The Dead Shot - Shotguns and Shooting

By Marksman

A republication of the 1896 edition. The illustrated contents contain much valuable information on shooting, shotguns and ammunition. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Country Books
• Release date: Sep 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473342316

Book preview

SHOT.

THE DEAD SHOT.

I can, I’ll not the truth disguise,

Myself kill bees and butterflies,

While flying quick from flower to flower.

Tomtits and sparrows, pippits, larks,

Are all to me as easy marks.—W. WATT.

WHO, AND WHAT, IS A DEAD SHOT.

A DEAD SHOT is a SPORTSMAN in the truest sense of the word; he is one who is a thorough master of the art of shooting, and who can be sure of his bird let it fly off in whatever direction it will, so long as it takes wing within range of his gun. Whether its flight be slow or fast, to right or left, soaring or descending, flying overhead, down wind, up wind, or across wind, in a strong wind or a dead calm;—in one and all, the bird is an unerring mark to a Dead Shot. And he does not merely wing or wound the bird, so that there is considerable difficulty and delay in recovering it; nor, on the other hand, does he cut and mangle it, so as to render it unfit for the table; he simply kills the bird by hitting it in one of the most vulnerable parts of its body; it fairly dies in the air, and drops dead to his unerring aim. There is no need to rush forward in an unsportsmanlike manner to pick it up for fear of its straggling away, for where a dead bird falls, there it lies; and when the gun is reloaded, the Dead Shot, as well as his dog, knows where to find the bird.

A Dead Shot is also a man of cool, calm, and collected demeanour; he is neither hasty nor nervous; he never appears to make a very quick or sudden movement in shooting; and yet, if a brace of birds get up within range of his gun, they are no sooner on fair wing and at fair range, than down they drop, as if by mechanical contrivance, first one and then the other, to his deadly aim. All his movements are easy and apparently slow, and yet the quickest bird never escapes him.

A Dead Shot is born a marksman, and is therefore, a ready and accurate calculator of distances; also of the velocity of flight and speed of the objects of his sport. If it were not so, it would be impossible that he could kill with so much certainty. He estimates, intuitively, the distance at which a bird rises, and the rate of its flight, and so he never shoots out of range; for it is no sport to him to wound his birds and not to bag them.

The pleasure to be derived, and the instruction to be gained by a young sportsman through being an associate with a Dead Shot can only be appreciated by those who have had the privilege and advantage of actual sport in company with him. A few days’ sport with such a man never fails to enkindle in the breast of a young aspirant, a thorough sportsmanlike feeling, and desire to kill birds as he kills them.

To shoot as a Dead Shot shoots is the very ambition of those who delight in the use of the gun; but such skill cannot be acquired without a patient training and painstaking attention.

A Dead Shot is by nature gifted with the physical qualities pertaining to good shooting; particularly those of precision of the eye and hand, with steadiness of nerve, and good muscular power. Similar if not identical qualities are usually found in skilful cricketers. But whatever the talent, a man can no more become a Dead Shot than he can a good cricketer, without considerable practice and experience.

A gun, like a cricket-bat, requires practice in the use of it: and the art of finding game, beating the field, and other sportsmanlike accomplishments, require to be as practically taught and learnt as the various qualifications that belong to good fielding and the dexterous handling of the cricket-bat.

True it is that some persons are far more apt than others, and take to shooting with an early success; whilst others spend the best part of their lives in endeavouring to acquire proficiency in the use of the gun, but are never able to accomplish it.

There are many sportsmen who are excellent marksmen, and who shoot fairly well, and kill a large number of birds in the course of the season: some of such men may be termed good shots; but they are, nevertheless, far from being Dead Shots.

A man is very far from being a good shot who misses half his birds; and he is a very bad shot if he merely wings or wounds at fair distances, when he ought to kill: and no game is