262 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
I would just add that fourteen fruitless attempts had been 
made to outwit these mallards before toll or remuneration for 
toil and time could be demanded. This, of course, is a brief 
account of a successful shot. We need hardly describe the 
reverse. Had anything (to say nothing of shooting) occurred 
in the form of a ‘‘swing off” at the critical moment, or, 
worse, another run aground, most certainly the bag would 
have been zz/. Missfires are now of rare occurrence with 
well-designed modern punt-guns, but with muzzle-loaders they 
were, generally speaking, frequent, and cruelly disheartening 
also. 
Shooting with a swivel-gun from the bows of a rowing and 
sailing-boat gives the best returns if the fowl are taken on the 
wing. Sitting shots with big guns from row-boats, if close 
ones, prove few birds and dead kills. This may be seen when 
we think of the height (mostly three feet) above water-level at 
which the gun is laid on a boat, which, though it cannot be 
obviated, is too high to kill many fowl sitting on water, 
as firing a shot from such a height plunges the shot at any 
distance within good killing range. Fowl shot sitting on 
water with a punt-gun fired from the bows of a row-boat will 
be struck on the head and back. Any shot which is not going 
directly to the fowl will dive and do no harm; that is to say, 
none of the shot which fails to strike fowl directly will ricochet 
or glance off the water and kill others, but will be driven 
uselessly into or under the water. A punt-gun cannot be 
mounted low on a sailing or rowing-boat, and therefore can- 
not be expected to shoot well, i.e. good numbers of fowl at 
a discharge, unless, as we have said, the shots are invariably 
taken as flying ones. 
Our remarks are here drawn out to emphasise that it is 
useless to fire sitting shot after sitting shot at birds with 
a duck-gun mounted on a row-boat, in the hope that you will 
some day shoot as many fowl as though the gun had been 
