The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1903-04-03
THE GUNNER'S HARDEST MARK
A Kind Of WOodcock Shooting in the
South That. Puts His Skill
to the Test.

OF all forms of American shotgun
work probably the most difficult is
woodcock shooting on the rear edge
of a southern plantation near dark.
In this sport pretty nearly everything
is in favor of the bird and against the
gunner-light, speed, distance and un-
eXpectedness. 1t is sport pecul1ar
to the far south and practiced only py
those whose familiarity with the shot
gun gives them confidence in it, says
the New York Sun.
The woodcock is night-feeder,
spending his day in deep thickets ana
morasses, where it is hard to lind h1m
and harder to hit him after he Is
found. At about sunset, however, ne
bestirs himself and starts for the open
fields, cane-fields from which the
stalks have been cut, cottonfields bare
of everything except the small dark
brown stems, cornfields and pastures.
He wants only soft soil in which he
bores with his long bill for worms.
To get out of the swamp, which is
always heavily wooded with high trees,
he ascends some so to 100 feet above
the trees and then strikes long slant
for the open ground. He is flying al
ways at the top limit of his speed,
for although he has only mile or
so TO go he starts late and is in hurry,
fearing that some earlier bird will pre-
empt the best ground.
The gunners stand on the rear edge
of the field or pasture against which
the forest breaks. They go there be-
cause if they went farther out they
would get little or no shooting. Their
only chance is to take the woodcOcks
as they leave the forest and drop down
ward. In fact, many of the birds settle
not hundred yards from the woods,
finding as good ground near by as far
out
So, speeding, the woodcock flashes
by like dark meteor not bigger than
an orange. He appears suddenly be-
tween the gunner and the sky and the
next instant is out of sight. Every
bird killed thus is shot when going
from the marksman, because a man
could not hit the birds at all if he
faced the trees. The black. shadow
would interfere and the bird would
be overhead and gone before a trigger
could be pressed.
The birds as they pass are general
ly from 60 to rs feet in the air. darting
onward with terrific rapidity, and
when hit hard they will often fall a
good rs yards away. The woodcock
when flushed in the daytime among
and hD hoe iC swift bird
He depends for safety upon the pro-
lection afforded by branches and the
eccentricity of his flight.
In the late afternoon pasture shoot
ing the woodcock has all of his usual
eccentricity of flight and three times
his usual speed. The fact that he is
going down adds to the difficulty. tits
the shot which is afforded by quail
flushing from the top of high tree
and all sportsmen know how difficult
that is-with the difference that the
man knows the point from which the
quail will flush and there is a good
light.
There is but one way in which to
kill the woodcock seeking the fields in
the dusk, and that is to hold under
him with quick powder by a good yard.
Not only must the bird be seen above
the barrels, butt there must be three
feet of space between the muzzle and
his body.
On the rear edges of many southern
plantations at this time of year gun
ner may obtain 20 shots between sun
set and dark, and if he gets half dozen
birds he will have no cause to complain.
Many a fair marksman under these
conditions will expend from ten to
twenty-five shells and never touch
feather.