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SHOOTING
, as a See also:British See also:
See also:Save in a few specially favoured localities, such as the Moy See also: Enormous bags of driven grouse are occasionally made on the Yorkshire and See also:Durham moors; over 1300 See also:brace have been killed in a single day at Broomhead near See also:Sheffield, and there are several other well-known moors where, in a good season, moo brace are obtainable in a day's shooting . Grouse driving is believed to have been first practised in a very modified form on the English moors as See also:early as 18o5, but its usage did not become See also:general until fifty or sixty years later . Grouse-shooting over dogs, though lacking the excitement of grouse-driving, and not requiring the same high standard of skill in shooting, is none the less incomparably the higher form of sport . Owing to the almost universal wildness of all modern game-birds, its general practice is now almost entirely confined to the Highlands, where, especially on the western seaboard, grouse will lie to dogs practically throughout the season . Except on very See also:ill-watered moors, where they stiffer more than other breeds of dogs from thirst, large big-boned setters are preferable to pointers for grouse-shooting, as the latter are more easily affected by See also:cold and See also:damp, and in the writer's experience are more easily fatigued . Care should of course be taken always to work one's dogs up wind when possible, and in hot, still See also:weather to See also:beat the higher ground thoroughly, with a view to killing down the old cocks and barren hens which resort there . In stormy weather grouse naturally seek the See also:lower slopes of the moors . See also:Partridge-shooting over dogs is a most delightful form of sport, popularly supposed to be See also:extinct nowadays, but there are happily Partridge- many parts of See also:England where it is still practised in shooting. suitable localities . None the less, modern agricultural conditions do not lend themselves to the use of dogs in partridge-shooting, and the most general See also:custom is to drive the birds off the pastures and stubbles into the See also:root crops where they can be walked up in line, a rather uninteresting method of shooting . Care should of course be taken always to walk across the drills; and where birds are wild, and time does not See also:press, it will occasionally be found advantageous to work a field in a See also:series of gradually diminishing circles . Much valuable time is often wasted in partridge-shooting in the See also:search for dead and wounded birds; this can be obviated to a large extent by observing the See also:golden See also:rule that as soon as a bird is down the line should See also:halt, and the dogs, whose business it is to retrieve the game, be allowed to do so, unassisted—or more correctly unhampered . If the bird cannot be found within reasonable time, the line should proceed, leaving a keeper and a steady See also:dog behind to search for it . Where game is plentiful it is always advisable to employ one See also:man with a couple of retrievers for the See also:sole purpose of remaining behind the line to retrieve lost or See also:running birds . As with all game, the modern tendency is to drive partridges: a form of shooting that of all others exacts the highest test of skill, not only on the See also:part of the shooter, but also of the keeper who organizes the proceedings . To these requirements must be added a suitable See also:tract of See also:country for the purpose, and a large head of game; given all these essentials, partridge-driving is a delightful amusement; without them it is usually a fruitless and wearisome undertaking . In driving, the birds should be gradually and quietly collected into one large root-field, and sent from this over the guns, who should, when possible, always be placed in a grass-field where dead or wounded birds are more easily retrieved . Another field of roots should be at a convenient distance behind the guns for the purpose of gathering the birds, which, unless the wind be specially unfavourable, can then be brought back over them in a return drive . See also:Long drives are not advisable; the more partridges can be kept on the wing, and the coveys broken up, the better . Where partridge-driving is carried on on a large See also:scale, it is a good See also:plan to supplement such hedge-rows as are convenient for the purpose by narrow belts of coniferous trees . These, if wired in to prevent disturbance by foxes, dogs, &c., not only provide admirable nesting-ground for winged-game, but afford better concealment for the guns, and cause the partridges to offer higher and more attractive shots . In shooting driven partridges, the sportsman should stand as far as practicable away from the fence, and concentrate his attention on the bird which first tops it . A driven grouse or rocketing pheasant will See also:fly straight towards the shooter without swerving when he raises his gun, but not so the partridge, which can twist in the See also:air almost like a See also:snipe; it is this peculiarity, coupled with their startling scream, that proves so disconcerting to the See also:young sportsman . Especial care should always be taken that the guns stand in a perfectly straight line within sight of one another: neglect of this precaution has often led to serious accidents . Frequent See also:change of See also:blood is beneficial on estates where a large head of partridges is preserved, and it is advisable to kill off superfluous See also:cock-birds before the commencement of the breeding-season, though when partridges are reared artificially a better plan is to catch them alive, and use them as See also:foster-mothers, a See also:duty they perform admirably .
The pheasant, once one of the rarest British game-birds, has now, thanks to artificial production, become almost the commonest, and to shoot it over dogs among the hedge-rows in See also:October, as was formerly the practice, s would shooting
.
heasani-
be a See also:manifest absurdity
.
Under modern conditions
it can only be dealt with satisfactorily' as a " rocketer," i.e. a bird flying high and fast towards the shooter
.
As such, the pheasant has no See also:superior, provided only it fly high and fast enough, but otherwise it is a rather uninteresting sporting-bird which invariably elects to seek safety by running rather than See also:flight
.
Like the modern pheasant itself, the rocketer is a more or less artificial creation, and considerable organization is necessary to produce it in perfection
.
It is only of See also:late years that keepers have recognized that sportsmen See also:place little value on the See also:mere magnitude of a day's bag, as compared to the difficult or "'See also:pretty" shots ,they may obtain
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Much, therefore, depends on the management of covert-shooting, the handling of the beaters, the disposition of the " stops," and the pains taken to ensure high-flying pheasants, or the See also:reverse
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When the configuration of the coverts permits of it, pheasants should always be driven down-See also: game . the old cocks with a See also:miniature rifle . See also:Ptarmigan are practically confined to the summits of the higher Scottish hills, which are usually reserved for See also:deer-forests, rmi and, therefore, offer no opportunity for sport with the gam. shot-gun . In mild still weather they give but poor sport, running persistently in front of the dogs, or sitting until they can almost be knocked down with a stick, but on stormy days they rise wild, and afford splendid sport, especially in See also:conjunction with the wild and romantic scenery in which they are found . They are of course invariably shot over dogs . See also:Capercally, once extinct in Great Britain, were reintroduced into Scotland about 1835, and now exist in tolerable See also:numbers, chiefly in See also:Perthshire . Being a See also:forest-haunting bird, they are usually driven to the guns like pheasants, but apart from their rarity and See also:size, they are not held in great favour as sporting birds, while owing to the great damage they do to young coniferous trees, they are not encouraged to multiply on estates where there is a large acreage of growing plantations . Capercally are very courageous birds, and the writer has seen a winged cock attack and hold at See also:bay a dog sent to retrieve it . Snipe and See also:woodcock, though properly wild-See also:fowl, are usually regarded as belonging to the See also:category of game-birds . Though snipe. both the full-snipe and the woodcock breed to a limited extent in the British Isles, they may more correctly be described as autumn and See also:winter migrants to them . The varieties then to be shot are the full-snipe, the See also:jack-snipe and the great or solitary snipe; but the latter is exceedingly rarely met with, and the jack-snipe is becoming scarcer every year . Neither of these latter varieties breeds in the See also:United See also:Kingdom . Snipe are exceedingly erratic in their movements, which are largely influenced by the weather; like the woodcock they are here to-day and gone to-morrow . They haunt moist, or marshy localities, and the finest snipe shooting in the British islands is to be found on the Irish bogs . In hard frosts they should be sought near running See also:water . As a general rule a dog is not used to find snipe, but where this may be considered necessary, a well broken Irish water-spaniel is to be recommended . These are the most intelligent of dogs, can be trained to point and retrieve as well, and are capable of See also:standing wet and cold with impunity . It is a generally accepted See also:axiom that snipe should be walked up, down wind, since they offer an easier mark when rising against it; but in the writer's experience this is more than counterbalanced by the fact that. snipe, which are particularly susceptible to See also:noise, lie far better when approached up wind . To kill snipe well is the most difficult knack in shooting, and one to which few men, however good shots they may be at other forms of game, rarely attain . Woodcock are rarer birds than snipe, and even more erratic in their movements . Large quantities of them usually arrive in England with the first See also:November See also:combination of an easterlygale and a full See also:moon, but they cannot be depended on to stay more than a few See also:hours in the locality where they alight . In Ireland, however, they are far more See also:constant in their habits, and it is here that the largest bags of Woodcock. woodcock are made in the United Kingdom . Though woodcock are properly forest, or covert-haunting birds, in many parts of Ireland and the Western Highlands of Scotland they frequent the open bogs and moors, where they are shot over pointers or setters . Otherwise no particular rules can be laid down for their pursuit, beyond the fact that they are very conservative, in their choice of a haunt, and that year after year cock may be found in the same spot . Woodcock are usually esteemed difficult birds to shoot, but more are missed from over-eagerness on the part of the shooter than from the difficulty of the shot they present . Still in thick covert they undoubtedly require a See also:quick hand and See also:eye acting in unison, to kill them neatly . Of quadrupeds or ground-game, only three varieties, the See also:roe-deer, the See also:hare and the See also:rabbit, are preserved for sport with the shot-gun in the United Kingdom . The first-named, though found in a few widely distant districts Roe-deer. in England and Ireland, is chiefly associated with Scotland so far as shooting is concerned . It is essentially a forest-loving See also:animal, and is usually killed by driving it up to a line of guns, when, if close enough, it will drop to an See also:ordinary See also:charge of No . 5 shot; but a heavy load of B.B. or No. i is a far preferable, and more merciful, See also:gauge to use . Roe-deer are not easy animals to move in a direction in which they suspect danger, and the more quietly a drive is conducted, the greater the See also:chance of success . A few men walking carelessly through a See also:wood, i.e. as if beating were not their object, will drive roe, and especially the cunning old bucks, with far greater certainty than an See also:array of shouting, stick-rapping beaters . Far finer spert, however, in every sense of the expression, can be obtained by stalking roe-bucks during the summer months with a small-See also:bore rifle, carrying a hollow-nosed, and not a solid See also:bullet . The most suitable opportunity for this is at sunrise or sunset, when the roe will be found feeding in the more open spaces in the See also:woods . The same animals will nearly always be found in the same locality, but they are exceedingly wary creatures, and the old bucks are quite as difficult to stalk as a red-deer See also:stag . .The hare no longer exists in the same quantities as formerly; indeed in many parts of Great Britain it is practically extinct, the result of the Ground Game See also:Act of 1881 . No See also:Hares. See also:special methods are employed for shooting hares, nor is any great skill requisite for doing so, but sportsmen should always See also:bear in mind that unless See also:hit in the head or See also:heart hares are not easily killed dead, and should, therefore, refrain from firing long shots at them, especially when they do not offer a See also:broadside shot . It is to be presumed that the Ground Game Act was specially directed—and with See also:reason—against rabbits more than hares, but the former show little or no See also:evidence of being Rabbits. affected by it . Yet from every point of view, except perhaps that of shooting, they are far less valuable, and more noxious, animals, which ravage alike the young plantations of the landlord and the crops of the See also:tenant See also:farmer . Where they are preserved in large numbers, the most usual method of shooting them is to See also:ferret them out of the burrows as See also:short a time as possible before the day fixed for shooting, and then fill in the mouths of the holes with well beaten See also:soil, which should also be drenched with See also:paraffin or See also:tar to deter the rabbits from digging their way in again . If this be carefully done, and plenty of covert—coarse grass, bracken or gorse—be available, in See also:fine dry weather the rabbits will lie out for two or three nights, but in the event of heavy See also:rain or especially See also:snow, nothing will prevent them going to ground again . Where natural covert is scarce, it can be supplemented by strewing brushwood and fir-loppings under which rabbits will readily shelter . In beating for rabbits, the beaters should not merely tap with their sticks, but should thrust them into the clumps of grass and underwood; otherwise many rabbits will be passed over . When rabbits are driven up This is possibly due to altered agricultural conditions, the laying to pasture of much of the arable See also:land which formerly fringed the Lowland moors, and the consequent See also:surface-drainage which is responsible for the destruction of many young birds; but the See also:chief cause lies in the wholly inefficient close-time afforded, which should be extended by at least a See also:month . Black-game- and grouse-shooting differ in no way in their methods, though the former are far more difficult birds to handle by driving, while really fascinating sport can be obtained by stalking See also:Caper- r . to a line of guns in covert, the latter—if no winged game is expected—should stand just inside the edge of the wood, with their backs to the beaters, and take the rabbits after they have passed . This not only induces the rabbits to face the open, but precludes the possibility of an accident to the beaters . See also:Capital sport can be enjoyed in the summer evenings by stalking rabbits with a See also:pea-rifle in a suitable locality, i.e. where no danger to human beings or live-stock can be caused by a stray or deflected bullet . A disused See also:quarry or See also:sand pit is an ideal place for such sport . One See also:branch of shooting remains to be touched on, namely, wild-fowling, which again must be classed under two totally -vim- distinct headings, See also:shore or flight shooting, and shooting See also:tow/. afloat with a swivel See also:punt gun . In flight shooting, the sportsman stations himself at a point over which the birds will probably pass at sundown or daybreak in their passage from or to the See also:sea, when going to or leaving their inland feeding places . Success in flight-shooting must, therefore, depend very largely on chance or See also:luck, but given a See also:fair proportion of the latter, it is a fine, wild sport . One essential requirement is a well-trained and thoroughly intelligent dog, and here again no better can be selected than an Irish water-spaniel . No special rules of guidance can be laid down for shore-shooting; the districts are unhappily few and far between where even a moderate bag of edible wild-fowl can be made nowadays, and experience alone can give that knowledge of their habits which is essential to success . Wild stormy weather which drives the birds off the sea is best for shore-shooting . Punt-See also:gunning or wild-fowling afloat is a sport confined to an exceedingly small number of See also:people, professional or See also:amateur, and is as distinct from ordinary inland shooting as deer-stalking from See also:pigeon-shooting . It may be briefly described as the art of shooting wild-fowl on the sea, or in estuaries of See also:rivers, from a flat-bottomed punt carrying a heavy, fixed gun, weighing anything from 70-170 lb, the muzzle of which rests in a revolving crutch in the See also:bow of the See also:boat, and firing a charge of 1-2 lb of shot . A punt may be either single- or See also:double-handed, i.e. to contain one or two people, and it is perhaps unnecessary to add the fowl are shot sitting, or just as they rise from the water . It is a sport that contains a considerable See also:element of danger, and requires great See also:powers of endurance and a strong constitution no less than good nerves, and it has been rightly termed a See also:science in itself, only to be learnt by a patient See also:apprenticeship under an experienced teacher . The art of shooting cannot be learnt theoretically, and can only be acquired by experience and practice . The beginner should, however, from the first seek to avoid an ugly The art of shooting. or cramped See also:style, which, once See also:developed, is very difficult to get rid of, and should bear in mind that, in firing at a moving object, his purpose should be not to place his charge of shot where such object is at the moment he pulls the trigger, but where it will be by the time the shot reaches it; in other words the game should run or fly into the circle of pellets . Nor should he seek to effect this by dwelling on his game with his gun at his See also:shoulder—a practice not only clumsy but exceedingly dangerous—but by firing at an imaginary point in front of it . Practice alone can See also:teach the knack of doing this properly; to some men it seems a natural See also:gift, while others do not acquire it in a See also:life-time . A See also:sound digestion is the surest aid to successful shooting, for unless the See also:nervous See also:system be in perfect tune, See also:brain, eye and hand cannot act in that spontaneous sympathy necessary to quick and pretty marksmanship . None the less a good See also:deal depends on the gun, as well as the man who uses it, and-in choosing a fowling-piece it will be found an See also:advantage, no less than an ultimate See also:economy, for the young shooter to place himself in the hands of a See also:London gunmaker of repute, and pay a good See also:price for a good article . A See also:r2-bore is the generally accepted gauge for modern shot guns, and this should weigh from 62-64 lb . Of late years it is gradually becoming customary to reduce the length of the barrels from 30 to 28 in., a most decided improvement, as without diminishing the killing-See also:power of the gun it improves its See also:balance, and so lessensthe See also:probability of shooting under game, a very common See also:fault among sportsmen . Excessive choking is to be deprecated; a See also:pattern of 140 for the right and of 16o for the See also:left See also:barrel will be found amply sufficient, and a load of 40-42 grains of nitro-See also:powder with r or r k oz . No . 5i unchilled shot will meet , all ordinary requirements of the shooting field . A thoroughly good hammerless ejector gun can be obtained from a first-class London gunmaker for 35-45 guineas, and a pair for £75 to £roo, but these prices are capable of considerable modification or the reverse . Single-trigger guns are the latest fashion, but no special advantage can be claimed for them .
The bibliography of shooting is very extensive, but the following See also:works may be cited as standard ones on the subject: The " See also:Badminton Library " Shooting—Hints to Young Shooters, by See also:Sir See also:Ralph See also:Payne-Gallwey; " The See also:Fur and See also:Feather " series of publications; The Gun and its Developments, by Greener; and for wild-fowling, See also:Colonel See also:Hawker's See also:evergreen Instructions to Young Sportsmen; The Art of Wildfowling, by See also:Abel See also:Chapman; The See also:Fowler in Ireland, by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey; and The Wildfowler, by Folkard
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Big Game
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The pursuit of large game, whether for See also:food or sport, has ever exercised the greatest See also:fascination for mankind, and with the rapid opening up of vast continents hitherto unexplored, and the introduction of See also:breech-loading rifles, it has assumed an importance within the last few decades that bids fair to render it a thing of the past before the end of the current century
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The present See also:generation has seen the bison, which formerly roamed the See also:American prairies in countless millions, wiped off the face of creation; the veldt of See also:Southern See also:Africa, which teemed in equal proportions with big game of every description, has become a See also:pastoral country, where a few of the commoner varieties of See also:antelope are suffered to exist under much the same conditions as the semi-wild deer of the Scottish Highlands; and even the jungles of Hindustan, save where jealously preserved by native potentates, show signs of exhaustion as regards the larger See also:fauna
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True, wherever the See also: |