Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/438

 424

��Popular Science Mont/il/j

��vision; the eye must be above ilic line of the rib or barrel. At no lime must the left eye be closed.

There is at times, the fatal presence of a "master left eye." One eye or the other does the guiding, the other or non- aiming eye merely aiding in the estimate of the distance and angle of the bird. If the left eye is the master eye then the remedies are four. One is to learn to shoot from tiic left shoulder: the second,

��shot, fought this trouble for years with the shotgun and finally had to take to closing one eye with this weapon.

Some of the finest shots with firearms, rifle, pistol and shotgun, practice assidu- oush' at home with the empt>' weapon. \\'h\- should the t\ro feel that he can learn all there is to learn by actually firing?

Let him ]iraciice pointing the empty gun a little below horizontal as he would

���A Night Scene at the Chicago Gun Club Where Some Famous Shoots Have Been Held

��to make the right eye the master by persistent practice at the right shoulder with both eyes open; the third, to have the stock made to fire the gun from the right shoulder but crooked so as to bring the barrels before the left eye, and the fourth, to close the left eye at the instant of aiming, which is done by some trap- shots but should not be done unless it is imperative through the left master eye.

The quick and infallible test is to hold up a finger-ring at arm's length and to gaze through it with both eyes open at some distant object. Without mo\ing it, close the left eye and see if the right is still gazing through it. Reverse this, still without moving the ring. Repeat several times. The master eye will be found looking through the ring every time, and the other eye will see the ring off to one side apparently several inches.

If the gun is shot with lioth e\'es open from the right shoulder, with the left e\e the master, the left eye will infallibK- drag the muzzle over between itself and the bird, j)utting the gim entirely out of alinement and making the shooter miss the bird to the left. The lady of the writer's family, a line ritle and pistol

��at the edge of the for\vard side of the trap-house, say "pull" to himself, and then swing rapidly up after the imagin- ary bird, pres.sing the trigger wlien the gun reaches what he feels is the right spot. A black spot on a white wall, a generous spot like a one-inch black paster at a distance of a dozen feet, is right. If he is standing at the imaginary No. ,> peg, which is just back of the center of the trap, then the birds can come out at any angle within forty-fi\e degrees of the straight line before him to the imaginary trap.

How to Handle the Gun

I'iist he must learn the fixed, glued relation of face, hands and gun stock. All movements in trap-shooting are done from the hips. Read this again, and study it. The position of face on stock is the rear sight of the gmi. Regardless of any held cxiierience or of an\" beliefs, the tyro must glue himself into an im- )iio\able relation witii the gun after it comes from the shoulder. If he swings after a bird, the swing must be from the hips; the face, hands and stock must not change relation until the shot goes. If

�� �