HOW TO LEARN TO SHOOT. 1389 
if the sight appear to be an inch or two wide of the mark, 
at the time of drawing the trigger. 
The knack of bringing the sight up, and the eye down, 
correctly to the true level, will gradually be improved with 
practice; and precision will be obtained imperceptibly 
and by degrees, far more rapidly than one would expect. 
But the habit of dwelling on the aim, and poking about 
with the muzzle in the hope of at length fixing the sight 
point-blank, if once acquired, is so difficult to be shaken 
off that I may almost say it is impossible. After a while, 
still loading with an exceeding light charge of powder, it 
will be advisable occasionally, and when the shooter does 
not expect it, to put in about half an oz. of small shot, 
and let him, as before, fire at the mark on first sight. 
If he be aware that the gun is loaded, he will be ner- 
vous with endeavor to aim more steadily; and without 
doing so a whit, will do so far more slowly. Not knowing 
when to expect shot, and when mere blank cartridge, he 
will blaze away just as unconcernedly as ever, and speed- 
ily finding that he comes, as he very shortly will, to plant 
his shot in and all round his mark, firing as soon as the 
heel-plate is at his shoulder, he will quickly acquire perfect 
confidence in himself, and that unconscious equanimity, 
which is the cause, as it is the invariable consequence or 
accompaniment of being a good shot. 
After this habit is well acquired, and the sitting or 
stationary mark can be hit almost to a certainty, it is won- 
derful how nearly the pupil has arrived to being a good 
flying shot, even before he has attempted to shoot on the 
wing. 
