Ranching in the Bad Lands 47 



shooting stories are generally untrue, at least to the 

 extent of suppressing part of the truth that is, the 

 number of misses. Beyond question our Western 

 hunters are, as a body, to the full as good marksmen 

 as, and probably much better than, any other body 

 of men in the world, not even excepting the Dutch 

 Boers or Tyrolese Jagers, and a certain number of 

 them who shoot a great deal at game, and are able 

 to squander cartridges very freely, undoubtedly be- 

 come crack shots, and perform really wonderful 

 feats. 



As an instance there is old "Vic," a former 

 scout and Indian fighter, and concededly the best 

 hunter on the Little Missouri; probably there are 

 not a dozen men in the West who are better shots or 

 hunters than he is, and I have seen him do most 

 skilful work. He can run the muzzle of his rifle 

 through a board so as to hide the sights, and yet do 

 quite good shooting at some little distance; he will 

 cut the head off a chicken at eighty or ninety yards, 

 shoot a deer running through brush at that distance, 

 kill grouse on the wing early in the season, and 

 knock over antelopes when they are so far off that 

 I should not dream of shooting. He firmly believes, 

 and so do most men that speak of him, that he never 

 misses. Yet I have known him make miss after 

 miss at game, and some that were not such especially 

 difficult shots either. One secret of his success is 

 his constant practice. He is firing all the time, at 

 marks, small birds, etc., and will average from fifty 

 to a hundred cartridges a day; he certainly uses 



