4 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



(dead or sitting) shot, or at a moveable one, as at a bird 

 flying or a hare running. 



In learning to hit a dead mark) which is usually the first 

 step in shooting, the gun may be made familiar to the eye 

 in-doors as well as out; and with the ordinary percussion 

 gun practice may be afforded with a cap only, which will 

 put out a candle at the distance of a couple of yards. A 

 small bore (16 or 18) should be chosen, and then putting the 

 cap on, the gun is brought up to the shoulder, and carrying 

 the eye along the barrel when the " sight" is seen to cover the 

 candle, the trigger is pulled smartly, and if correctly aimed 

 the light is extinguished. By repeating this again and 

 again until the feat is performed with certainty and celerity, 

 a sufficient amount of control over the gun is obtained, 

 which will be found to serve the purpose of facilitating the 

 subsequent stages. Next load the gun with a small charge, say 

 two drachms of powder and three-quarters of an ounce of shot, 

 and then carrying the left hand well forward beneath the bar- 

 rel, so as to steady the aim, point the gun in the same way as 

 before at some fixed object thirty yards off. This should be 

 surrounded by a flat surface, which will show the whole 

 pattern made by the shot; and if these are scattered pretty 

 nearly all round the central point, the aim has been a good 

 one. On the other hand, if there are more on one side than 

 the other, there has been some fault committed, and the 

 tyro must repeat his effort till he has acquired skill enough 

 to throw the centre of his charge of shot on the object of 

 his aim. It seems a very simple process to do this ; but the 

 beginner will find that it will take him some days to master 

 it satisfactorily, and until he has succeeded in this, he should 

 not attempt more. He must remember that at thirty or 

 forty yards the circle well covered by his shot is from forty 

 to thirty-six inches in diameter ; and therefore it does not 

 follow that because he kills a bird sitting on a post at that 

 distance, he has really aimed correctly at it. It may have 

 happened that the centre of the charge was nearly two feet 

 on one side of it, but a stray shot on the outside proved 

 fatal, and so his luck, and not his skill, served him. Hence 

 an iron plate whitewashed, with a black centre, or a large 

 sheet of paper having also a mark in the middle, will form 



