The Sportswoman's Library, Vol. 1 of 2

by Unknown

Then you need to learn to judge distance. A good plan is to fix on an object in front of you when out for a walk, and after saying to yourself how far it is off, to pace the distance. Another good plan is to cut out of cardboard a rough figure of a bird, pheasant, or partridge, and fasten it to a tree. Then measure forty yards, thirty-five yards, and twenty yards, for you should never shoot at birds much nearer than that. After this begin at twenty yards and move slowly back, aiming every yard or so and making mental notes of the size of the cardboard bird as it appears to you. Half the missing, and more than half the wounded birds, come from a want of power to judge distance. Fortunately continued practice is very easy, and you should be always measuring distance when you are out walking.

Boys when they learn to shoot either go out with the keeper or get shots at jays, hawks, or other vermin in the woods, or they surreptitiously prowl about the hedges and shoot at anything that moves. But there are objections to both these plans for women, who may not have woods in which to range, and it is hardly necessary to say that the shooting of small birds is not to be encouraged. So for the next step I would suggest the clay pigeon. I have found that practice at these is very useful, and the flights are so ingeniously arranged that plenty of variety is given to the shooting. If there are several shooting people in the house, it will be possible to organise little competitions and sweeps which will improve your shooting by the spirit of emulation. I may add, by the way, that in country houses a clay bird shooting competition is a capital thing to fill up the day in the cub-hunting season, when after an early morning's sport, the rest of the day sometimes hangs heavily on our visitors' hands.

The next step is to the rabbit, though bunny is a most difficult and deceptive animal to shoot, having been made by nature at least six inches too short. The best way for a beginner to shoot rabbits is to go out with the ferrets, and get shots at them as they are bolted. I prefer shooting rabbits in this way for quite a beginner, to stalking them in the open when feeding near their holes, as until one is pretty sure of killing them, there is always a danger of wounding them, and then they creep away into their burrows to die miserably. Never shoot at a rabbit going dead away from you, and learn from the first to aim well forward. Of course the easiest of all shots for a beginner is at a hare crossing in covert, but hares are hardly numerous enough in most places and often are more or less preserved for harriers or coursing. By the time you can hit a wood pigeon and bowl over a rabbit neatly, you will have made some progress, and will be able to take up the various kinds of shooting in turn.

I will speak of grouse first, because these birds afford the very best shooting possible. For women who have the opportunity, there is no doubt that driven grouse are in some respects more suitable to their powers than the birds to be obtained after a long fagging tramp over the moors. With the universal popularity of driving, both with shooters and the owners of moors, such opportunities are likely to come frequently in the way of women, whose means enable them to shoot in Scotland. Driving is popular with owners because it is better for the moors, a larger proportion of old and therefore useless and injurious birds being thinned out by this method, than when a moor is shot over dogs in the ordinary way. With shooters it is popular, because driven grouse afford perhaps the finest shots of any known game, with the possible exception of the Himalayan pheasants, as they sweep with their grand rush down the sides of the mountains.

There are certain points which all shooters of driven grouse should bear in mind, one being that the eyes should be, so to speak, working in front of the gun, which should come to the shoulder with one movement, and the trigger be pulled at once. It is this instinctive action in shooting which makes the constant practice, on which so much stress has been laid, so necessary. It cannot, so far as I know, be acquired in any other way, but if a woman has the perseverance and keenness necessary, she is likely to acquire it more quickly than a man.

Birds, it must be remembered, coming at the pace of driven grouse, fly into the shot, and therefore the shooter must aim further in front than would be the case with birds going at a slower pace. But the angle at which the birds are coming, their height, and the inclination of their flight, all make a difference. Infinite variety is the characteristic of shots at driven birds, and it will need all the coolness and steadiness of nerve of the shooter to meet each occasion as it arises with promptness and success. When the birds are coming within shot, the gunner should fix on the bird she means to shoot at first, this being the one which is easiest for her, that is to say, the one which offers the sort of shot at which she is best, and at which, therefore, she can fire with the most confidence. Then keeping her gun at the shoulder, she will take the second available one. There is no necessity to look to see if the first one has fallen, for if you have missed you can do no more, and if it is dead you should waste no more time on it. This is undoubtedly the method of shooting grouse most suitable to women. It gives the minimum of fatigue with the maximum of skill, and it is to skill rather than bodily force to which a woman must look if she would excel in sport. For however young, strong, and active she may be, it must never be forgotten by the prudent sportswoman, that we are the weaker sex.

If, however, the moor on which the woman has the chance of shooting is not suitable for driving, and some far northern moors yield better results to dogs, then she may try her luck over the pointers and setters. Very delightful you will find this, but it is well not to overtax your strength, not only on your own account, but also to avoid being regarded as an encumbrance by the male members of the party. Beats near the lodge, if possible, should be chosen, and luncheon should, in my opinion, be the signal for the prudent sportswoman to retire.

When I turn from the grouse to the partridge I shall probably have a much larger public, for partridge shooting is, next to the rabbit, the most easily attainable form of sport. It varies in quality of course, but is always enjoyable, though it requires very much smaller expenditure than the grouse. Almost every girl that can use her gun, may hope to get a shot at partridges. The partridge is little inferior to the grouse, or perhaps I may say, it is only inferior in its surroundings. In its pursuit the wild romantic scenery of the moor, will be exchanged for the tamer but not less beautiful landscape of the manor. There are three ways of shooting partridges, the drive, walking up, and shooting over dogs. The first of these is only suitable for large estates, and is not therefore within the reach of many women. I well remember the first time I saw one. The friend to whom I owe most of my shooting, whom I will call Mrs. Robinson, had herself learned to use her gun in order to accompany her husband who was very fond of the sport, and when the management of the estates fell into her hands, she threw herself enthusiastically into the improvement of the shootings. Mrs. Robinson does not drive her estate, as she holds that walking up and shooting over dogs is more suitable for her ground. But she has a neighbour, Lord B., who does, and it was when I was staying with my old friend, that the latter asked us both over for a "drive."

I was all excitement at the prospect, novelty having ever a charm for me, though I was a little nervous too as to how I should acquit myself. My friend offered some earnest advice. "I have told Lord B. you are a capital shot, so do keep cool, and remember that the birds fly much faster than when you are shooting over dogs or walking, and, therefore, the allowance must be greater. In the first drive you will probably find yourself placed about twenty yards from a high hedge. Stay where you are placed, and watch the top of the hedge, and try to shoot the birds as they appear in sight over it. There are a good many red-legs on the estate, so you may expect plenty of single shots. If you should be near Colonel A. watch him, for he is one of the finest shots in England, both for style and results." It was with a decided feeling of nervousness that I found myself, as my friend had said, stationed about twenty yards or more behind a high and rather thick hedge. "You will get some really sporting shots here," said Colonel A. as he went on to his own station, which I saw was near to mine. As it happened he got the first birds. I saw his gun go up—quickly but without flurry—and he fired as it were all in one motion. Two birds were topping the hedge, and a brace of dead partridges dropped, killed neatly and instantaneously. Almost immediately afterwards I got my chance at a single bird. My performance was not so neat, for the bird went on, towered, and fell behind us. I need not go into a long history of the day's performance, suffice it to say I came away thoroughly delighted with partridge driving. The number, variety and sporting character of the shots, made it a most exciting day, and when at the close the slain totalled up to 123 brace, I felt that we had had a really fine shoot. It was not that I took actual pleasure in the numbers killed, but I had never before seen so many birds which afforded such sporting shots. I have been almost inclined since that experience to put partridge driving, for actual skill displayed, at the head of shooting.

As an illustration of shooting partridges by walking up, I may give an account of a day's shooting over some of Mrs. Robinson's best ground. Our party consisted of our hostess, Lord B. and his son, the rector of the parish and myself. To each of us was assigned a man and a dog, and in the dogs I took the greatest interest, as they had been bred and broken by my father and myself. But of these more anon. They were three good dogs, and one super-excellent one, named Dinah, a black retriever. There was also a brace of pointers, to save time on the turnips. Mrs. Robinson adopted the formation of beaters and guns recommended by Mr. Stuart Wortley in his delightful volume on the Partridge—which every shooter should read and re-read—that is, of a semicircle, with a gun in the centre and one on each flank. This is undoubtedly the best plan, for more, and I think better, shots are obtained than by walking in a straight line. In root crops we left the beaters, and let loose the pointers, which is a saving of time, and is far the most effectual. Two guns went with each dog and took the points in turn. The root crops finished, the pointers were called up and the beat resumed. Then we used to walk up the partridges on the various beats. The estate was well preserved, the keeper being both popular and efficient.