The Black-Tail Deer. J 55 



at my companion, but too conscious of his smothered dis- 

 favor ; after riding a few hundred yards, he said with 

 forced politeness and a vague desire to offer some cheap 

 consolation, that he supposed I had done my best ; to 

 which I responded with asperity that I 'd be damned if I 

 had; and we finished our journey homeward in silence. 

 A man is likely to overshoot at any distance ; but at from 

 twenty-five to seventy-five yards he is certain to do so if 

 he is at all careless. 



Moreover, besides not missing, a man must learn to hit 

 his deer in the right place ; the first two or three times he 

 shoots he will probably see the whole deer in the rifle 

 sights, instead of just the particular spot he wishes to 

 strike ; that is, he will aim in a general way at the deer's 

 whole body which will probably result in a wound not 

 disabling the animal in the least for the time, although 

 ensuring its finally dying a lingering and painful death. 

 The most instantaneously fatal places are the brain and 

 any part of the spinal column ; but these offer such small 

 marks that it is usually only by accident they are hit. 

 The mark at any part of which one can fire with safety is 

 a patch about eight inches or a foot square, including the 

 shoulder-blades, lungs, and heart. A kidney-shot is very 

 fatal ; but a black-tail will go all day with a bullet through 

 its entrails, and in cold weather I have known one to run 

 several miles with a portion of its entrails sticking out of a 

 wound and frozen solid. To break both shoulders by a 

 shot as the deer stands sideways to the hunter, brings the 

 buck down in its tracks ; but perhaps the best place at 

 which to aim is the point in the body right behind the 



