Читать книгу The Complete English Wing Shot онлайн

8 страница из 116

I suspect that a change of ideas will take place when it is discovered that driven-game shooting can, more than any other, be learnt at the shooting schools, and that when the trick is known it becomes the easiest kind of shot. If it is true that the schools can teach it, then everybody will learn it, and what is common property will become as unfashionable as it is the reverse at present. I believe that half the difficulty in the driven bird is in thinking it is difficult. The fastest bird at 30 yards range one is likely to meet with in a whole season does not require a swing of the muzzle faster than, or much more than half as fast as, a man can walk. What is difficult in driven game is shooting often, the swerve of the game, the changes of pace and angle of different birds in quick succession, but distinctly not the pace. Before I had ever seen a grouse butt, I remember sitting down to watch another party of shooters on a distant hill, more than half a mile up wind of where I sat to watch. I saw their dogs point, and a single bird rise, which, with many a switchback as it came, I watched traverse the whole distance between us, and I killed it as I sat. That was my first driven grouse, but it is not by any means why I say that driven game offers the easiest kind of shooting; it is because the average of kills to cartridges are so much better than they are in other kinds of shooting. Take, for instance, double rises at pigeons, which are easy compared with double rises at October grouse, and it will be noted that the crack pigeon shots do not generally kill even their first double rise at 25 yards range, and that four or five double rise kills are nearly always good enough to win, as also very often is a single double rise with both birds killed. Very moderate grouse drivers can do better than that, and pheasants that are not very high are slain in much greater proportion. The fact is that all shooting is extremely difficult if one attempts to satisfy the most severe critic of all, namely the man who shoots. But at my age I would much rather think myself fit to do a day’s hard walking than a day’s hard shooting. I think there are a good many people of that opinion, otherwise dog moors would not make more rent per brace than the Yorkshire driving moors, but they do. The trouble is that places where birds will lie to dogs are limited, and it is childish to drive packs of birds away for the sake of thinking one is shooting over dogs when one is not shooting at all, but only doing mischief. Personally, I would not try to shoot over good dogs on Yorkshire grouse. Bad ones would not matter; but then they would give me no pleasure.