SHOOTING, in sportsmanship, the killing of game by the gun, with or without the help of dogs.
Whether the game be flying, or on a hedge or tree, always endeavour to shoot as near as you possibly can with the wind, and rather sidewise or behind the fowl than in their face; nor shoot at a single bird, if you can compass more within your level. If they be on a tree, hedge, or the ground, seek out for the most convenient shelter you can, of a hedge, bank, tree, &c. that you may be concealed from the sight of the fowl; and being within shot, and having a fair mark, lose no time, but let fly.
If dogs are used, we put them on the hunt by whistling or hying-on (as the term is): it is necessary to observe the motions of spaniels, for there are but few that will not give some intimation when they come on scent; use them to come in at a sharp call, and never suffer them to run after a bird, except it is wounded: observe to let the dogs, whether spaniels or pointers, have the wind as much as possible, (that is, let them hunt against the wind).
In using pointers, when they are observed drawing on a point, and are known to be not quite staunch, call to them to take heed; and if they spring without standing, correct them slightly with a switch, speaking angrily to them, and keep them at a distance the remaining part of the day; unless their after-behaviour deserve encouragement, when it may not be improper to take them into favour.
Shooting flying, is by experience found to be the best and most diverting way of shooting. It is necessary for any gentleman who sports much to have two guns; the barrel of one about two feet nine inches, which will serve very well for the beginning of the season, and for wood-shooting; the other about three feet three inches, for open-shooting after Michaelmas: the birds by that time are grown so shy, that your shots must be at longer distances. But if you intend one gun to serve for all purposes, then a three-feet barrel, or thereabouts, is most proper. You should always have it cocked in readiness; holding your thumb over the cock, lest it should go off when you would not have it.
It is generally accounted the best way to aim at the head, if the game flies over your head; but to aim as it were under the belly, if it flies from you; and it will be best to let the game fly a little past you before you let fly, for by so doing the shot will the better enter the body. Shot delivered from a gun in general lose or decrease half the quantity every ten yards or thereabouts; so that at forty yards there will not be thrown in above a fourth of what would be into the
Shooting. same space at twenty yards. From which it appears, that if you take aim a foot before a cross-shot at forty yards, you will be the most likely to meet the bird with the centre-shot; and which is looked upon to fly the strongest, and to be more efficacious at long distances, than the diverging shot: for whether it be the shot striking against each other, or against the air, at first coming out of the muzzle, or whatever be the cause of their diverging, it must in some degree retard their motion. But if there be a brisk wind, it will certainly bend the course of the shot; you must therefore consider whether the wind blows with the bird or against it: if it blow with it, you need little more than to observe the general rule, because the wind helps the bird forward nearly as much as it diverts the shot; but if it fly against the wind, the shot will decline more than the bird is retarded, and therefore you ought to take aim at a greater distance before the bird.
One good pointer in the field at a time, if you have patience to attend him, will be sufficient for two men to shoot with; but if you have an old springing spaniel, that is so well under command that you can always keep him near you, such a dog may be used with your pointer with great advantage; as he will better find birds that are wounded, and also spring such as are near you, which you otherwise might pass. But if you should be fond of hunting many pointers together in a field, as is frequently done, you should not have more than one amongst them, who has been taught to fetch his game, left, by endeavouring to get it from each other, they should tear it.
Partridge-Shooting. The season for this sport begins, by act of parliament, on the 1st of September, and ends the 12th of February; and which, on account of the cleanness, little fatigue, and more certain diversion than any other, by their being found in coveys, and taking short flights, is generally esteemed the gentlest and best sport we have.—In the beginning of the season, they haunt the wheat, barley, oat, peas and bean-stubbles; but the wheat-vetch is their favourite: they also lie in turnips, clover-feed, and on fallow-land; and indeed, at times, they are found any where.
The most proper dog for partridge-shooting, is the pointer, a dog extremely well calculated for the sport; as partridges can seldom or ever be seen on the ground, if the stubble, &c. be but three or four inches high: if the pointer be staunch, and have a good nose, he will seldom pass, in common fields, within 40 yards of a covey, without intimating by a point pretty near the exact line they lie in.
Two persons in the field with guns are better than more at partridge shooting, who should with patience pay a due attention to each other.
Observe, after a fire, never to blow through the barrel, but charge again immediately, while the inside of the barrel is hot and dry; by this method of immediate charging, a gun seldom hangs fire, and carries much smarter and better: there is no occasion to wipe either pan or flint while out, (if the flint is good, which, by the bye, it always should be); but on returning home, wipe clean with tow, or linen-rags, both out and inside of the barrel, and also the lock, from the soil of the powder; when it is thus cleaned,
hang it up, and, if it can be so ordered, where a constant winter fire is kept, hanging it at a moderate distance from the fire: the powder-flask should also be kept in the same degree of warmth in winter-time; if the gun has received any rain or wet, let it be wiped thoroughly dry, and stand some time near a fire, to dry any remaining damp, and have a little oil rubbed over it before hanging up.
When your dog points, walk up without any hurry, separating a few yards, one to the right and the other to the left of your dog: if a covey springs, never shoot into the midst of them, but let him on the left single out a bird which fleeth to the left, and him on the right a bird to the right, that you may not interrupt each other nor both shoot at the same bird, and readily let fly at the first aim. Let each of you mark the fall of his bird, and immediately run to the place; and if the dog does not secure it, or the bird should be only wounded and have run, put him upon the scent; but if your dog understands his business, and will fetch his game, it is better to trust to him, and load again as quick as you can. It will always be of great use, and save much time and trouble, to have a person without a gun to mark the flight of the birds. If a single bird be sprung, let him take the shoot to whose side it flies: the bird being killed, cause your dog to lie by it whilst you load, lest he spring other birds that are near you.
If you trace the birds to a hedge, double the row by walking one on each side, taking your dog on the ditch side: here if you have a spaniel, he will be of great use; as you may make him go along in the ditch, and your pointer on the other side; by which means you will not pass a bird, and one of you will most likely get a good shoot at it. Your own judgment, with very little experience, will best direct where the birds are most likely to be found at different times of the day, according to the grounds you have to hunt in.
Pheasant and Woodcock Shooting. Pheasants and woodcocks generally lie in carrs or woods where there is much cover. Spaniels are therefore the dogs most proper for this kind of shooting. Some pointers indeed, that are bold-spirited and have been a great deal used to this work, will follow a pheasant very well; but from the generality of slow staunch pointers a pheasant will get off so fast, as, when sprung, to be out of the reach of gun-shot; besides, they are not hardy enough to go into thick cover.
The spaniels proper for this work are of a middling size, their legs rather short and very strong: they must be hardy, able to bear great fatigue, disposed to go into cover freely and undaunted, to hunt very briskly, and yet go very slow when upon scent of game. You cannot begin too early with these dogs to teach them to fetch a bird and bring it after you: which will prevent their getting a habit of tearing or breaking the game. One of this kind must be always obliged to lie down whilst you load: and as his business is to spring game, you should never suffer him to go above ten or fifteen yards from you; and therefore take him out with others that are brought under command as soon as he is able to hunt. For to have good spaniels, they must be used a great deal. If you find any difficulty in keeping him to hunt near
Shooting. you, put one of his feet into his collar, and hunt him so for an hour or two. Frequent repetitions of this punishment will bring him to a sense of his duty. One, two, or three brace of spaniels well broken, may be used together; and they will find work enough in a large wood or thick cover. If two persons intend hunting in a wood, it is best for one to go round it on the outside first, whilst the other goes opposite to him a little way into the wood, and afterwards to sink in deeper as you shall find occasion, unless you know the most likely part to find game in; in which case you may hunt the interior part first. Some persons, when they want to hunt a very large wood, approve of taking a brace of high-mettled spaniels that have not been broken, to hunt close, and turn them into the middle of the wood; whilst they with their well-broken spaniels hunt outwards. But unless you have any extensive woods to hunt, such dogs are more likely to hinder than add to your sport; and it will be better to hunt with patience with only such dogs as are under good command, let the woods or cover be ever so large.
1. Pheasant-Shooting begins, by act of parliament, on the 1st of October, and lasts till the 1st of February.
These birds afford very pretty sport, though far more fatiguing and tiresome than partridge-shooting; owing to the bushes, briars, and other disagreeable circumstances of the woods.—In hunting them, keep as near the dogs as possible; and when they spring, one or more, let such only fire at the bird as to whom, in point of rising, it belongs; which rule should be always observed in all sorts of shooting in company. In pheasant-shooting, the trees frequently interfere, therefore forbear firing till you have a clear aim at the bird; which, if it cannot be had, it is better to let him escape for another chance.
2. Woodcock Shooting generally begins towards the latter end of November; they are birds of passage, and come over to us in flights in the night-time, about the full of the moon: the first flight, which is sometimes in October, is commonly very scanty; but they continue coming over, more or less, every moon, till February; consequently it will generally be found they are in greater plenty towards the latter end of the winter; though this is no absolute rule, as they are very irregular with regard to number in their coming over; sometimes the first or second flight being the largest we have through the winter, and the others very trifling; they remain with us generally till the middle or latter end of March.
Their haunts are chiefly in the springs and bogs, in woods and coppices; and in the beginning of the winter, before the leaves are well off, they prefer the out-parts of the woods. For springing them, therefore, spaniels are used, as already mentioned.
A woodcock is a very tender bird; and being a large mark, affords easy, pretty shooting, where a person has got the art of shooting flying tolerably well; but it frequently occurs that the bird rises in a perpendicular line, which is the most difficult shot that is. In this case, an experienced sportsman will find it more advisable to forbear firing (if opportunity will allow) till the bird has arrived at the height of the perpendicular, and flies onward; but as a shot will be often lost
by this delay, the good marksman should never wait it, except he judges the shot will be better.
Snipe-Shooting. The snipe, like the woodcock, is a bird of passage; they begin coming over to us about the middle or latter end of October, and remain with us pretty forward in the spring. They frequent, like the woodcock, the springs, bogs, and marshy places; but with this difference, that the cock seeks these in cover, and the snipe in the open clear parts, as fields and common.
Snipes afford as pretty sport, to a good marksman, as any bird whatsoever; though they are very quick fliers, yet are very tender, and will fall almost at the bare report of the gun.
We spring snipes either with spaniels, or by making a slight sharp kind of noise about the places where we know they haunt: they mostly fly directly against the wind, (if there is any material air stirring), and a shot after them is the best and most sure: the flint and cross shots are rather difficult, as they are a small mark, and fly exceeding quick.—For practice in this, which is very nice, swallow-shooting may be used in summer to advantage.
Of Water-fowl Shooting. In shooting water-fowl, as geese, ducks, widgeons, &c. we use the longest killing gun, and as large shot as the no 1 or 2.
The proper dog is the rough, curled, water spaniel, of which the white sort are commonly the best. They should be under the strictest command; be ready at fetching any thing out of the water, without biting it; and catching what is only wounded; should be used, on occasion, to creep quiet and close behind the master's heel.
The fowl may either be shot swimming, or, which is better, taken on the wing; as in the water they are strongly guarded by the close lying of their wings and feathers; therefore, if a person is a good marksman, it will be always best to spring them first.
The best place to throw the shot, if opportunity will allow, is under the wing, as that is by much the tenderest place; and the worse of all is the breast, as the feathers here lie extremely thick and close.
Fen Shooting. In this sport we use in general the no 3 shot, which will serve as well for the bittern and curlew, as the plover. One or two steady water or land spaniels may be used; and it will be always best to spring the birds before firing.
Upland Winter Shooting. Our common field-shooting is generally best in frosty weather, and when the ground has a tolerable cover of snow. The most common birds in this sport are, different sorts of wild pigeons, fieldfares, starlings, redwings, &c. In this diversion we use no dog; and the fewer shooters together the better.
The several kinds of pigeons require the no 3 shot, as being strong birds; and may be either taken on the wing, or as they perch on a tree; but the rock-pigeons are best, in general, taken on the wing; however, it sometimes happens that a shot at them sitting is more proper; in this discretion must direct.
The fieldfare is a very common bird: it seems to delight most in large close orchards; but in hard weather, in the fields; they frequent the haw bushes, and afford very pretty diversion. Though they are naturally very wild, yet, when a hard frost is set in, there
is no difficulty in getting within 40 yards of them, at the time they are keenly engaged on their feeding bush: here they will sit 40 or 50 sometimes together. The proper way of managing this kind of shooting is, if possible, to secrete behind a bush, or in a hedge, within shot of one of the bushes they frequent: when a sufficient number (as the person may judge) are together, to fire at them as they sit; what are killed should be taken up, and the shooter replace himself as before: in a quarter of an hour, or less, more will probably be on the bush; and he may often go on shooting in the same place all the while they are on their feed, which is from a little after sun-rise till 11 or 12 o'clock; and in the afternoon they go on again, about an hour before sun-set; but such sport as this must be expected only where fieldfares are in great plenty.
Starlings afford tolerable diversion in shooting. In winter they, for the most part, go in flocks from 20 to 50; they delight chiefly to be in moist pastures among cattle, and sometimes sit so close together on the ground, that a person may kill 25 or 30 at a shot. Taking these on the ground, or wing, may be left at the discretion of the shooter; but the wing will be best preferred: what are shot, should have their heads immediately pulled off, which, by their bleeding, prevents a bitterness of taste they would otherwise have. Use for these and fieldfares the no 4 shot.—In shooting larks in flocks, use the no 5 shot; and make it a rule always to take them on the wing. Here it will be advisable to have the gun scatter more than common: And in order to do this, put in an equal quantity of shot, supposing the usual charge to be three parts shot to two of powder; but if the gun, in common, carries an equal quantity of each, then it will be necessary to put in only about three parts of shot to four of powder: and in shooting any of the smaller birds in flocks, this rule of charging should be observed.