52 
HIGH PHEASANTS : 
pellets of No. 7 shot strike a high pheasant in the body, missing 
a vital part, the bird suffers greatly and must eventually die 
therefrom. I find, as the result of much investigation of killed 
and wounded birds, that this is not the case, and that the 
damage caused to a high bird by such small shot hitting it in 
non-vital parts is far less than generally supposed. 
As we cannot make a certainty of placing pellets in vital 
parts of high birds, however true the aim or whatever shot we 
use, we are obliged to load our cartridges with a size of shot 
that gives us a pattern that helps us to do this as far as 
possible. 
For this reason, we unavoidably strike our high pheasant 
with several pellets that cannot kill it. 
Many writers advocate the use of No. 3 or No. 4 for very 
high birds, and describe the wonderfully long shots which they 
have occasionally made with these sizes. 
I have already explained (p. 19) what a great handicap it 
is to a shooter to use No. 3 or No. 4. 
The pattern is very inferior, even in a full-choked gun, at 
40 yds. ; and in practice on game No. 4 has little superiority 
in penetration over No. 6 or 7, whatever may happen with 
pads of paper. 
Some of the high pheasants I received for examination had 
two or three pellets of No. 4 in their breasts or sides ; but it 
was noticeable that these had not penetrated deeper than the 
smaller sizes of shot had done in the case of other high birds 
sent to me. 
It is an old fallacy that a pellet of No. 4 will go through 
and through a high pheasant, and, therefore, bring it down dead 
when the bird is hit only in the body, and that for this reason 
No. 4 has a great advantage over No. 6 or No. 7, which may, 
