36 Ranching in the Bad Lands. 



To be remarkably successful in killing game a man 

 must be a good shot ; but a good target shot may be a 

 very poor hunter, and a fairly successful hunter may be 

 only a moderate shot. Shooting well with the rifle is the 

 highest kind of skill, for the rifle is the queen of weapons ; 

 and it is a difficult art to learn. But many other qualities 

 go to make up the first-class hunter. He must be perse- 

 vering, watchful, hardy, and with good judgment ; and a 

 little dash and energy at the proper time often help him 

 immensely. I myself am not, and never will be, more 

 than an ordinary shot ; for my eyes are bad and my hand 

 not over-steady ; yet I have killed every kind of game to 

 be found on the plains, partly because I have hunted very 

 perseveringly, and partly because by practice I have 

 learned to shoot about as well at a wild animal as at a 

 target. I have killed rather more game than most of 

 the ranchmen who are my neighbors, though at least 

 half of them are better shots than I am. 



Time and again I have seen a man who had, as he 

 deemed, practised sufficiently at a target, come out "to 

 kill a deer," hot with enthusiasm ; and nine out of ten 

 times he has gone back unsuccessful, even when deer were 

 quite plenty. Usually he has been told by the friend who 

 advised him to take the trip, or by the guide who inveigled 

 him into it, that " the deer were so plenty you saw them all 

 round you," and, this not proving quite true, he lacks per- 

 severance to keep on ; or else he fails to see the deer at 

 the right time ; or else if he does see it he misses it, mak- 

 ing the discovery that to shoot at a gray object, not over- 

 distinctly seen, at a distance merely guessed at, and with a 



