194 SIZES OF SHOT 



best sizes. On frosty days, when snipe take a deal of 

 stopping and get up wild, I find No. 5 in the right 

 and the same sized shot with concentrators for the left 

 answer well — indeed, when snipe are at all wild, con- 

 centrators may be advantageously used with Nos. 6, 

 7, or 8 shot. 



It is impossible to lay down any hard and fast rule for 

 the size of shot which should be used, for guns vary so 

 much in the size of shot which suits them best. How- 

 ever, the best plan is to test the gun with different 

 charges and different sizes of shot at a target — the 

 latter a moving one for choice and if possible, to 

 shoot at it from forty up to seventy yards. Nor can 

 there be a greater mistake than the use of too heavy 

 charges of powder. The shot is thereby spread too 

 much ; and if this error is to be avoided in 12-bore 

 guns, it is of greater consequence with those of smaller 

 calibre, for the closer the shot carries the better, added 

 to which the recoil is much less with a light charge. 

 If not over-liofht, I maintain that the smaller the size 

 of the shot which is used for snipe the better ; but it 

 must be, of course, in proportion to the weather, etc. 

 1 am perfectly well aware that many people take 

 exception to the use of such small shot when snipe- 

 shooting, by reason of it being considered too small 

 for use at any duck, teal, etc., which may get up. 

 Well, my own experience goes to prove that such is 

 not the case, for during the thirty-five years in which 

 I shot over Irish bogs, where there was a variety of 

 such birds to be found in the drains and mosses, I 

 never found No. 8 too small, and I have at times 

 killed wild geese with it. In those days there was 

 plenty of cover to admit of duck and teal being 



