THE PRACTICE OF SHOOTING 75 



He does not believe driven grouse harder to kill than grouse 

 shot over dogs, and would rather back himself to kill con- 

 secutive numbers of the former than the latter. Here, again, 

 Mr. Wilson is in agreement with the author, who has often given 

 this opinion in the press, and has, moreover, supported it by 

 pointing to the wretched scoring of double rises at the pigeon 

 traps, even at 25 yards and by the best pigeon shots in 

 Europe. Pigeons, again, are much more responsive to lead 

 than a right and left grouse at 35 yards rise in October. 

 The grouse spring twice as quick as the pigeon. But Mr. 

 Wilson was not speaking of the October grouse, but of average 

 grouse shooting over dogs and average driving. Probably 

 we all agree that there is an occasional impossible in almost 

 every kind of shooting. 



Another point that Mr. Wilson has assisted the author to 

 place in its true light is that his big bags are by no means 

 made for their own sake, but simply because the grouse are on 

 the moor and his is the only way to get them. To hunt for 

 grouse in driblets would be to drive most of them away never 

 to be shot. They are so wild that they have to be broken up 

 by the severest treatment, and as one man could drive them all 

 away, so it takes an army of flankers and beaters to keep them 

 on the moor during the driving days. 



Mr. Wilson shoots with Boss single-trigger guns, and, 

 contrary to expectation and ideas, one of these single triggers is 

 often made to do duty in a day's tramp after a couple of 

 woodcock or a small bag of snipe. 



