1 96 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



latter often beyond your control), anxiety and various 

 influences arising from physical exertion or discomfort. 

 Therefore, school yourself to shooting well in other than 

 selected postures. Judging distance is of less vital importance 

 in these days of flat trajectories, but you should satisfy 

 yourself as to the so-called point blank range of your rifle. 

 Ascertain by experiment, e.g., with the 200yds. sight up, 

 how high at 100yds. and how low at 300yds. the bullet 

 strikes. Beyond the latter distance never fire at deer. 

 Before leaving the subject of shooting at a mark let me 

 warn you against trusting in bullseye accuracy. There 

 are no bullseyes painted on deer. If there were, there would 

 be practically no misses or miss-hits, and very soon no 

 deer. Imagining the bullseye, or spot you wish the bullet 

 to strike, is half the battle. Put up a box, say, 3ft. by 

 2ft., and imagine the exact " heart. " You will thus be 

 less at sea when the sights are aligned on a live beast. Hinds 

 are usually recommended as the next step. A miss here 

 does not spell calamity. You may get several chances in 

 a day. The light, too, is generally bad in the hind season : 

 even if there is snow on the ground the hind presents an 

 appearance so homogeneous as to emphasise the necessity 

 of imagining the desired spot. But, except in cases where 

 wholesale reduction is necessary or where the stock of hinds 

 is sufficient to warrant the policy of killing " milk ' y hinds 

 and their calves, the selection will be beyond your judgment 

 till you have had considerable experience ; and the best 

 hinds, i.e., those which have lost or slipped their calves, 

 are always the most difficult of approach. Roe make the 

 best practice of all ; killed at the only season when they are 

 much in evidence, i.e., just before or during the rut which 

 takes place early in August, according to locality. For a 

 week or two previous to and during this mating season — 

 a short one — the bucks show in the more open parts 

 of the wood, and can often be seen nosing after the does. 

 Their stalking is necessarily a rapid business, so restless 

 are they from sexual causes and so apt to be driven by the 

 flies into dark and cool cover. Your Mauser or other rifle 

 will spoil the meat considerably, but the roe does not reach 

 his best from a culinary point of view till late autumn, when 



