142

OCTOBER 15, [1887?]
LAND AND WATER.

MISS OAKLEY'S PIGEON SHOOTING.

SIR,-In reply to your editorial note contained in your issue of the 8th inst., respecting the match for this lady to kill thirty-five birds out of fifty of the very best blue rock pigeons at 25 yards rise, shooting with the 20-bore breech-loading hammerless gun, with 2 1/2drs. of powder and 3/4oz. of shot, you suggest "there is a certain amount of cruelty in shooting pigeons at the distance of 25 yards with so light a gun and charge. It is a fine performance from a gunnery point of view, doubtless, but it involves the principle of shooting at birds which rise at too great a distance to be killed every time, even with the most perfect aim. At 15 or 20 yards rise, Miss Oakley would only have missed when she did not hold straight. At 25 yards the case is different. No such charge is powerful enough to kill with certainty at such a distance."

I certainly fail to see where the element of cruelty can suggest itself to you, inasmuch as her score of forty-one kills out of fifty birds shot at, clearly demonstrates to my mind the splendid killing powers of these guns and the loads used therefrom, and I have pleasure in saying it was the general remark of those present at the match, how very few birds moved on being shot, they having been killed so clean ; whereby the dog had no trouble in retrieving the birds, picking them up where they fell.

The distance of 25 yards was fixed as being a fair handicap, assuming that this lady had been shooting against a competitor using a gun with 4drs. of powder and 1 1/4 oz. shot with a 12-bore pigeon gun, standing at 29 or 30 yards ; and, from my experience in the witnessing of pigeon matches, I do not think there are many gentlemen who face the traps who could beat this lady's score, or even equal it.

To enable you to witness that what I write is correct, I have the pleasure to invite you to be present at my private shooting ground on Tuesday morning, the 11th, at 8 30 a.m., when Miss Annie Oakley has made an appointment for the purpose of practising with these 20-bore guns under precisely the same conditions as before, when I hope we may be able to prove to you that there is no more cruelty than where the killing of live birds by shooting them takes place daily in all parts of the world. CHARLES LANCASTER.

151, New Bond-street, W.

[This event was courteously put off until Wednesday morning to suit our engagements. At 10 30 we arrived at Mr. Lancaster's ground, Miss Oakley being already on the spot and ready to commence operations against as good a sample of blue rocks as Lincolnshire can produce. We may say at once that Mr. Charles Lancaster has built Miss Oakley a pair of guns out of which as fine as possible shooting can be obtained as with anything of equal weight and giving as little recoil. This latter item has been the [?] with which Mr. Lancaster has had to contend in [building?] guns for a girl of eight stones weight. To say that Miss Oakley can use these weapons is merely to repeat what has been said a hundred times ; she is an extremely beautiful shot, and does extreme justice to her guns, which are decidedly suitable to her figure and weight. Having said so much, we have only to explain our remarks of last week by an appeal to the admitted fairness of the handicap principle, and our observations of the shooting confirm our opinion that 25 yards is not the equivalent distance which places these guns on a fair footing with 12-bores carrying 1 1/4 ozs. of shot and any amount of powder which can be got into a 3-inch case. Who would for a moment believe that the gigantic frames of Captain Bogardus or Dr. Carver behind 5drs. of powder and 1 1/4 ozs. of shot have no greater command than 6 yards above 2 1/2drs. of powder and 3/4oz. of shot ?