78 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



cause have ever felt their " hearts in their mouths." Guns can be 

 jarred off, and the rough ground on a moorland down-hill path 

 often occasions very sudden jars. 



There are other shooters who always seem to be at the 

 ready, whether they are going up hill or down ; whether they 

 are jumping from peat hag to peat hag; or, in the bogs, from 

 one rush clump to another, to save themselves from sinking in 

 the intervening soft ground. Balance has a great deal to do 

 with it, and some there are who can shoot straight even when the 

 foothold is rotten and is giving way under them. It is clear 

 that good form requires that the performer should be able to 

 shoot from any position the rise happens to find him in. If he 

 must get the left foot forward and the weight of the body upon 

 it, he will not be as quick as others who can get off their guns 

 no matter where their feet may happen to be. 



This seems to be all a matter of balance, and the nearer we 

 imitate cat-like equilibrium, and not only keep our heads upper- 

 most, but keep them cool in all circumstances, the more surely 

 shall we get our guns off at the right moment. 



The latest phase of shooting is to make it as easy as possible 

 to accomplish the difficult. Paradoxically, we have our boarded 

 floor in our grouse butts, racks to keep the guns off the peat, 

 and shelves upon which to distribute our cartridges, and we 

 place our grouse butts to favour the guns. Then, having made 

 everything as easy as possible for the sportsman, we now 

 attempt to make the birds as hard to kill as wings and the 

 wind can make them. We send over the pheasants as far out 

 of reach as we can make them fly ; we take particular care to 

 send the grouse down wind if we can ; and when we have got 

 our guns swinging yards in front of the streaks of brown 

 lightning, then we are especially pleased if we can bring off an 

 up-wind drive in which the birds can just, and only just, beat 

 up against the gale, and so defeat the guns again by the new 

 variation of flight ; one in which any sort of lead on the birds, 

 any kind of swing, will have no other effect than shooting yards 

 in front of the game, and perhaps in turning it back to fly over 

 the drivers' heads and miles down wind beyond. 



