When lying down.--Loading.--Put in the powder as you best can, and ram
the bullet home, lying flat on your back, with the barrel of the gun
athwart your breast. It is easy to load in this way with cartridges.
On Horseback.--Loading.--Empty the charge of powder from the flask into
the left hand, and pour it down the gun; then take a bullet, wet out of
your mouth, and drop it into the barrel, using no ramrod; the wet will
cake the bullet pretty firmly in its right place.
Firing.--"In firing, do not bring the gun to your shoulder; but present
it across the pommel of the saddle, calculating the angle with your eye,
and steadying yourself momentarily by standing in the stirrups, as you
take aim." (Palliser.) In each bound of the horse, the moment when his
fore legs strike the ground is one of comparative steadiness, and is
therefore the proper instant for pulling the trigger.
On Water.--Boat-shooting.--A landing-net should be taken in the boat,
as Colonel Hawker well advises, to pick up the dead birds as they float
on the water, while the boat passes quickly by them.
Shooting over Water.--When shooting from a river-bank without boat or
dog, take a long light string with a stick tied to one end of it, the
other being held in the hand: by throwing The stick beyond the floating
bird, it can gradually be drawn in. The stick should be 1 1/2 or 2 feet
long, 2 inches in diameter, and notched at either end, and attached to
the hand-line by a couple of strings, each 6 feet long, tied round either
notch.
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