THE RIFLE ON MOVING GAME. 305 



were at the rate of thirty inches a second, it would 

 move two inches sidewise without your knowing it 

 at all. Now an inch at the gun-muzzle may equal 

 three or four feet where the game is. Consequently 

 at the time the ball gets its final direction from the 

 muzzle the line of the sights may be several feet 

 ahead of the game without your suspecting it and 

 while you firmly believe you held on the body. 



This is a very effective way of using the shot-gun, 

 especially on birds curling backward on either side of 

 you. This, with the fact that the scattering of shot 

 often renders holding ahead unnecessary at short dis- 

 tances, accounts for the reasoning of many who insist 

 that holding on moving game is sufficient " if the gun 

 be kept moving." 



But this is a bad method for shooting running 

 deer, because 



ist. It is just as necessary to regulate the speed 

 with which the line of sight overtakes the animal and 

 to fire at the right time as it is to select the proper 

 distance to hold ahead; and it is quite as hard to 

 do so. 



2d. In doing so you cannot retain so well as by the 

 other method that clear and perfect view of the sights 

 that is indispensable to avoid overshooting. 



3d. And, worst of all, you cannot in this way allow 

 so well for the rise and fall of the deer and the inter- 

 vention of trees, etc., in the path of your bullet. 



A running antelope is a gently gliding movement, 

 soft', swift, and spirituelle. But little allowance need 

 ever be made for its up-and-down motion, and often 

 none at all is needful. But a running deer is gener- 

 ally a bounding deer, often a bouncing deer. The 

 mule-deer when running generally throws himself 



