256 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
punt-gun to best advantage at fowl, and also how to work 
a gunning-punt. We say, advisedly, an outline, for it must 
not be supposed that all that is needed for one to become a 
punt-shooter is to read up on the subject and go straight away 
and perform successfully. Nothing can be more untrue. 
It is not until the instant before firing that a fowler could 
tell you how best to take a shot. Thus experience is here 
required, and must be of sufficient value to enable the operator 
to act in such a way that the result may be satisfactory. In 
other words, and what may perhaps be more simple, ‘‘ You 
cannot be certain of anything in punt-shooting.” What have 
appeared the most easy shots have often proved utter failures, 
through, perhaps, one-tenth of a second in the timing of the 
shot, taken riskily as a flying one ; and instead of forty or fifty 
fowl dropping like stones from above the sky-line, one or 
two have been the disheartening result. These things occur 
with even those who have almost perfect gear, to say nothing 
of constant practice. Of course, working with inefficient gear 
is simply to court failure. In drawing attention to the old 
proverb, which is very applicable to punting—‘‘ Experience is 
the mother of invention and the best teacher’—we may all 
know that, brought up in this way, experience is one of the 
most costly as well as the most bitter teachers. There is no 
reason why a beginner at wildfowling should not do fairly well 
from the start, provided he gives his mind to the subject. It 
is as easy for those persons whose faculties are proficient to 
shoot wildfowl in a proper and sportsmanlike manner as it is 
for them to shoot badly, if they will study what they are doing, 
and what they are about to do. 
In setting or going to fowl, it is of the utmost importance 
to make as little noise as possible. The rattling of an oar has 
often been the means of alarming fowl and spoiling what 
might have been a good shot. Noiseless, steady, and stealthy 
approach, deceives fowl. The many ways of going to fowl 
