432 TTPLAWD SHOOTING. 



valuable weapon for some kinds of shooting; but to 

 score with such a one at half its killing and striking 

 limit of range, necessitates masterly skill in handling 

 it. Nor can such a gun, in the hands of equal shots, be 

 expected to win when shot against one that favors the 

 shooter by allowing him an extra spread of perhaps a 

 whole foot, at the ordinary range at which trap-guns are 

 used. 



In all artificial bird-shooting, it is well to use a mod- 

 erately close-shooting gun; yet far better is it to accustom 

 oneself to a little quicker shooting than to drill on 

 swift-moving birds, and trust to the gun at the other 

 end. On still, calm days, with perfect trapping and even 

 flights, a good shot can account for a high percentage of 

 his targets at long range, provided his gun is loaded 

 and bored as a "reacher;" but the instant the wind 

 comes up, or the traps throw irregularly, then the whole 

 onus falls on the one at the helm, and then it is that 

 quick shooting comes into play. Some men can't shoot 

 quickly — it isn't in them. Such men hardly ever make 

 successful trap-shots, and most rarely, if ever, first-class 

 marksmen at flying targets. There are too many chances 

 against them when they measure their skill, long drawn 

 out, against the greater certainty of the one who thinks 

 fast, moves with more celerity, and therefore has less 

 allowance and brain-work generally to break his com- 

 bination. There is a happy medium between snapping 

 at birds and poking after them, while the odds, in these 

 two styles, are usually in favor of the quicker shot. 

 When shooting at long distances, such, for instance, as 

 at ducks on a flight, then the most trifling error at the 

 shoulder carries the load wide of the mark upon reach- 

 ing the distance at which the bird is flying, and invari- 

 ably causes a miss; but when inside of forty yards, it is 

 not compulsory to be so dead center, though, of course, 



