ways been difficult were made with 
comparative ease. It was plainly evi- 
dent that the gun obeyed the impulse 
more readily and the psychological mo- 
ment of pressing the trigger found the 
gun on the bird in a more deadly way 
than with the twelve. In other words, 
I could hit birds cleaner and easier 
with the twenty than with the twelve. 
PEAKING of the ease in handling 
the twenty, the other day for the 
first time in three years I took the old 
twelve out of its case and when I hefted 
that cannon to my shoulder and sighted 
down those two lengths of sewer pipe, 
I wondered how that old siege gun could 
ever have accounted for a double on 
Teal. 
I have noticed at every shot from 
the twenty, there is in the back of my 
head, so to speak, a thought that the 
twenty will not fill the air so full of 
shot as the twelve, therefore, there 
must be more care exercised in the aim. 
Again, in other words, the twenty just 
naturally makes you more careful in 
the way you hold and shoot. This we 
will admit is something greatly to be 
desired. A gun that will so affect the 
subconscious mind as to make the 
shooter exercise more care in his shots, 
will result in cleaner kills, cut out to 
a great extent the attempts to kill long 
range birds and, therefore, less wounded 
birds. In a nutshell, that’s a long step 
toward game conservation. I really be- 
lieve, in this effect of the small bore on 
the subconscious mind lies the secret 
of the clean way in which the twenty 
downs its ducks. 
Now, let us go a little farther than 
the comparative results of my thirty 
years of twelve and three years of 
twenty gauge shooting. You will note 
the previous mention that in the 
writer’s preserve the blinds are built 
for two shooters. Therefore, for three 
years I have stood side by side with 
men who shot double barrels, pumps 
and automatic twelves of every manu- 
facture, description and previous con- 
dition of servitude. The twenty took 
its chances shot for shot with the 
twelve. It did its work just as satis- 
factorily as any twelve and also in- 
variably the twelve gauge shooter gave 
the gun the unqualified endorsement 
that it was every whit as good a gun 
as his. Here are a few instances: 
ONE guest was very skeptical as to 
the twenty on such heavy feathered 
birds as ducks. He shot a Remington 
pump and that morning the ducks came 
in fast on the first flight. The Rem- 
ington was living up to its reputation 
and bringing them down in true Rem- 
ington style. He didn’t have time to 
notice that in like manner also did the 
Page 517 

In dozens and hundreds, an almost unbelievable number 
twenty until the flight dropped down to 
singles and pairs. Then I could hear 
him murmur, “Look at that,’ “Now 
what do you know about that.” Finally 
I said, “Suppose you try this little gun 
on the next bird.” He took the gun and 
_ the next bird proved to be a Sprig at 
fully fifty yards. “Now,” said I, “lead 
that fellow plenty and let him have it.” 
Bang went the gun and down came a 
dead bird. He looked at me in amaze- 
ment and when he handed back the gun 
exclaimed, ‘why, I wouldn’t have shot 
at that bird with my gun.” 
ANOTHER guest had his twelve jam 
after a few shots and promptly 
went into mourning, for the flight was 
good. We persuaded him to try the 
boy’s twenty and he went at it. He was 
alone in a blind at the time, and from 
our blind we could see the ducks drop- 
ping regularly, for he was a good shot. 
After it was all over we asked him what 
his impression of the twenty was in 
comparison with his twelve. “Say,” he 
said, “that sure is a sportsman’s gun, 
nothing but a twenty for me from now 
on.” 
In the three years that guests and 
friends have been shooting on the 
writer’s preserve, man after man has 
changed from a twelve to a twenty and 
then became an enthusiastic booster for 
the small bore on ducks. 
Bear in mind that two of the three 
year’s shooting was done with a load 
of 2% drams Dupont by % ounce No. 
6 shot, and only changed in 1923 to 24 
grains Deluxe by % ounce No. 7 
chilled. Probably the most noteworthy 
shot with the latter load was this: 
The keeper and I were in a blind one 
morning when a flock of ducks came 
over with three geese just below, all 
too high, the geese being fully seventy- 
five yards and the ducks still higher. 
“Try those geese with your left barrel, 
anyway,” said the keeper. I did, but 
no goose came down or even faltered, 
but fully twenty-five yards above a 
duck crumpled up and came down a 
dead bird. Such shots are, of course, 
exceptional and must be considered only 
as such, but nevertheless the shot just 
mentioned would be an extraordinarily 
long kill with No. 7’s even for a ten 
bore. 
HE writer follows the rule of close 
shots and prefers to either miss the 
bird clean or kill it clean. Long range 
shooting does not seem to me to be fair 
to the bird or fair to the gun, particu- 
larly in preserve shooting where the 
birds are usually plentiful and shots 
can be selected with due regard to dis- 
tance. It seems to me birds should be 
shot at only when unquestionably within 
killing range. 
Not long ago I noticed in one of the 
sportsman’s magazines a letter from a 
hunter, giving some of his duck shoot- 
ing experiences and he closed it with 
the remark that the gun club hunters 
should be forced to shoot only a twenty 
gauge. There is an unfortunate condi- 
tion existing in the mental attitude 
toward each other of the men shooting 
(Continued on page 557) 


and his second, an Ithaca double, 20 gauge 
