208 GUNS FOR SNIPE-SHOOTING 



bent than do others. As a rule, bent stocks are more 

 suitable for young men ; when, however, a man attains 

 to an age of between fifty and seventy, he requires a 

 straighter stock, otherwise, with imperfect or aged 

 sight, he is apt to become somewhat slow in getting 

 on his birds, and the straight stock tends very much 

 to remedy this defect. I cannot recommend the use 

 of a very bent stock for any ordinary person, but more 

 especially for either the very young or those who are 

 over middle life — the latter class, for the reason I 

 have given ; the former, because such a shape is very 

 apt to induce a slow, poking style, and to be sub- 

 versive of quick, sharp, brilliant shooting. I may give 

 2f inches as the extreme limit of bend. 



I am well aware that there are some short men 

 whose arms require very careful fitting, and I have 

 also known others who, from being in the habit of 

 constantly using bent stocks in field shooting, have 

 been very indifferent shots at winged game in covert. 

 There is, of course, a medium in the bend of stocks, as 

 in all other things. At the present day stocks are, as 

 a rule, made much straighter than formerly. This, I 

 take it, is very much due to the increased fashion of 

 pigeon-shooting from traps, where time is of so much 

 consequence. A well-fitting, straight stock is generally 

 the winning shape, and this shape is the most useful 

 for all quick shooting, such as driven grouse or 

 partridges, and low-flying pheasants ; but when it 

 comes to long shots in the open at snipe or duck, etc., 

 or at high rocketing pheasants, it is desirable to see 

 the rib rise well up between the hammers, and a 

 medium bend in the stock helps the eye in aligning 

 along the rib very materially. Rib, hammers, and 



