BAY-SHOOTING. 279 
other; and if one be a resident on the barren, sea-beaten 
shores, or be wearied to death of the city, and desirous of 
change at the risk of tedium, why, it is well to try the bay 
snipe. 
The proper weapon for shooting of this kind is a double- 
barrelled gun of ten or twelve pounds weight, and corres- 
ponding gauge, which will do the best execution at flocks. 
With such a piece, coarse large-grained powder of the 
diamond grain, from Pigou and Wilke’s Dartford mills, 
and No. 4 or 5 shot, should be used. 
Such a gun, however, not being in the armory, an 
ordinary fowling-piece of 14 gauge will do its work, killing 
its single shots quite as far, though not telling such a tale 
-with flocks, as the heavier gun. In this case, however, 
No. 5 is the largest shot that must be used, since the load 
which such a piece will advantageously carry, will not 
number pellets enough of a larger size to cover a circle 
large enough to insure success. 
When these birds are flying singly, they often shoot 
along at a great rate, and it is necessary either to make 
great allowance, shooting, for the most part, nearly # yard 
ahead of them, or to keep the gun continually moving in 
the direction of the bird’s flight, cven after the trigger is 
drawn, until the charge has actually left the barrel. 
The latter is the old style, and is still practised by the 
baymen, and by all old-school sportsmen. With flint-and- 
steel locks it was indispensable, and though the necessity 
is superseded by the rapidity of fire in the percussion gun, 
it is by. many considered the most telling style for bay 
snipe and wild-fowl shooting. 
