Show SHORE SHOOTING Good Cheap Sport For Ambitious Owners of n Gnn The Methods of the Shore Shooter and the Contents Con-tents of His Bus Differ With the Various Localities BY DIANA CROSSWAYS With the approach of autumn every youth who handles a rifle begins to dream golden dreams to which flocks of birds or ducks are the most entrancing entranc-ing features Wild duck or shore shooting as our Engtisfo friends call i is delightful II sport although derided by acme o the In I more fastidious class of sportsmen return it may be stated that i is the only reasonably cheap form cE shooting shoot-ing left t those of limited means Quit 0 Long island or dow on Toms river New Jersey are ideal preserves pre-serves for those living in or near New York and each locality doubtless ha its own grounds where shore shooting may be carried on with success The methods of the shore shooter a well as the contents of his bag differ with the locality On long wide sandy shores unrelieved by rocks or anything I that may sarve a cove his success is usually small unless he goes out between be-tween the lights and on the approach of rough weatiher I may be laid down a a general rule in this kind of sport above all others that the shooter must j I rely almost entirely on his own knowledge knowl-edge of his birds and their habits and his own skill and ingenuity in outwit them coasts offer more I ting the Rocky ofe me opportunities and pleasant surprises I i but the shoocers paradise i a muddy i estuary I Hither come all sorts of wild fowl and if the locality b not too niuch shot over will afford good sport The duck shooter like the poet is booi nci l made and indeed no amount of instruction from manuals on shooting nor the possession pos-session of a whole battery of deadly weapons will ever make anyone an expert weapns wi eve mae aon a pert pertA few hints on the subject of shore shooting may be of use to the novice ghootg mw b nO who starts out for the first tie this year and as they are on the authority o an expert ought t be of use In the first place the shore shooter should start betisms if he wishes for anything like a good bag for he must not expect the birds will await his corning corn-ing He must get there before they do He will first survey the ground and choose a suitable spot fo his ambusd l there is a ditch well protected with bushes he will have little difficulty I The enclosing banks of reclaimed lands offer good positions but they are mostly bare and unsheltered and in such ba ad unshelere in case the shooter must construct a screen of sods and stones sea weed or oilier available material carafuf never avalable being Cr1f nee to use anything foreign t the locality fee the prey or quarry you seek is a knowinz chao A good sportsman but unused to this kind of shooting who found hImself hIm-self in the neighborhood of a embankment bankment outside which was a famous placefor wild fowl erected an elaborate elabor-ate screen of laurel and cither evergreens ever-greens He tried It every day patiently geens fo week without success when he gave it up in disgust vowing there wasnt 3 duck in the place Yet a night or two after his screen had been torn dowim and C feW rough stones built up in its place < well filled bag I rewarded his successor There may frequently b found in these muddy estuaries small islets mere patches of turf never quite covered except at high tides These form1 admirable stations for the local I I i 7 n 1 w fowler or one whO contemplates 3 > prolonged stay in the neighborhood The shooter who wishes to avail himself of one of these makes his preparations long before the wild fowl put in an appearance and s guards himself against disappointment agnst uppinteIt The first thing is to provide a fairly solid foundation 0 as to b out of the reach of high tidies Over that some long wattles must be arranged to form a root which can be thatched with reeds or rushes or the long grass that abounds in such a spat Loopholes will of course be made and a small f I opening just large enough to creep through left on the landward side The hut will take the color of the surrounding islet In some kinds of shore shooting a skeat may be necessary A skeat which is quite English you know i simply a mud boat about two and one J half feet long by eighteen inches wide I having a slightly curved floor The front is perfectly straight and about six inches high the sides tapering off t vanishing point a the stern which is open In this the fowler crouches a best h can with one le tucked under him the other extended aft as the sailors say is used as a propeller I peller and a good shove will carry the I j occupant a considerable distance By this means if tolerably menS tolebly expert a I O shot cam frequently be obtained but the sportsman must be wary or his strange craft may run away with him I mud and land at the hdm bottom head foremost into the |