SOME HARE SHOOTING.

Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 8

SOME HARE SHOOTING.

(By Canterbury.) (specially wbitten tob <! the pkess.")

A day at the ducks wo may enjoy occasionally. We can. shoot the blue birds, and . consider i$ 6portr-some people say it is a sin—and then, in the absence of Californian quail and pheasants from our list of legitimate quarry, the gunner in South Canterbury is at a loss for feathered game. As an alternative there are hares and rabbits, which seem, undiminished, either by an all-the-year-round persecution or tho efforts of "rabbit-packs" ; on otherwise tranquil days. So let us to a hare- , shooting among the tussocks, ; in a district where the foot-hills meet tho plains. Tho posting of a dozen postcards has resulted in an assembly of seven guns at th© appointed place; and hore, also, is a man leading a packpony to carry the slain, a reasonable expectation of meeting tho sandwichcart at a spot a couple of miles away, and a distinctly soothing probability that everyone of the company will see that heroes hot fire oxactly in a line with any long-suffering neighbour. Under such conditions there aro less attractive sports than hare shooting. Now the guns are placed in lino across a tussock fiat, on the right a slope leading down to a shingly stream bed filled with scrub and gorse, and in front a prospect of large and little hills, hero topped with sunlit snow, thero showing slaty purple above the wreaths of morning mist. The line went forward and at once a great fat hare scurried from its form in a matted clump, right close in front of the centre gun. It is not a position of which I am by any means covetous—much rather wouid I be out on a wing, for there it is only possible to have 1 fire-armed fool on one side of you— but this time it happened the centre gun was just myself, and I waited for a second to let the lumbering mark travel to a fair distance ahead. Then instantly two shots came from tho men on either band, the hare rolled over smashed, and my first cartridge was vet utifired. Words failed mc. but not my neighbours. One advised mc kindly i>nd cheerfully "never dwell over y-ur shot like that" ; the other "thought you had soae to sleep," and still I answered them gently. Great credit is due to mc for that, surely. In these hare shoots "Don't wait for the other fellow" is an ordinary rule, but until a hare had been retaken from each of them the world appeared as an unjust and badly balanced place. Wedged in between the tussock paddocks we came presently to some tarnip lands, where the roots had been unsparingly nibbled, apparently during the nightly inroads of a whole furry host. Before tho rest we knew that we were summoned together for tho pnrpose of saving any turnips whiob remained unscarrod. and of these thero were not many. One might imagine that a single root should satisfy any self-respectinf hnre for supper, bnt it ■v»*ned they had gone on tasting from each to the next, merely to suit a capricious fancy. Having at last fed full they had loped off into the surround ins* tussocks, and selected a enug rest-

ing place in which' to spend a happy day wondering which turnip had tasted best. Rudely wo disturbed them, finding our game in plenty, all round about, and the shooting was quick and close Ono shot heralded another, fresh hares were roused by the frequent firing, until at a specially\ busy moment nearly a dozen of them were on foot at once; As tho lino worked further from tho root field, the shote gradually became fewer, but by this time the pack-horse carried a numerous load; and in the distance the sandwich cart awaited us at the appointed place. During the interval that followed, the party was reinforced by five dogs, of which throe may have owned a spaniel for an ancestor in the dim past, and the others were sheep-dogs, as their owner had it, "beggars to.hunt." The afternoon beat returned by the side or our morning progress, taking the fivechain breadth of the waterless riverbed; two guns ahead on cither bank, threo through the scattered cover at intervals of thirty yards. That is to say, tho intervals wero supposed to bo kept at thirty yards, but sometimes a gun lost his bearings, probably to reveal himself disconcertingly, directly in front of a noijihbour to right or left. However, accidents on such occasions are marvellously rare, and all went well, in spite of rash men who tempted their fellows thus, to forestall the rope. Many: of the hares put up in the morning had sought refuge among _ the gorse, from which they wero driven quickly by the vigorous efforts of tho dogs, so that tho guns stationed on the banks could enjoy some pretty shooting. Down in the scrub in tho centre it was a more haphazard business, for the rabbits thero were dodging in all directions, and instead of singlo clear chances, the centre guns had snapshots by the half-dozen. A howl from tho gorse told of a noble hound taken, so to speak, in reverse; but luckily even he was not hurt seriously. So the afternoon finished; a total of somothing over eighty hares and rabbits was the final count; and if everybody had not slain entire dozens on his own account, certainly it was not for lack of opportunity.