Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/160

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��Popular Science Monthly

��than an ordinary small-sized saucer.

The good shot usually swings ahead

of his bird and keeps on swinging as he

presses the trigger. Some men swing

��snoot nere

���Where to aim with the second shot when the birds have passed and are going away

up from behind and swing very rapidly past, pulling when they feel they are far enough ahead. Others throw the gun up ahead of the bird and swing along at about the speed of the flyer. The man who swings rapidly by the bird has to lead it less than the man who swings at bird speed, because the speed of his gun-swinging carries him farther ahead than he realizes by the time the charge is out of the barrel. Few men can hit consistently by holding ahead of a bird — holding the gun still at a point they consider correct. The slightest de- lay in pulling the trigger means a miss — a tenth of a second means six feet, in our hypothetical reasoning. A delay while

��the gun is swinging, however, means nothing, because the muzzles are still keeping ahead of the flyer and so are aimed at about the right spot for shot load and birdie to intersect.

While many men learn early the neces- sity for the generous swing ahead and lead on the crossing duck, they fail to grasp the fact that the quail, apparently angling off so little that they can hit it by shooting right at it, is really moving fast either to the left or right. There- fore they shoot right at Brother Quail who is buzzing off to the left and for- ward, and the shot load hisses by the bird to the right. The aim was correct for the spot where the bird was — but not where he was when the shot got there.

���Making a hit by a direct aim at a bird flying straight away from the hunter

Clay bird shooters have the same experi- ence when they shoot right at the clay angling off from the straight line to the gun. To hit the angling bird, therefore,

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��If a bird rises and flies very low — just skimming away — the gun should be aimed so as to be well over or in advance of the bird. The tendency is to wait too long to shoot

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