HOW TO LEARN TO SHOOT. 149 
that it is practicable to shoot with a rest, other than such 
as may be obtained from his own person by the shooter. 
And as target-shooting is only the practice by which he 
proposes to fit himself for the end, not the end itself, it is 
as such that the shooter is to regard it. 
In the Middle States, where there is but little game to 
be shot with the rifle, the yifle-clubs are, in my opinion, 
taking a wrong direction, as both the style and character 
of their weapons, and the manner of their shooting, are 
utterly unsuited either for the chase or the field. Their 
best and most lauded marksmen would, from what I have 
seen, read, and heard of their performance, make very poor 
work in field or forest-shooting with “ the deer before the 
hounds.” 
Again, it is highly advisable to practise at long ranges, 
at least two and three hundred yards, for on the prairies, 
where now only game exists of the species to be followed 
with the rifle, in sufficient numbers to render the sport of 
great moment, a majority of the shots fired will lie within 
those distances. 
In speaking of the necessity of taking a direct and 
exact aim at one small point, when shooting with single 
ball, I do not, of course, mean to say that the small point 
to be aimed at is always identical with the small spot to be 
hit, and that no allowance is to be made for velocity of 
motion or distance of the object. 
Far from it. Allowance must be made when an animal 
is crossing at speed, even greater with the rifle than with 
shot gun, unless the shooter have the knack—which, if he 
haveit, is perhaps the best—of keeping his hand and muzzle 
