vbl. sb. [f. FLIGHT sb.1 + SHOOTING vbl. sb.]
1. Archery. Distance-shooting with flight-arrows.
1801. T. Roberts, Eng. Bowman, x. 237. Flight-shooting takes its appellation from the flight, or light arrows used in this game: which is shot without regard to mark, or fixed distance. The lightest arrows that will stand in the bow, are made use of; and, the greatest possible distance is the only object.
1875. Sharpe, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), II. 377/2. ‘Flight’ and ‘clout’ shooting has ceased, and ‘roving’ is now practised only in Britain by the two clubs previously mentioned.
2. Shooting wildfowl as they fly over.
1840. Blaine, Encycl. Rural Sports, VII. iv. § 2750. Flight-shooting.
1859. Folkard, Wild-Fowler, liii. 276. The term ‘flight-shooting’ signifies shooting wild-fowl at evening twilight as they fly overland from the sea [etc.].
attrib. 1859. Folkard, Wild-Fowler, liii. 279. It is always best to avoid going among a number of guns, or with a party, on a flight-shooting excursion: the man who goes by himself brings home most birds.
So Flight-shooter.
1859. Folkard, Wild-Fowler, liii. 276. The flight-shooter waits in ambush behind an embankment.
