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FOREST AND STREAM 
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Forest and Stream is an Honorary Member of the Interstate Association for the Promotion of Trapshooting. 
OFF-DAYS AND DAYS-OFF 
EVERY TRAPSHOOTER EXPERI¬ 
ENCES THEM—WHAT THEY MEAN 
By Fred O. Copeland. 
F OR time out of mind it has been an 
axiom among trapshooters that, “the 
best of ’um have an off-day.” Since 
nervous systems seem to be put together 
differently the possibility of placing one’s 
finger on the exact trouble for any certain 
off-day is extremely difficult. This dif¬ 
ficulty in connecting with a heretofore 
simple target not only exists but is 
developed on certain days. One off-day 
may show up an inability to hit a sharp 
left quartering target and on another day 
an uncanny feeling arises that breeds un¬ 
familiarity with the nicety of elevation re¬ 
quired for a straight-away bird. And who 
has not seen the shooter so disquieted and 
lost that; he will get back at the very first 
opportunity to that trap and that bird which 
started the trouble and hammer away till 
the riddle is solved. In a severe case the 
thing takes on the form of a veritable 
nightmare and it seems as though each 
target called up bends in the same deadly 
angle. The trouble cannot be laid to the 
fit of the gun for we have in mind a com¬ 
bination of man and gun that performs in 
a high per cent, of cases so well that the 
score seldom hides behind the 88 per cent 
mark. 
With the trapshooter his means of cor¬ 
rection are limited only by his pocketbook. 
He may stand just so, place the heel of 
the gun stock in precisely the same place 
on his shoulder, and call up out of the lit¬ 
tle green traps-house the angles he wants 
and as many of them as he will pay for. 
In all frankness to the reader it may be 
confessed at this point that the foregoing 
has been intended to serve but for an in¬ 
troduction to a more serious business, vast¬ 
ly more serious to the upland gunner, who, 
while struggling through dense cover, 
thanks a kind providence when he can get 
his gun to the same spot on his shoulder 
twice out of five times. But surely, like the 
trapshooter, there is help here for him; his 
birds are springing from the ground 
whether they are walked-up or flushed 
ahead of a pointing dog. Moreover, the 
gun, though it may be smaller in gauge, 
probably will not be far from the meas¬ 
urements of a well fitted trap gun for 
though the modifications required in the 
uplands are kept in mind, much straighter 
and longer stocks are being used by gun¬ 
ners who have accustomed themselves to 
the now no longer new order of things at 
the traps. 
The covert hunter’s troubles on a certain 
flying mark, a certain bird with regard to 
angle or elevation, are of longer duration, 
in fact, may last out the season. If he 
goes out alone to correct the error the op¬ 
portunities in our latter day coverts posi¬ 
tively will not give him a sufficient number 
of chances and should he choose the more 
delightful outing, that with a shooting com¬ 
panion, the opportunities will be more than 
cut in half, for as a sportsman the same 
abundance of birds can supply for him 
but half the practice and other eyes are 
on him. 
P ERCHANCE the oddity of the con¬ 
tinual miss is eliminated in the thicket 
when a grouse bursts sidewise on 
whirring wings or when a woodcock twists 
around an alder, or again, when jack snipe 
with a hasty squawk suddenly abandons his 
midday reflection on his favorite pool and 
nervously bends his wings for a more se¬ 
cluded inlet. Here it is that experience 
guides the muscles and luck often blossoms 
into joy. The relaxation in delight over 
the trophy is pardonable and yet how fatal, 
for around yonder tiny evergreen sits a 
partridge with bill slightly opened in a 
smile, crouches a woodcock with nose 
wrinkled in glee. Timed to exactly the 
improper second something hops into the 
air as big as an eagle, moves in majestic 
sweeps and slow down a cart-path or up 
the side of a hill as bald of cover as an 
egg. Here is the opportunity, wise ones 
tell us so, even the novice may recognize 
it on first acquaintance. The time to make 
the game bag so much heavier has arrived. 
Sulphurous fumes are on the air; fumes 
thrown off oftimes by more spirited words 
than their meek and lowly literal trans¬ 
lation would indicate to the uninitiated: 
“missed with both barrels.” These open 
opportunities are so welcome and rare to 
him who forces his way through the dense 
cover which conceals the game he loves 
that the very surprise at the open shot may 
tend to carelessness, overconfidence or the 
very fright of: “there’s my hoodoo angle 
right in the open.” 
Though the investment may be heavy in 
these days of all but priceless ammunition 
the time is now ripe here at the end of 
the bird season for those sportsmen who' 
through years of seasoning know that they 
need ask no odds in difficult cover, taking 
toll where the novice would not move his 
gun and yet who openly recognize the fact 
that they should train down finer for that 
opportunity so often missed in order that 
humiliation in oneself and in the presence 
of others may not be too great after the 
bird’s hiding place has been diligently 
The most discriminating gun users in America shoot guns made by 
PARKER BROS., Meriden, Conn., U. S. A. 
Makers of Guns That Satisfy 
SEND FOR CATALOGUE 
NEW YORK SALESROOMS, 32 WARREN STREET 
Resident Agent, A. W. duBray. P. O. Box 102, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
A 
