A GOOD DAY'S SPORT. 243 
In our opinion, there is no kind of field-sport in which 
the breech-loader so plainly shows its superiority over the 
old muzzle-gun as in snipe-shooting. The rapidity with 
which they can both be loaded and cleaned, dispensing 
with the ramrod, which is always difficult to handle in cold 
weather, being able to load without placing the butt on the 
ground or in the mud, and the non-necessity of using caps, 
are advantages in all sporting, but in none more decided 
than in snipe-shooting. 
As an estimate of what may be considered a good day’s 
sport in the spring of the year on these grounds, we will 
recur to our own experiences, and state them. An acquaint- 
ance, who was a good shot, killed, to my certain knowledge, 
nine dozen snipe in seven hours, and I myself have frequent- 
ly killed from seven to eight dozen in the same time. The 
first day’s shooting of my last season, over indifferent ground, 
and very difficult to walk upon from its inequality of sur- 
face, in five hours I, to my own gun, bagged four dozen, 
and but that the birds were extremely wild would possibly 
have knocked over fifty per cent. more. 
Where we should advise the sportsman to commence 
snipe-shooting in spring would be at Vincennes, on the 
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. From here you can have 
sport in every direction; and when you feel desirous of 
change of scene, the prairies, which begin here, and con- 
tinue north almost uninterruptedly to the great lakes, will 
be found abundantly stocked from the date of the arrival 
of the first flight of the migratory hordes. Of one thing 
we should like to caution the novice, viz., the using of too 
large shot. No.9 will be found the best. A snipe requires 
but little hitting to bring him down; and then his body is 
so small, that. at the distance of forty yards, although your 
aim may be correct, if you shoot large shot, it is far from 
improbable that the game may fly through it. 
