ON THE CHOICE OF SHOT GUNS 35 



The last pellets in the load will not be travelling more than 

 700 feet per second, and fast game is often going at 100 feet per 

 second and more, although newly started game in still air may 

 not often exceed 60 feet per second. But probably the real 

 reason why good shots especially do not plaster their game at 

 near distances is that they always shoot well in front, with a 

 view to hitting only in the head and neck. At short range the 

 slowest pellets are quite equal to killing whenever they hit 

 straight for a vital part, exposed or otherwise. A shot aimed well 

 forward with the intention of almost missing, by premature 

 arrival of the pellets on the line of the bird's flight, is almost sure 

 to result in the cleanest kind of kill, brought about by two or 

 three shot pellets in the head and neck and none anywhere else. 



This also is often accomplished even at long distances, but 

 not in the same way. Then the shot that succeeds must be 

 well timed to get the bird's body into the thickest of the 

 pellets, and one of the reasons why the body is not plastered 

 is that from most angles of impact, on a coming bird, the body 

 shots glance off, and only the head, neck, and wing shots tell. 

 The only great chance of smashing winged game that occurs 

 is in near shots at going-away game, and then, whether a man 

 holds a cylinder or a choke bore, he will assuredly give lots of 

 " law," even if, in doing so, the game passes out of sight. 



There is an idea that the killing circle from a gun can be 

 mapped out by geometric progression. That is to say, that 

 if lines are drawn from the muzzle to the extremity of a 

 40 inch circle at 40 yards, you will be able to measure off, or 

 calculate, the killing circle for straight-away game at any 

 distance. That is not so. At the nearer distances the size of 

 the killing circle is regulated by the pellets that, at 40 yards, 

 are outside of it altogether. There they are too thinly scattered 

 to count for chances. Thus the killing circle of a cylinder and 

 of a full choke have no relationship to each other, or to geo- 

 metric progression of the spread of pellets for each distance. 



The author has measured many patterns at different 

 distances, and he believes that the following table shows very 

 truly the diameters of the killing circles covered, on the basis of 



