IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
5 
beside him, the target could be slung at the exact height wished 
and directly above me. 
I may here point out that when a bird is fired at perpen- 
dicularly, and is, say, 40 yds. above ground, it is 38 yds. or less 
from the cartridge in the gun, even in the case of a short man. 
When plating a gun horizontally, with the feet against the 
mark which indicates the distance from the target, the arms, 
extended in the act of shooting, cause the muzzle of the 
gun to be considerably nearer the target than the feet. 
Though this equally applies to perpendicular shots, there is 
the height of the body from the ground to the shoulder to 
be added as well. For this reason the assistant held the 
bunch of feathers at the height of his shoulder so as to 
equalise distances in horizontal and perpendicular shooting; 
otherwise the muzzle of a gun in the case of a perpendicular 
shot would be about 5 ft. nearer the mark than in a 
horizontal one. 
Each 7 ft. by 7 ft. linen front, formed of several pieces sewn 
together and secured to the frame of the target, was taken off 
and replaced by a new one as required, the target being, of course, 
hauled down to the ground for this purpose after a shot. The 
amount of linen used would, I imagine, have covered a Guildhall 
banquet table many times over. 
When the linen fronts were taken off the frame they were 
plainly marked to show at what height they were when struck by 
the pellets. They were then rolled up and afterwards examined, 
when the shot-pellets, in a selected 30-in. circle drawn on each 
linen front, were counted and recorded. If my field-glasses 
showed that a good pattern had been made on one side of 
the target, another shot was fired at the same linen front 
without lowering it to the ground, and sometimes two 
