Shooting from a Canoe 



THE fascinating alliance of a gun, a novice, and a 

 canoe is perhaps the cause of more amusement and, 

 often enough, of more accidents than almost any 

 other combination. Shooting from a gunning-float, or 

 a sink-box, is one thing, and shooting from a canoe, 

 as Abe would say to Mawruss, " is yet something else 

 again." 



A gunning-float, or sink-box, is primarily for the 

 purpose of hiding as much as possible of the sportsman's 

 body from the game, which arrangement necessitates 

 a very low centre of gravity and comparatively little 

 danger of capsizing from over-sudden motions or the 

 recoil of the gun. Also, the sink-box, or gunning-float, 

 are special types of craft used more for shooting than 

 for navigating. As the canoe is the sportsman's common 

 type of craft for conveyance on the fresh-water high- 

 ways and byways of eastern United States and Canada, 

 and as it is seldom convenient to use, or in fact have 

 available, specialities in boats when far from civilization, 

 it were well for the amateur to be mindful of the danger 

 as well as the convenience of using a canoe for gunning 

 purposes. Being expert with a gun does not necessarily 

 carry with it expert handling of the same when a sports- 

 man is doing his first shooting from a canoe. The 

 writer has seen fully as many dangerous mistakes made 

 by good wing-shots when attempting to shoot from the 

 bow of a canoe as those made by rank amateurs with 

 both utensils. A ducking in ice-cold water may or may 

 not be enjoyed by a sportsman, depending largely upon 



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