How to Handle a Shot-gun.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 482, 21 June 1890, Page 6

How to Handle a Shot-gun.

ADVICE TO BOYS BY A VETERAN SPORTSMAN. By Maurice Thompson. (Author of “ Marion and His Boy Hunters,” etc.) The first good shot-gun that I ever saw was a double-barreled, flint-locked one, whose stock had been made out of a curlymaple root, and whose mountings were of , pewter. It was a clumsy affair, but its barrels were as good and as fine as any that I have since seen. I remember very well the carvings on the breech and fore part of the stock, all of which were rude but singularly effective represcntarions of birds and other animals. The locks were beautifully engraved, and the barrels were as bright as silver. It was of Spanish make, and had been brought from Mexico in the time of our war with that country. The original stock, however, had been replaced by the “ home-made” one which I have described. The barrels were thirty-four inches long and about equal in bore to our six teengauge pieces. I mention this gun on account of the young man who used it, for he was the surest wing shot that I ever saw pull trigger. In a trial of skill he killed forty-one quails before missing one, and that, too, in bad sassafras cover, where the birds rose out oi most difficult places. How had he become so proficient ? To such an inquiry I should answer : *He always kept cool and always looked at his bird.’ Really this thing of looking at your bird, simple as it may seem, is the largest part of successful shooting on the wing with the shot-gun. The shooter who looks at his gun when about to fire is never a brilliant marksmen.

While you are bearing this rule in mind let me tell you how to learn to aim a shotgun. It is a very simple thing when once you have mastered it. Lift the weapon with both hands, the right clasping the stock just below the guard, the left supporting the barrels. Look with both eyes steadily at the object to be shot at, and at the same time bring the mid-rib of the barrels straight under the line of vision of the right eye. Pull the trigger instantly. Never attempt to sight along the rib, but simply be aware that the gun is directly under your line of aim. So soon as you are able to point your weapon without looking directly at it you may be sure that the worst is over, and that you will be a fair shot after a little practice.

When you are ready to go into the field to shoot game you must keep well in mind the following rules for handling your gun : 1. Never let the muzzleof your piecepoinb at any person. 2. Always carry your gun with the muzzle pointing away from you. 3. When climbing a fence, put your gun over first, after taking out both the shells. 4. Never drag a gun toward you. Nearly half the accidents that have happened to boys from the handling of guns have been owing to the neglect of the fourth of the above rules.

Most boys know that it is considered unsportsmanlike to shoot at any bird when it is not flying, or at any hare or rabbit that is not running. It is the law of ‘ polite shooting ’ that the game must have a fair chance to escape, especially when the shot-gun is used.

Target practice is well enough to train the shooter in aiming, but there is no way of learning to shoot game save going into the field and banging away at it. No matter how much you have fired at moving targets, the first quail that rises before you is pretty sure to escape. The sound of its wings will probably so frighten you that you will stand with your mouth open and staring eyes until it has disappeared. Then you will wonder why you didn’t shoot.

Even after you have learned to control your nerves you will find it very hard at first to hit your bird, because you will forget to aim ahead of it if flying across your line of sight, or above if rising, or below if flying downward. This making allowance for flight can be learned only by practice. No rule can be laid down for it. Usually in beginning you will make too much allowance. It is when shooting at strongflying water-fowl that the need of making allowance is most urgent; but even then the allowance is not more than ten or twelve feet in forty yards. In hare-shooting it is necessary to ‘ allow ’ for running by aiming a trifle above the game when it is running straight away from you. This is because your line of sight is above it as you stand. The shotgun requires the very best of care in order to do good work. It must be kept perfectly clean and must always be loaded to suit its ‘habit,’ as I call it. By this I mean that each gun has a capacity or quality for shooting a certain load best, and any other load will lessen its effectiveness. By a little experimenting you can find out the load, that best suits your piece. Carry your gun on your shoulder with the muzzle elevated and the hammers down, save when you are expecting game to rise, then you may hold it at * ready,’ which is as follows: Cock both barrels, grasp the stock with the right hand, as in firing, and sustain the barrels at an upward angle in the left hand, just in front of and across the breast, the breech-heel a little below the right elbow. This gives perfect freedom of action when the game rises. Moreover it is the safest position in.which to carry the gun, both for yourselves and your companions, if you have any. Never be in a hurry with a gun, no matter what the apparent emergency ; it is the deliberate and cool sportsman that is quickest and surest. Remember that what is done as a habit is done perfectly, and that all you have to do to make a crack shot of yourself is to learn to fire habitually by the moat approved rule. When a bird rises before you the first thing to do is to bring your gun to bear on your point of aim by a single motion, while at the same instant you fire the right-hand barrel. If you miss, move the gun again by a steady but swift movement to the new point” © aim, and fire the left-hand barrel. Now, boys, remember and be careful; for the gun is a good friend to the prudent and cautious shooter, but a terrible enemy to the careless and imprudent one.