PHEASANT SHOOTING 175 



off, nothing more so, in fact, than a coat or waist- 

 coat which causes the least drag on the arms, and 

 thereby prevents a free swing : without this ease, 

 and unless he knows by practice how far to let the 

 gun go one way or the other, a man will for ever 

 rank amongst the duffers. No coats I have ever 

 tried are more easy and better cut for the game than 

 those made by Rice Brothers of New Bond Street. 

 Besides the coat, it is of course essential that your 

 gun fits you properly, as although, to be sure, there 

 is a lot of rubbish talked about guns, there can be 

 no question that a weapon either too short or too 

 long in the stock will baulk and put off anybody. 



Of course there have been many books written 

 upon shooting by men who tell you that to kill a 

 bird you must aim so and so, a yard or what not 

 in front of it, according to its flight, whether a wind 

 is behind it, what is the distance ; and who are 

 ready with all sorts of other advice, which really, 

 when it comes to the test in the field, is absolutely 

 impossible. I should like to see the man who, when 

 pheasants were coming fast, could say, '* Well, I shot 

 a yard and a half ahead of that bird, and two feet in 

 front of the other." The whole thing is rubbish, 

 like trying to define putting on side at billiards, this 

 being simply a matter of ^^ touch " ; ^ whilst fine 

 shooting and killing the birds well — I mean by 

 that always hitting them in the neck or head, 



^ In the course of stern struggles at billiards and pyramids with 

 Mr. Portman in the past, I confess I have wished once or twice that 

 his touch was not quite so good. — Ed. 



