OF SHOOTING. 



The range of the fowling-piece, and the closeness 

 with which it carries the shot being ascertained, a lit- 

 tle practice will enable the sportsman to judge of his 

 proper distance with tolerable precision. A hare 

 ought infallibly to be killed at the distance of from 

 twenty-five to thirty-five or forty yards : and a par- 

 tridge, Bit from thirty to fifty yards, with shot No. 7> 

 supposing, in both cases, the aim to have been pro- 

 perly taken. It is a certain fact, that hares and par- 

 tridges are sometimes killed beyond these distances; 

 but, in genera], the hares are only slightly wounded, 

 and carry away the shot ; and the partridges present 

 so small a surface, that they frequently escape un- 

 touched in the vacant spaces of the circle which the 

 shot describes. There have, perhaps, been instances 

 of a hare having been killed, with common-sized 

 shot, at the distance of seventy or eighty yards, or a 

 partridge still farther; yet these shots are so extraor- 

 dinary, and so very seldom occur, that the whole life 

 of a sportsman will probably not furnish more than 

 one or two instances ; and, whenever this has hap- 

 pened, it will be found to have taken place by a single 

 pellet, which, by chance, has struck the wing of the 

 partridge, or head of the hare, or other vital part of 

 either. 



The hare is an animal that will, unless struck in 

 particular parts, carry away a great quantity of shot. 

 Therefore, in shooting at hares, the utmost endeavour 

 should always be made to strike them about the head. 

 A comparative trifle will stop them in this ease; but 



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