46 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



best to risk startling it in the effort to get closer 

 rather than to risk missing it by a shot at long 

 range. At the same time, I am a great believer in 

 powder-burning, and if I can not get near, will gen- 

 erally try a shot anyhow, if there is a chance of the 

 rifle's carrying to it. In this way a man will now 

 and then, in the midst of many misses, make a very 

 good long shot, but he should not try to deceive 

 himself into the belief that these occasional long 

 shots are to be taken as samples of his ordinary 

 skill. Yet it is curious to see how a really truthful 

 man will forget his misses, and his hits at close 

 quarters, and, by dint of constant repetition, will 

 finally persuade himself that he is in the habit of 

 killing his game at three or four hundred yards. 

 Of course in different kinds of ground the aver- 

 age range for shooting varies. In the Bad Lands 

 most shots will be obtained much closer than on 

 the prairie, and in the timber they will be nearer 

 still. 



Old hunters who are hardy, persevering, and well 

 acquainted with the nature of the animals they pur- 

 sue, will often kill a great deal of game without 

 being particularly good marksmen ; besides, they are 

 careful to get up close, and are not flurried at all, 

 shooting as well at a deer as they do at a target. 

 They are, as a rule, fair shots that is, they shoot 

 a great deal better than Indians or soldiers, or than 

 the general run of Eastern amateur sportsmen; but 

 I have never been out with one who has not missed 

 a great deal, and the "Leather-stocking" class of 



