OF A RANCHMAN 69 



falo; but I have hardly ever known single 

 animals to be killed six hundred yards off, 

 even in antelope hunting, tne kind in which 

 most long-range shooting is done; and at 

 half that distance a very good shot, with all 

 the surroundings in his favor, is more apt 

 to miss than to hit. Of course old hunters 

 the most inveterate liars on the face of the 

 earth are all the time telling of their won- 

 derful shots at even longer distances, and 

 they do occasionally, when shooting very 

 often, make them, but their performances, 

 when actually tested, dwindle amazingly. 

 Others, amateurs, will brag of their rifles. 

 I lately read in a magazine about killing an- 

 telopes at eight hundred yards with a Win- 

 chester express, a weapon which cannot be 

 depended upon at over two hundred, and is 

 wholly inaccurate at over three hundred, 

 yards. 



The truth is that, in almost all cases the 

 hunter merely guesses at the distance, and, 

 often perfectly honestly, just about doubles 

 it in his ow-n mind. Once a man told me 



