THE PRACTICE OF SHOOTING 71 



game to shoot at always find this style possible to them. At 

 least, not invariably possible for very high and very fast game ; 

 and the author believes that the only way to it for a novice is 

 to begin by aligning, go on by aligning, and end by aligning ; 

 for that is really what this ideal style of shooting amounts to. 

 It is aligning a spot, which bears no mark, ahead of game, and 

 doing it as the gun comes home to the shoulder, and with a 

 double movement, while it swings in the direction the game is 

 going. That is to say, it is the quickest and most accurate 

 alignment of all. That is the outcome of all the author has 

 been able to learn of the methods of crack shots, confirmed by 

 his own longer but smaller experience with the shot gun. 



These remarks have appeared necessary by reason of the 

 large quantity of bad advice that has been given. Those who 

 have said that no alignment was necessary, because it took 

 too much time, seem to have a notion that the gun has to 

 move fast because the game does so. But a muzzle move- 

 ment at the rate of 3 or 4^ feet a second, or two, to three 

 miles an hour (less than the space of an ordinary walk), will 

 out-race any reasonable bird at 30 yards range, even if he is 

 travelling 90 miles an hour, so that it is not pace, as such, that 

 is difficult. 



Calculated allowance in front of game, and the automatic 

 allowance for speed by reason of swinging with the bird, have 

 been touched upon already. The worst objections to giving 

 a little too much allowance ahead are, that only a part of that 

 proportion of the load that should hit the game does reach it, 

 and that part is the weakest of the load, or, at any rate, the 

 last pellets. Another is, that any swerve of the game ensures 

 a complete miss, and it is swerving of fast game that causes 

 its difficulty much more than its pace. This supposed necessity 

 for being so very quick because of the great pace of game has 

 spoilt more shots than anything else. There generally is plenty 

 of time to be deliberate, to aim at the exact spot while moving 

 the gun at least fast enough to keep ahead of the game, and it 

 is necessary to remember that the best shots are the quickest 

 only because they are most deliberate, and get " on the spot " 



