288 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



able degree of skill. This degree is absolutely neces- 

 sary for anything like successful shooting on any 

 kind of game however large or close. But it is far 

 from being sufficient, and he who can do no better 

 will miss in the long-run fully one half of the game he 

 shoots at unless he confines himself to very close 

 shots. 



The third degree, or hitting a three-inch mark at 

 seventy yards, is about the highest skill attainable 

 with the average breech-loader with hunting-sights 

 and offhand. There has long been an idea that much 

 better shooting was possible. Of course better shots 

 may be made. But he who takes the same pains to 

 count his misses that he does to count his hits, and 

 takes the average of a long series of shots, will speed- 

 ily conclude that to hit a three-inch mark four times 

 out of five at seventy yards is about as well as there 

 is any hope of doing without very fine sights. 



The first of these degrees of skill is that used in all 

 the shooting at glass balls that Carver and his imita- 

 tors do. A ball is occasionally shot at at twenty 

 yards, but the experiment is rarely repeated and is 

 not half the time successful at the first shot. All the 

 shooting is done inside of ten paces, generally at eight 

 paces, and where mere sense of direction will almost 

 suffice to hit it every time. 



The ball is therefore at a distance where almost no 

 skill at all would be required to hit it if it were at rest. 

 Now is it not practically at rest? 



The ball may be taken just as it hangs in air, just 

 after it turns to descend, or even some time after begin- 

 ning to fall. Any one who has ever practiced any with 

 a shot-gun at such marks knows that it makes little 

 difference which way it is done so long as you con- 



