WOODCOCK SHOOTING 



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more extraordinary labor, and consequent fatigue, im- 

 posed on the dogs, the latter being an indispensable 

 factor in the sport if any success worth considering is 

 sought. While intrinsically the sport possesses all the 

 requirements of the highest degree of wing shooting, 

 the writers on it have deemed it fitting that it be 

 dressed in a glamor of romance, presumably that a lit- 

 tle knowledge might be presented in an elaboration of 

 high colors which touched on the sky, the sunshine 

 as it glinted through the alders, the beautiful color of 

 the foliage, the balmy zephyrs laden with nature's per- 

 fumes, ad infinitum, all of which are present in all 

 other kinds of shooting, or, indeed, present if there is 

 no shooting at all. The shooting of woodcock is diffi- 

 cult, it is true, but not so extraordinary in its diffi- 

 culty as to be distinctly special, and far from being 

 so difficult as most shooters make it from injudicious 

 selection of guns, loads, etc. 



Woodcock shooting is close shooting, the closest of 

 any kind of shooting recognized as legitimate sport 

 with the shotgun. While the woodcock is called a 

 game bird, it is gentle and mild in its habits, with 

 none of the pugnacity or extraordinary vitality pos- 

 sessed by members of the grouse family. The small- 

 est of shot is sufficiently heavy to kill it, and the cylin- 

 der-bore gun is amply close enough for the ranges 

 which one must accept in shooting it. The choke bore 

 of any kind is out of place in such extremely short 

 ranges, and unfit to use on a bird so easily killed; 

 though, strange to say, the use of it is not uncommon, 



