The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 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 UNI
expectedness. 1t is a sport peculiar
to the far south and practiced only by |
those whose familiarity with the shot
gun gives them confidence in it, says |
the New York Sun.
The woodcock is a night-fseder,
spendingshis day in deep thickets and
morasses, where it is hard to find him
and harder to hit him after he is
found. At about sunset, however, he
bestirs himself and starts for the open
helds, cane-fields from which the
stalks have been cut, cottontields bare
OF everything except the small dark
brown stems, cornfields and pastures.
He wants only a 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 a long slant
for the open ground. He is flying al
ways at the top limit of his speed,
for although he has only a mile or
so to go he starts late and is in a hurry,
tearing 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 nc shooting. Their
only chance is to take the woodcocks
as they leave the forest and dropdown-
ward. in fact, many Of the birds settle
not a hundred yards from the woods,
finding as good ground near by as far
out.
!. So, speeding, the woodcock flashes
( by like a dark meteor not bigger than
g an orange. He appears suddenly be-
tween the gunner and the sky and the
next instant is out of sight. Every
s bird killed thus is shot when going
from the marksman, because a man
could no hit the birds at all if he
y faced the trees. The black shadow
would interfere and the bird would
n be overhead and gone before a trigger
Y could be pressed.
The birds as they pass are general
r ~ from 60 to IS feet in the air, darting
$ onward with terrific rapidity, and
o when hit hard they will often fall a
e good IS yards away. The woodcock
when flushed in the daytime among
trees and bushes is not a swift bird.
He depends for safety upon the pro-
lection afforded by branches and the
. eccentricity of his fight.
In the late afternoon pasture shoot.
ing the woodcock has all of his usual
eccentricity of fight and three times
y his usual speed. The fact that he is
e. going down adds to the difficulty. tits
Sc the shot which is afforded by a quail
it flushing from the top of a high tree
.e and all sportsmen know how difficult
a that is-with the difference that the
t. man knows the point from. which the
1t quail will flush and there is a gooC
ID light.
h There is but one way in which tc
II kill the woodcock seeking the fields il
t. the dusk, and that is to hold under
lie him with quick powder by a good yard
e Not only must the bird be seer above
the barrels, but there must be three
feet of space between the muzzle ant
his body.
On the rear edges of many southern
plantations at this time Of year a gun
ner may obtain 20 shots between sun
set and dark, and if he gets a1half dozel
: birds he will have no cause to complain
Many a fair marksman under thes1
conditions will expend from ten t
twenty-five shells and never touch
feather.