Brown,

The phrase is a hold over from the days when clay pigeons were first coming into use. You either shot "live birds" or "inanimate targets", that's how the matches were advertised.

Quite a bit of that in pigeon shooting oddly enough. The rule about having to fire both barrels of your gun even if you kill your bird on the first shot is a hold over from muzzle loading days.

Destry

Out there at the crossroads molding the devil's bullets. - Tom Waits