284 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



against the toy 20 bore. In riiy goose shooting I use a. 

 30 inch hanel, 10 bore, full choke, weighing 10 lbs.: 

 loaded with 6 dnxs. powder, well and solidly wadded, and 

 1 oz. No. 2 chilled shot. It is a load used by myself 

 and companions wlaile goose shooting for years, and 

 there has never heen any occasion to complain of the 

 result, when geese are within distance, and the shooter 

 holds right. 



The goose hunter should never carry with Inm but 

 one kind of call — that, the one Nature furnished him 

 with. No other that I have ever seen or heard is a. 

 success. A fair sample of an artificial call such as is 

 usually sold, is one that emits indescribable sounds,, 

 unlike those, ever issued from the throat of any bird, 

 which gives one a strange conglomeration of noises, imi- 

 tating in part a brant, a goose, a wounded crane, a 

 squawking duck and a cat-bird, witli the brand " Goose 

 Call " on the stem. The best place for such a call is in, 

 the shop. Let the hunter have such an one secreted in 

 his pocket, let him go with an experienced shooter in a 

 scull-boat on the Mississippi, on a sand bar, in a blind 

 on the Missouri, in a bunch of straggling willows on the 

 Platte River, in the pits, in the stubble fields of Dakota, 

 — blow it once when geese are approaching decoys, 

 and he will . see frightened geese, a disgusted hunter, 

 and a " goose-call " crushed to pieces, or disappear float- 

 ing and bobbing down stream with the cun-ent ; while his 

 companion casts a look of doubt at him, as if mentally 

 pondering whether or not he is compos mentis to 

 bring such a thing as that along. 



It is commonly supposed that goose shooting is very 

 simple, and that they are an easy bird to hit. This is 

 both true and false — ^true, when they come slowly"- 



