IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
35 
has to pass through a wider stream of shot. In the former posi- 
tion the bird looks the easier shot, whether it is or not, and this 
suggestion in itself may give the confidence that ensures a kill. 
I have alluded to the forward allowance, as it is generally 
termed, which is universally insisted on as being always 
required in a more or less degree, if a shooter is to kill a high 
and fast pheasant, whether the bird is overhead or crossing. 
The question of forward allowance is a subject which I will 
enter into later (see p. 72). 
Some shooters declare they aim a certain mentally and 
momentarily arranged fixed distance in front of a bird, and then 
pull trigger. Others maintain they swing the gun with the 
bird, and just as they pull trigger jerk the muzzle forward 
of it, and fire without checking the motion of the gun as it 
travels in line with the mark. Whether a shooter acts 
and handles his gun as he imagines he does when shooting 
at fast-flying birds, I have great doubt. He may kill his 
bird, but whether he kills it in the way he thinks he does 
is another matter. 
An old friend of mine, the best shot at high pheasants I 
ever saw — I have seen him kill forty in succession, in forty single 
shots, without a miss — many times assured me that he directed 
his gun at the head of his bird, and, with a quick swing 
in line with the object, pulled trigger, with the muzzle of the 
gun still covering its head. This friend always fired at high 
birds more in front of him than anyone else in the line of guns. 
I noticed it was his constant custom ; and the success with 
which he killed his game on these occasions bears out what 
I have said on the subject of taking a high bird slightly as an 
approaching shot, rather than as one directly overhead. 
It is safe to say that when a shooter fires behind his bird, 
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