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. 
7 
