Mr. Walter Winans has expressed the opinion that the better a shooter
grows at the rifle targets the worse he becomes at moving objects with
the rifle and gun. But it is probable that all good shooting at moving
objects is based upon a beginning of steady alignments. Those who
believe that shooting at flying game is to be well learnt before still
objects can be accomplished seem to the author to neglect the first
principles, and would run before they can walk. There is this to be
considered: that one often does get, even in grouse and partridge
driving, marks that are exactly equivalent to still objects. That is to
say, they are coming perfectly straight at the gun. Is one to let them
off without shooting quite straight because one has been taught not to
align? There is no doubt the best shots do align for the very fastest
crossing game if there is time to do it; and the belief of the author is
that a man cannot be really quite first-rate unless he can shoot in
every style as occasion requires. That is to say, he will be able upon
occasion, when circumstances and time admit of but a brief sight of a
crossing bird between the branches of fir trees, to throw his gun ahead
to a point, as he thinks, and tries to do, without swing, and will be
able to kill his game. The author has occasionally risen to such success
himself, but only when he has not been trying to do it, but has grown up
to it, out of the more certain method of consciously swinging past the
bird to a point in space ahead, and pulling trigger as the alignment was
getting to the spot, and without checking the gun. In the first-named
style of shooting, when the kill comes off, there is probably always
swing, by reason of the gun being put up from a position pointing much
behind the bird, so that the swing occurs as the gun is going home to
the shoulder, and it is not checked when the trigger is pulled, simply
because no swing can be checked instantly. By this method of finding the
place and shooting at it, the author can manage rabbits jumping across
rides—that is, when he manages to kill them at all; but he prefers to
handle winged game by the slower and surer method, which, however, he
would abandon for the better style if he could. But the ability to be
quick in this better style is not his for a permanency, it only comes
sometimes, when there is not time to take game with a conscious swing of
the gun. The late Mr. A. Stuart Wortley, who was one of the best
game-driving shots of his time, has told us in one of his books that he
could not hit anything until he started to shut one eye and align.
Later, he thought first aiming at a bird, and then swinging forward of
it, was slow, and making two operations of one. Lord Walsingham has
assented to a description of shooting in which the “racing” of the bird
with the gun was the principal feature, and Lord de Grey has been
watched to put his gun up, try to get on, and, failing, take it down
without shooting; all of which tends to show that alignment and swing
are the two necessary factors in shooting, not necessarily alignment of
the game, but generally of a moving point at the end of a space in front
of the game. Mr. F. E. R. Fryer is very clear about the advantages of
swing, and also allowance in front. As he is as quick a shot as ever was
deliberate, and more deadly than those in a hurry, there can be no
better proof that swing itself is not necessarily accompanied by any
delay. But there are two or more kinds of swing, and it does not
necessarily mean what Mr. Stuart Wortley implied. It is not always, or
often possibly, a jerk after getting on the game, neither is it a
following round of the game, but in its best form it is probably mostly
done before the gun touches the shoulder, and is not stopped by contact
with the shoulder, or by pulling the trigger. It is not supposed that
those who can sometimes bring off this ideal style—which, in intention,
is finding the right place in front of the game to shoot at—always find
this style possible to them. At least, not invariably possible for very
high and very fast game; and the author believes that the only way to it
for a novice is to begin by aligning, go on by aligning, and end by
aligning; for that is really what this ideal style of shooting amounts
to. It is aligning a spot, which bears no mark, ahead of game, and doing
it as the gun comes home to the shoulder, and with a double movement,
while it swings in the direction the game is going. That is to say, it
is the quickest and most accurate alignment of all. That is the outcome
of all the author has been able to learn of the methods of crack shots,
confirmed by his own longer but smaller experience with the shot gun.
[Illustration:
H.R.H THE PRINCE OF WALES WAITING FOR GROUSE, SHOWING THE MUCH MORE
FORWARD POSITION OF THE LEFT HAND THAN WHEN SHOOTING
]
These remarks have appeared necessary by reason of the large quantity of
bad advice that has been given. Those who have said that no alignment
was necessary, because it took too much time, seem to have a notion that
the gun has to move fast because the game does so. But a muzzle movement
at the rate of 3 or 4½ feet a second, or two, to three miles an hour
(less than the space of an ordinary walk), will out-race any reasonable
bird at 30 yards range, even if he is travelling 90 miles an hour, so
that it is not pace, as such, that is difficult.
Calculated allowance in front of game, and the automatic allowance for
speed by reason of swinging with the bird, have been touched upon
already. The worst objections to giving a little too much allowance
ahead are, that only a part of that proportion of the load that should
hit the game does reach it, and that part is the weakest of the load,
or, at any rate, the last pellets. Another is, that any swerve of the
game ensures a complete miss, and it is swerving of fast game that
causes its difficulty much more than its pace. This supposed necessity
for being so very quick because of the great pace of game has spoilt
more shots than anything else. There generally is plenty of time to be
deliberate, to aim at the exact spot while moving the gun at least fast
enough to keep ahead of the game, and it is necessary to remember that
the best shots are the quickest only because they are most deliberate,
and get “on the spot” before firing, or, to be more correct, know that
they are about to get there by the time their fingers can take effect on
the trigger. Mr. Fryer before mentioned says that he has both to swing
and make allowance too for the very fast high birds.
Probably the best way to avoid stopping the gun as one pulls trigger, or
waiting to see that aim is correct before letting off, is to make a rule
to pull just before the right alignment is reached. It will be reached
by the time the shot leave the gun.
There is no reason to say that for handling a pair of guns instinctively
a loader must be trained by the shooter himself, because there are so
many ways of giving and taking guns. Besides this, shooting far off with
the first barrel for grouse, and as soon as partridges top the fence,
are essentials to getting in four barrels at a brood, or covey, as the
case may be. Moreover, it is generally a case of kill or miss in front
of the shooter, and wound or kill behind him.
Shooting schools cannot help a shooter to learn to kill curling
pheasants, swerving partridges, wrenching grouse, or zigzagging snipe,
but they can teach the quick firing and changing of guns. And to one not
in practice it is this quick firing that puts a shooter out of touch
with gun and game, much more readily than swerve, wrench, zigzag, or
curl.
All the talk of the speed of driven game making it difficult has
frightened and unnerved many a beginner at such birds, but it is merely
the echo of what was said before shooters had learnt that they had to
swing and aim ahead as well. To talk of speed of game now, as if there
was some mystery in it, is merely to unnerve more disciples of Diana.
When once the gunner knows where he has got to shoot for the driven bird
(in the singular), the shot is much easier than the going-away game,
because the longer you wait in one case the worse chance you have, and
in the other the better chance you have. If the shooter thinks
differently, he can turn round in the grouse butt every time, instead of
shooting his game coming; but he will soon give that up, because he will
find his gun is not equal to the greater requirements of the going-away
game.
[Illustration:
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES SHOOTING GROUSE AT BOLTON ABBEY, SHOWING
THE VERY FORWARD POSITION OF THE LEFT HAND.
]
After writing the remarks above, it seemed to be the proper course to
consult some of those excellent marksmen who are discussed by everybody.
Consequently, the author bethought him of the article he had written for
_Bailey’s Magazine_ on the twelve best shots, and decided to ask for the
views of a few of those expert marksmen who had, by the votes of others,
come out as best. He was impelled to this course not with any desire to
have his own views corroborated by such good authority, but in order, if
possible, with the greater authority, to correct what to him appear very
erroneous notions so often seen in print. As nobody can assist those who
are perfect already, it is clear that the novice is the person who can
benefit by a discussion of the subject. For this reason it was not so
much to inquire how crack shots shoot now, as how they learnt to shoot,
that was the intention of these inquiries. Often have been put forward
the methods of shooters _after_ they have become expert, which is about
as helpful as telling a schoolboy, “There is W. G., go and imitate him
with your cricket bat.” The author’s own fault of delay and the
limitation of space has rendered it necessary to compress this
information into very small space.
After disowning any more connection with the twelve best than a hundred
others have an equal right to, Mr. R. H. Rimington Wilson was good
enough to reply to some leading questions in much this way:—
In shooting at fast crossing game he looks at the place he is going to
shoot, not at the game.
He admits that the “ideal” best form in shooting would be to bring up
the gun in the nearest way, without swing, and to shoot to the right
place, but he questions whether it can be done for high, or fast, wide
birds. He can do it for near grouse, just as the writer has explained
that he does it for rabbits. But Mr. Wilson is convinced that for
far-off fast game you must “swing.” He once questioned Lord de Grey on
how he shot, and the reply was that this great performer took every
advantage the game gave time for. That is to say, he only shot quick, by
the throwing up and firing without swing, when there was no time for
swing.
For pheasants, Mr. Wilson prefers to get behind them and race his gun to
the front without stopping the gun to inquire whether he _has_ got in
front, because he finds that such a stop means shooting behind. But
although this is his plan, he questioned whether it was right, because
when he has occasionally shot from a deep gorge, where there was no time
for this method, he has found the game come down, just as he has when a
quick second barrel has been sent after a first failure. The author
thinks this only emphasises the use and value of swing; because in
shooting at a pheasant crossing a deep gorge the very act of putting up
the gun to the shoulder constitutes a swing in the direction the game is
going. It is probably the fastest of all swinging, and the one to which
the shooter is least able to apply the muscular stop. This, then,
represents what some crack shots do now. But the most important thing to
know is how did they arrive at that point? Did they begin by snapping at
the place where the bird was going to be when their shot arrived, or did
they begin by aligning, and so grow into the mastery of the gun?
The former has been the fashionable method to talk of in the press, but
Mr. Rimington Wilson is very emphatic on the necessity of the rifle like
aligning as a start. The author was very pleased to hear this, because
it is one of those points on which he has always disagreed with what may
be called the written schooling of the shot gun. We have all heard of
the man who never would go in the water until he had learnt to swim, and
probably the would-be crack shot who wishes to begin at the end will
make no more progress than the would-be swimmer.
[Illustration:
MR. R. H. RIMINGTON WILSON SHOOTING GROUSE, SHOWING THE BACK POSITION
OF THE LEFT HAND
]
Mr. Wilson does not believe in choke bores. He thinks that the 8 or 9
yards of distance they increase the range is paid for very dearly at all
near ranges. Another point made by this good sportsman is contrary
altogether to accepted ideas. He does not believe driven grouse harder
to kill than grouse shot over dogs, and would rather back himself to
kill consecutive numbers of the former than the latter. Here, again, Mr.
Wilson is in agreement with the author, who has often given this opinion
in the press, and has, moreover, supported it by pointing to the
wretched scoring of double rises at the pigeon traps, even at 25 yards
and by the best pigeon shots in Europe. Pigeons, again, are much more
responsive to lead than a right and left grouse at 35 yards rise in
October. The grouse spring twice as quick as the pigeon. But Mr. Wilson
was not speaking of the October grouse, but of average grouse shooting
over dogs and average driving. Probably we all agree that there is an
occasional impossible in almost every kind of shooting.
Another point that Mr. Wilson has assisted the author to place in its
true light is that his big bags are by no means made for their own sake,
but simply because the grouse are on the moor and his is the only way to
get them. To hunt for grouse in driblets would be to drive most of them
away never to be shot. They are so wild that they have to be broken up
by the severest treatment, and as one man could drive them all away, so
it takes an army of flankers and beaters to keep them on the moor during
the driving days.
Mr. Wilson shoots with Boss single-trigger guns, and, contrary to
expectation and ideas, one of these single triggers is often made to do
duty in a day’s tramp after a couple of woodcock or a small bag of
snipe.