HOW TO LEARN TO SHOOT. 185 
bursting.” The above quotation, as well as several which 
follow, is from Stonehenge’s “ Manual of British Rural 
Sports,” and is well worthy of attention, as are the remarks 
ensuing on the first lesson of shooting. 
Previous, however, to using the plan hereafter indi- 
cated, I would recommend that the learner should be 
placed in position, that is to say, with the left foot 
advanced, the knee slightly bent, about eighteen inches in 
front of the right, on which the weight of his body. should 
rest; holding the gun at the level of his hip, with the 
butt below his right elbow, his left hand grasping the front 
of the trigger-guard, perpendicularly to the barrel, the 
‘gun being at half-cock. The thumb of his right hand 
should be on the striker, and the finger nail of the fore- 
finger touching the inside of the trigger-guard, before the 
trigger. 
In front of him there should be a whitewashed wall, with 
a black mark, the size of half a dollar, at about the level of 
his eye. On this mark he should steadily rivet his sight, 
and raise the gun to his shoulder, cocking it with his thumb, 
while in the act of bringing it up, and then lower his 
cheek to the stock. 
It. will not as yet be necessary to attempt to take any 
aim at the object, or to rectify the first direction. The 
lesson to be acquired is, first, to attain the knack of cock- 
ing the gun quickly, yet deliberately, while it is in mo- 
tion from the hip to the shoulder; and secondly, to gain 
the habit of instiuctively throwing the point toward the 
object to be aimed at. 
The gun should not be snapped, or the trigger drawn ; 
