FORM IN GAME SHOOTING 77 



the shoulder for the first shot is worse. The reason it is bad 

 form in one case and good in another may not be quite the 

 same as why it leads to success in one case and not in the other. 

 Perhaps an appearance of ease has some near relationship to 

 good form, and ease itself has a nearer affinity to success with 

 the gun. It would tire out the arms to practise in game 

 shooting the pigeon shooter's methods, on whose arms the strain 

 in the " present " position lasts only until he calls " pull." The 

 strain in game shooting would last long, and it would certainly 

 happen that when, at last, game did come within range, the 

 arms of the shooter would be too cramped to deal properly with 

 it. " Form," therefore, appears in this instance to have some 

 relationship to success. But this is far from being always 

 so. The author remembers one case of a young man who did 

 not kill much, but of whom it was said it was more pleasant to 

 see him miss than to see others kill. This was in shooting over 

 dogs, when good style greatly depended upon " wind " and 

 " stamina" to get over and shoot from any rough foothold. 



There is " form " in walking also, and when stamina counts 

 there can be no good style in shooting without good easy 

 walking. Look at the different angles of body in which men 

 go up and come down hills. In the ascent some people bend 

 their backs over their foremost toes, and progress, truly, but 

 they have to " right " themselves when the flush occurs, and 

 before they have done it the bird has flown 20 yards. 

 Again, in going down hill some men throw back their bodies, 

 and if they have suddenly to stop they again have to " right " 

 themselves before they can shoot with success. 



But there is something worse than bad shooting style, there 

 is bad sporting form ; and coming down hill often brings it 

 obviously to the man who is walking behind, and sees the 

 leading man's gun carried on the shoulder, pointing dead at the 

 pit of the follower's stomach. That cannot be avoided when 

 the gun is carried on the shoulder in Indian file; but it never 

 ought to be so carried then, and in the writer's opinion, at 

 least, is a deadly disregard of "good form." In this case 

 probably there will be no disagreement by any who from this 



