HOW TO LEARN TO SHOOT. 145 



It is evident, therefore, that with a shot gun at medium 

 distances, the aim need not be taken with exact precision 

 on the object. It must be a considerable divergence of 

 the line of aim from the line of flight of an animal going 

 directly from the shooter, probably an inch or so at the 

 muzzle, which should produce a clear miss at forty yards. 

 In some cases, when the animal shot at is close at hand, it 

 is necessary to shoot wide of it, in order to prevent its 

 being shattered to pieces by the shot ; which, for a few 

 yards, goes together in a compact mass. 



I remember once striking a woodcock going directly 

 before me so squarely with the whole body of the charge, 

 at some ten or twelve yards from the muzzle, that all we 

 ever found of it was the extremities of the two wings 

 below the pinion joints. 



The result was, of course, unintentional, but the shot, 

 for a shot gun, was a bad one — for a rifle it would have 

 been perfection, as the ball would have struck the bird 

 centrally at whatever reasonable distance. 



The farther distant the object is from the shot gun, 

 the more is close-aiming needed, since at long distances it 

 is only in the centre of the circle of their distribution, 

 that the pellets of shot fly close enough to hit, or strong 

 enough to pierce and bring down the game. 



With a rifle the operation is wholly different. The 

 missile is a single one, of inconsiderable size, and has no 

 divergence whatever to right or left of its flight, if the 

 barrel be itself true, and truly sighted. It is of course 

 liable to fall lower than a direct horizontal line from the 

 muzzle, since all projectiles descend in a parabola, and 

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