds that come to 

 him will steer an even course between the 

 butts, where they can only be killed by a 

 fluke, being quite beyond the ordinary 

 killing range, and where they are far more 

 likely to go away " pricked." 



The man whose ill luck it is to be 

 sent to such a butt feels that any birds 

 coming through the line should be shot 

 at, though those passing between him 

 and the next gun do seem an unconscion- 

 able long way off. The result is, that he 

 wounds two or three birds at 60 or 70 



