AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
43 
shot, when, if his means will warrant, he can purchase a 
higher price, or first rate London gun. 
I have two guns, one of which is of Birmingham manu- 
facture, and the other from London; the former was in- 
voiced at £ 18 . 10 , and cost me ninety dollars, — the latter 
had seen many years of service before it came into my 
possession, and I was assured it originally cost forty gui- 
neas. This gun, although upwards of twenty years old, is 
substantial and perfect in its parts, and performs as well as 
when it came into my possession, eight years since; and I 
have no doubt that with care and constant use, it will last 
for half a century to come; while the other gun has seen but 
seven years’ service altogether, and is deficient, more or less, 
in all its parts. I do not mean by this to say, that a young 
beginner should be so extravagant as to pay two hundred 
dollars for a gun, but it is only to contrast the two kinds of 
guns, and the superiority of the manufacture, and the dura- 
tion of the one over the other, which augments its price, 
and endeavour to reconcile a difficulty which arises in the 
minds of many persons, who frequently ask the question, 
“ What makes one gun cost so much more than another” — 
and, “ What advantage is to be derived from such difference 
in price.” 
The young Sportsman having now provided himself 
with a gun, he should learn to handle it expertly, and with 
grace. I delight to see a man do this; — it proves him 
worthy of the instrument, and that he has given proper 
care and attention to the leading principles of shooting. 
What is more unsightly than a Sportsman to use his gun 
as though it was an uncouth stick of wood ? — to see him 
bring it to his shoulder so clumsily, as to catch it either in 
his accoutrements, or the butt an inch or two under his 
arm-pit, before he can bring it to its proper place. And 
yet you will see many persons do this, (and some good shots 
too,) but certainly if there is any thing which requires grace, 
I think this noble science does. The manner in which a 
Sportsman handles his gun, is in my view, an index to his 
proficiency in the art; for I never yet saw a man use his 
gun with grace, who was an inferior shot. The beauty 
of any thing is constituted by the symmetry or proportion 
of one part with another, and these with the whole; and 
perfection in any science or art, is only achieved, when not 
only the general and leading principles are acquired, but 
the minutiae also. 
To attain this, handle your gun very frequently, (but 
always uncharged) — hold it carelessly in your hand, or on 
your shoulder, and repeatedly throw it to your sight at 
some distant object, until your familiarity with it is so 
great, as to make you as perfectly drilled to it as the sol- 
dier is to his musket. Just behold one of our militia-men 
attempt the manual exercise, and then witness a regular, or 
a marine, and it needs no further argument to convince 
you of the necessity of constant drilling, until you are per- 
fect in handling your gun. It is a great acquisition to 
sight your gun quick, or to become a snap-shot, as it ena- 
bles the shooter to be more successful in thicket shooting, 
where the game often springs at his feet, and passes swiftly 
through the dense shrubbery, and only a trifling opening 
offers. Success in this case can only attend, with any de- 
gree of certainty, him who has habituated himself to 
sighting and shooting quick. I do not mean that you should 
hurry yourself; there is a vast difference between being 
expert, and being hurried. An expert shot will so econo- 
mise, (if I may thus speak,) his moments of shooting, as to 
bring his gun to his shoulder, and sight the bird at the same 
time; and knowing the precise moment when the impulse 
to the trigger is to be given, he is quick, and yet deliberate. 
But a hurried person is always taken by surprise, and dis- 
concerted at the moment of shooting, and before he deter- 
mines the correctness of his aim, fires, and either misses 
his object, or tears it to atoms. 
After you have become expert in handling your gun, I 
would advise, before you take the field in search of game, 
to practise at other things. These may be objects, such as 
stones, or blocks of wood, thrown in the air, or swiftly 
by you, by a companion. But, in either case, never 
put your gun to your shoulder until the article is fairly in 
the air. A most excellent plan will be found in the fol- 
lowing: — Tie a block of wood, (the size of a lark,) to the 
end of a long string, and let this, if possible, be suspended 
from the projecting limb of a large tree, or some tall ob- 
ject; then take a side or an oblique situation of fifteen or 
twenty yards from it, — let some friend draw it back to 
the stretch of the cord, and let it swing, and while in mo- 
tion, fire at it; this do repeatedly, and until you can 
strike it almost successively, always minding to keep up 
the swing of the gun in proportion to the motion of the 
target. When you have become perfect in one position, 
try another, and so vary the motion of the target in every 
manner as may accord with the flight of a bird. One hour 
a day, on several days spent in this way, will so accustom 
you to the use of your gun, that its advantages will be 
felt as soon as you take the field after game. There 
are those, however, who condemn every thing of this kind, 
as being unlike the flight of game, and would rather recom- 
mend you to practise on swallows, blackbirds, bats, and 
pidgeons from the trap. If, however, my plan has nothing 
else to recommend it, it has the merit of discouraging the 
destruction of life, which must necessarily follow the other 
plan; and this destruction of innocent birds I do most 
heartily deprecate, for, independent of the unnecessary 
waste of life, it is a public injury, for those birds destroy 
