SNIPE SHOOTING. 403 



tical gyrations, and more than a match for the 

 majority of shooters, especially if the day be windy. 

 A snipe killed at fifteen or twenty paces distance, 

 with No. 7. shot, will seldom be struck by many 

 pellets, being generally three or four inches from 

 the centre of the cone which the shot forms as 

 it flies, which is very different from being in the 

 exact centre. A section of the body of a snipe 

 does not present a surface as large as that of 

 a penny-piece. If any person will fire at a target 

 at fifteen yards distance, he will find that a snipe 

 would not be cut to pieces even at that distance, 

 unless it chanced to be precisely in the centre of 

 the charge as thrown. When speaking of a snipe 

 presenting no larger a surface as a mark than a 

 penny-piece, we, of course, mean a snipe flying 

 directly from the shooter. It would be imprudent 

 to shoot at a snipe flying across at less than twenty 

 paces distance, as it then presents more than double 

 the surface of one going straight from the shooter. 

 Twenty-five paces is the distance we should prefer 

 for a cross or oblique shot. At thirty, or even at 

 twenty-five yards, unless the barrel throws shot re- 

 markably close, there are interstices in the charge 

 as thrown in which a snipe flying direct from the 

 gun would escape untouched. Provided the flight of 

 a snipe were equally steady at all distances, and that 

 in every instance the shooter could choose his own 

 distance, a snipe would have least chance for its 

 life at twenty yards. But there are two points to 

 be attended to in determining the proper distance : 

 the flight of the bird and the manner in which 



