VELOCITY OF SHOT, WITH SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 479 
the bird is a cross-shot, he determines at the moment of fire the distance to which 
he should direct his gun ahead of its flight, this distance depending on the veloc 
ity of the bird’s flight and on his distance from it. This manner of shooting 
practiced the more generally by upland gunners in shooting quail, grouse, and 
woodcock. The other style of shooting may be designated as ‘‘ the swing shot,” 
in which the gunner swings his gun ahead of the cross flight of the bird till he 
attains the proper distance ahead of it, and then fires, but keeps his gun moving 
with a regular angular velocity till even after its discharge. This method of 
shooting is, in my opinion, and from my experience, the proper method; and is 
certainly the only one which has been found successful with shooting of bay fowl 
—as ducks, brant and wild geese. Yet there are sportsmen who will contend 
that they merely follow the bird with the gun, and discharge it while it is pointing 
at the bird. I put this opinion to the test this summer in the following manner: 
Four willets came over the decoys, flying in line with a good speed. With my 
gun I followed the first bird, coolly and accurately, and kept the gun moving 
regularly after its discharge. Instead of killing the first bird, the third from the 
Jeader dropped dead. To give a ruleapplicable to all gunners as to the distance at 
which a gun should be pointed ahead of a bird, is not possible. Some sportsmen 
follow a bird, and then, after reaching before it the proper distance, suddenly 
stop the angular motion of the gun and then fire. Others, after following the bird 
a short distance, give a quick lateral motion to the gun and then fire. Others, 
again, bring the gun with a lateral motion ahead of the bird, and keep the gun 
moving till their experience decides the proper distance ahead of its flight, and 
fire while the gun is keeping its previous regular velocity. For the simple illus- 
tration of the bearing of these experiments on the art of shooting on the wing, 
I will suppose that at the moment of fire the gun is stationary; in other words, 
that we are firing ‘‘snap shots.”” If the bird has a velocity across the line of 
flight of 30 miles an hour, and we are using charges in a 12 gauge gun of 3% 
drs. of Curtis & Harvey powder and 1% oz. shot, we will have to shoot about 5 
feet ahead of the bird if it is flying at a distance of 30 yards at 7 feet ahead ; if 
at a distance of qo yards, and 11 feet ahead of the bird if at a distance of 50 
yards. These distances ahead for cross shots at birds flying at the rate of 30 
miles an hour may appear out of all reason with the experience of many sports- 
men; yet if you will place a stick 5 feet long at 40 yards and ask the same 
gunners if they would hold ahead of a bird by that distance if it were going with 
a velocity of thirty miles, I venture to say, from my experiments with them, 
that they will say, ‘‘ Of course, that is only about 18 inches;”’ so difficult is it - 
to determine a length at a distance while sighting along the barrel of agun. I 
_ will conclude with the remark that this paper will not make a good shot on the 
‘wing, no more than a description of how to perform on the violin will make an 
accomplished violinist. It has been said, perhaps rather strongly, that a ‘‘ peda- 
gogue can teach to read and write, but a crack shot is the gift of the gods.”— 
Scientific American. 
