IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
77 
quickly, as you would have to do at a fast overhead pheasant, 
you will notice that near the end of your swing, or just when you 
would naturally pull trigger, the muzzle of the gun is usually 
an inch or two to the left of the line you have been following 
along. Further, you will see that at the finish of the swing 
the muzzle of the gun is sometimes slightly turned round to 
the left, the right barrel being higher than the left one, a fatal 
position in regard to correct aiming at a high bird. 
I have alluded to two involuntary movements the shooter 
may easily give to his gun without being aware that he does 
so, which are very detrimental to accuracy of aim, especially 
in reference to a high overhead pheasant. One is the swinging 
of the muzzle of the gun off the mark to the left ; and I have 
explained how this divergence may be counteracted. 
The other is the turning over of the barrels to the left, 
the right barrel being then higher than the left one, an inclina- 
tion of the muzzle that may result in a bird being missed by 
several feet. The shooter may sometimes wonder how he 
managed to miss a not difficult overhead pheasant which he 
considered he was pretty sure to kill, and say to himself, 
' Where on earth did the shot go that time ? ' In this case 
a slight turning over of the barrels to the left probably had 
much to do with his failure, though he was unaware of the 
cause. 
The only method of correcting the muscular error that 
causes such a deviation of the barrels, is to hold them 
more tightly with the left hand than is usual. This will in 
