56 The Wilderness Hunter 



necessary to be a good and quick marksman ; for it 

 is never easy to kill an animal, when in rapid mo 

 tion, with a single bullet. If on a runway a man 

 who is a fairly skilful rifleman has plenty of time 

 for a clear shot, on open ground, at comparatively 

 short distance, say under eighty yards, and if the 

 deer is cantering, he ought to hit; at least I gen 

 erally do under such circumstances, by remember 

 ing to hold well forward, in fact just in front of the 

 deer s chest. But I do not always kill by any means ; 

 quite often when I thought I held far enough ahead, 

 my bullet has gone into the buck s hips or loins. 

 However, one great feature in the use of dogs is that 

 they enable one almost always to recover wounded 

 game. 



If the animal is running at full speed a long dis 

 tance off, the difficulty of hitting is of course very 

 much increased ; and if the country is open the value 

 of a repeating rifle is then felt. If the game is bound 

 ing over logs or dodging through underbrush, the 

 difficulty is again increased. Moreover, the natural 

 gait of the different kinds of game must be taken 

 into account. Of course the larger kinds, such as 

 elk and moose, are the easiest to hit ; then comes the 

 antelope, in spite of its swiftness, and the sheep, 

 because of the evenness of their running; then the 

 whitetail, with its rolling gallop ; and last and hard 

 est of all, the blacktail, because of its extraordinary 

 stiff-legged bounds. 



