Nov. 3, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
709 
Form in Shooting. 
I, too, was surprised to see the hand well forward on 
the muzzle termed a "new” style of shooting. Probably 
there are very few shooters who now adopt the trigger- 
guard as the place for the left hand, but what killed that 
position, which is generally to be seen in old pictures, 
is, I think, not very well known. It was the under lever 
of the early breechloaders, about fifty years ago, that 
finally snuffed it out. These under levers did not exactly 
fit the trigger guards, but there was room to get the 
flesh of the hand between the two pieces, and in recoil 
this was unpleasant; it gave the involuntary pull to the 
' flesh we have heard so much about, although triggers 
were not involved in the disturbance. After this, the 
fore-ends became the best place for holding, because 
many of the gun-makers put lumps on the end of these 
pieces, that made them awkward to hold anywhere near 
this projection. Either the hand had to be on the fore¬ 
end behind this lump, or it had to be well in front of it. 
Another reason why the hand was not put forward in 
the muzzleloading days was because of the ramrod, 
which filled the space beneath the barrels, and was, to 
say the least, dirty to hands or gloves. 
In those days most men, as far as I remember, shot 
in white kid gloves, ball room remnants, but very con¬ 
venient for handling a trigger, at a time when it was 
much more necessary than now to have sensitive fingers 
for shooting. The putting the triggers to half-cock upon 
a cold day" was a delicate piece of work, to which its 
equivalent of pushing the safety-bolt bears not the slight¬ 
est resemblance whatever. Then the finding and putting 
on of the cap was another task not to be performed 
with thick gloves or cold fingers. A similar delicate 
operation was priming the touch-hole in the days of the 
flint and steel. The hole in the nipple had a way of 
working larger after a season’s heavy shooting, and guns 
of mine have become self-cocking in consequence. But 
this self-cocking had no advantage, since nobody would 
have thought of charging his muzzleloader with the 
hammer either at half or at full cock. 
But I often wonder whether this fault in the old guns 
gave rise to the idea of hammerless actions, which are 
of course miscalled “hammerless,” since they have in¬ 
ternal hammers that are self-cocking; The hand received 
another very important push forward when nitro powders 
were first introduced. These powders regularly exhibited 
less pressure on the pressure gauges than black powders, 
and as regularly burst guns that had been built for the 
black powders. The reason remained unstated for many 
years, but it was this: That, although the black powder 
gave a higher pressure where it lay, that is to within 
one inch of the faise breech, its pressure was very much 
lower at 2 1 /£in. from that base; but the nitro powder, 
with its slightly lower pressure at lin., had sometimes 
a higher, and generally as high a pressure at the 2%in. 
position. The result was the average chamber pressure 
of the early nitro powders was much the higher, and 
these pressures' cracked up the old thin chambers like 
broken wine glasses. But the forward pressure again 
, was not high, and the barrels well forward are no 
thicker to-day that when they were made for black 
powder. So that it was observed that the safest place 
for the left hand was as far forward as it could reach, 
and probably that was the reason a great many hands 
went more forward than ever before. But this method 
was confirmed by the pigeon shooting that was so fash¬ 
ionable between 1865 and 1875. 
Two things will prove this to any one who likes to try 
it. A pigeon is always rising, and it is much easier to 
aim at a thing than to make allowance for it; you 
naturally aim at what you look at. Consequently, to aim 
above, it was necessary to look above for this class of 
quick shooting. But two ways were adopted for over¬ 
coming that difficulty, so that shooters might look at 
their bird, aim at it, and yet shoot above it; one of 
them was the straight stock, Which brought the eye in 
alignment with the foresight and half an inch (more or 
less) above the rib at the breech end. That half inch 
at 30yds. range made the difference of 15in. above the 
pigeon, and enabled the birds to be dropped almost on 
the traps, whereas an allowance above is not nearly as 
quick. The other method was to slide the hand forward 
of the position occupied in game shooting, and this, too, 
had a like effect of tilting up the muzzle. I hose who 
hold near the fore end can try the effect for themselves; 
those who hold forward, on the other hand, can see by 
trial that their muzzle will come up low if they put up 
the gun with a hold further back than is usual with them. 
Your first article on this subject, I believe, mentioned 
the importance of the position of the feet; a correspond¬ 
ent does so also; but it is not a subject that lends itself 
to teaching by others very much, although it may to 
schooling one’s self. For instance, to make a move¬ 
ment right face, some would prefer to bring forward 
the left foot and others to bring back the right leg. and 
this also would be greatly influenced by the foothold. 
A peat hag is not a place on which there is a great 
variety of choice, and yet it often happens that a proper 
“instinctive” selection of foothold, on such an insecure 
place, leads to a balance of the body which no thought 
would have time to diffect, and memory, which should 
come of teaching, would be even more lagging. 
This broad principle seems to me to be enough—that 
if a leg movement has to take place at all, it should be 
made before the aligning is attempted, and not during 
that operation. At the same time, a free swing, and 
consequently the way a gun is held, is greatly in favor 
of an absence of tire necessity of leg movement; and, 
speaking only personally, there is one shot for which 
the rule of no alignment during leg movement breaks 
down—at least, it does so in my case, and in that of 
some others I have watched. It is this: If you take a 
step backward as you are aligning an overhead bird 
coming from your front, you can get back to a won¬ 
derful angle without any strain of the body. I should 
guess it at about 45 degrees behind the vertical line 
above the shooter’s head. This has often given me a 
bird that I could not have caught up with without it, 
and has prevented the necessity of turning round when 
to do so would have been to be too late, and also to 
lose touch with more coming birds. • In my own case, 
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it is not at all an unsteady shot, or a slower one that I 
make at other angles. To put it another way, you get 
back as far as you can, and prevent a fall by catching 
yourself on the till then advanced foot. If any one, who 
does not know, will try it. I think they will find this 
kind of shot very easy, and that it in no way interferes 
with the steadiness of the swinging gun, but, on the con¬ 
trary, prevents that jerk and stop in the swing back, 
which is sure to result in missing, when one is trying to 
do just a little more than one can. Although swerve 
may require a quick movement, which is rarely effective, 
mere pace of game at any range beyond 20yds. does not. 
Few who are educated to believe in the great pace of 
driven birds can credit the fact, which is mathematically 
correct, that even a bird at 100ft. per second (over 60 
miles an hour) at 30yds. range only requires a muzzle 
movement of a trifle over 3ft. a second to beat him; 
and, when it is remembered that an ordinary walk is 
four miles an hour, or 6ft. a second, we see why the 
deliberate shooters are the most successful.—A Believer 
in Science, in the County Gentleman. 
Ossining Gun Club. 
Ossining, N. Y., Oct. 27. —The scores herewith were 
made at a regular bi-monthly shoot of the Ossining Gun 
Club, Saturday, Oct, 27. Event No. 3 was a handicap 
of the shotgun series with a stag-handled carving set 
for special prize. The event was won by Joe Willi, Jr., 
who shot away above any previous performance of his. 
Event No. 4. also a handicap, for a sole leather gun 
case, resulted in a tie between Ted Brewerton and C. G. 
Blandford. The latter won on a tie on a shoot-off, same 
handicap as in event 5, by one target. Event 5. for an 
ebony-handled chafing dish set was won by Col. Franklin 
Brandreth on a shoot-off with A. Bedell. The first 15 
targets of the shoot were a scratch prize event, and was 
won by Col. Brandreth. Targets were thrown hard, and 
a heavy wind made hard shooting. The special prizes 
shot for to-day were given by Col. Brandreth, and were 
well worth one’s best efforts to win. 
Events: 
Targets: 
Edw Brewerton, 9 
W S Haight, 3 .. 
T C Barlow, 6 .... 
J T Hyland, 3... 
C G Blandford, 3 
A Bedell, 3 . 
J Willi, Jr, 7. 
F Brandreth, 5 ... 
W II Coleman, 2 
R A Ward, 12_ 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
10 
10 
25 
25 
25 
15 
6 
6 
12 
15 
12 
5 
7 
11 
12 
16 
5 
3 
10 
10 
12 
9 
9 
15 
16 
17 
8 
7 
6 
19 
21 
20 
11 
7 
7 
18 
20 
2 
10 
5 
6 
IS 
16 
12 
8 
5 
9 
14 
18 
21 
12 
21 
18 
20 
11 
.. .. 5 
C. G. B. 
