PIGEON SHOOTING 349 



The rules for pigeon shooting can always be had from 

 the Secretary of the Gun Club, Notting Hill ; they are slightly 

 changed occasionally, and therefore it is not wise to repeat them 

 here. There are five traps, each of which is supplied with a 

 pigeon, and either of these birds is released for the man at the 

 mark to shoot at when he calls " Pull." The operation of the 

 traps is done by hand, but a hand that does not know which 

 trap is to be opened. 



Ordinary game weapons are of no use in these competitive 

 pigeon matches. Guns are used of above 7 Ibs., that will 

 absorb the recoil of large charges of powder and shot, the 

 latter of which is limited to i oz. The usual plan is to 

 use small-sized shot, so that there shall be many of them 

 in this weight of load, and to use enough powder to 

 cause the light pellet to strike with as much energy as 

 pellets a size larger from a game gun and charge of powder. 

 Pigeon weapons used always to be chambered for 3 inch 

 cartridges, but whether this will continue, now that concen- 

 trated powders have come in and are much used for pigeons, 

 is doubtful. 



Some very wonderful scores have been made in America by 

 professional pigeon shots. Probably nothing is more deceptive 

 than the scoring of long runs at pigeons, which may be the 

 best blue rocks or very blundering slow-rising fowl. In America 

 they have not had a very good class of pigeons, and their records 

 are consequently not fairly comparable with those made in 

 England at best blue rocks. The American birds are of the 

 English race, but not of the blue rock variety. The latter are a 

 domesticated breed of the wild rock pigeons of the coast caves, 

 where its pursuit is vastly more difficult than shooting its 

 cousins from a trap. 



The records of kills of even best blue rocks do not tell us 

 very much of the form of the men who made them. Some 

 apparently very wonderful shooting was done half a century 

 ago, at 40 yards rise. Later, guns were reduced in bore, 

 and in weight and load ; boundaries were shortened, and 

 12 bore charges of nitro powders were improved, so that 



