FORM IN GAME SHOOTING 79 



Some of the most killing shooters are those who need ample 

 time; those who get on their game 100 yards away, come 

 with it as it approaches, then jerk forward and pull trigger at 

 the instant, and never require to look round to see if their bird 

 is dead they know it is. The critic may think this terrible 

 slow business ; and so it is. What, he will ask, would happen 

 if four came abreast and the gunner wants all that time for one 

 bird ? The critic's opinion would be just if he watched and saw 

 that the slow and sure performer did not, in fact, have time to 

 deal with, let us say, two pheasants abreast without turning 

 round. But to assume that a shooter cannot be quick because 

 he is slow when quickness is not required, assumes too much. 

 The " bang bang," in spite of expectations, may be so quick, 

 from the apparently slow and sure man, that both birds, coming 

 together, turn over and race each other through the air to the 

 ground not 10 yards apart. 



But it is not good style, this poking and following ; it may 

 be very admirable bag - making, and is so when the quick 

 second barrel just described is added, but not when each barrel 

 seems to require equally long to get off. But it is not pretty ; 

 it cannot by any stretch of imagination, even in the best built 

 and most graceful of men or women performers, be regarded as 

 good style. The gun that goes up to the spot and is off the 

 instant it touches the shoulder represents the best of good style. 

 But the author doubts whether it always means the most 

 success in killing. At any rate, the highest exponents of the 

 art do not invariably adopt this plan ; probably when the top 

 man is at the top of his form he can shoot in this way, with as 

 great success as he can in any other : but that is the point. 

 Who is invariably at the top of his form ? The writer would 

 back a great shot to disguise the lack of it from everyone but 

 himself at any time, him he cannot deceive, he knows in 

 his heart that sometimes he is a fumbler, but nevertheless one 

 who has such mastery over the many manners of shooting, that 

 if he cannot shoot to the right spot in one way he will assuredly 

 be able to do it in another, provided he has a bit more time. 

 At the top of his form he will be aware that he can rise to any 



