86o 



Bow -Shooting. 



In fact, though many of the Eng- 

 lish clubs scorn to shoot less than 

 a hundred yards, my experience 

 goes that fifty or sixty paces 

 measure about the longest cer- 

 tain range for the average archer, 

 using a bow of not over fifty-five 

 pounds' weight. Few ladies are 

 able to use a bow stronger than 

 thirty-five or forty pounds, and it 

 requires a man of the strongest 

 muscle to draw a ninety-pound 

 one. I recommend a bow under 

 rather than over your strength, 

 for accurate, easy shooting. 



If you begin your practice for 

 the purpose of learning to shoot 

 wild game by " field and flood," 

 you must not use a target at all. 

 One who is trained to aim at a 

 large, graduated target, either 

 with gun or bow, can rarely 

 shoot well at game. The reason 

 is that in target shooting at a fixed distance he gets used to a certain 

 size, color, and condition of background, and when he gets into the 

 woods and lifts his bow to draw on a bird or a hare, his accustomed 

 rings and dark background are not there. His vision is blurred, he 

 draws waveringly, and shoots indifferently. A black rubber ball four 

 inches in diameter, suspended in mid-air by a string fastened to the 

 low limb of an apple-tree, makes a first-rate substitute for a bird, and 

 a small bag of straw, placed flat on the ground and shot at at about 

 twenty-five yards, makes good hare practice. You will soon learn 

 the great advantage of not using the same distance all the time, as in 

 the game of archery. 



Your first practice on wild things should be carefully done, choos- 

 ing the tamest and least wary of birds, in order that you may make 

 short shots and observe how near you come to hitting your mark. 

 You must not think of game till you have shown your ability to hit 



AIMING HIGH. 



