HOW TO GET IT. 115 



gun is not nearly so effective as a bow and arrow in the 

 hands of an Indian. Against deer in thickets where the 

 hunter often finds himself within a few paces and with 

 only the most momentary glimpse of the game, a shot- 

 gun may be very effective, though, to be successful in his 

 bag, the hunter must always have a well-trained dog. 



I have frequently killed deer' with a shot-gun, which 

 I could not possibly have bagged with a rifle. A captain 

 of cavalry, almost in my presence, bagged a buffalo- bull 

 of eighteen months old with a single charge of No. 4 

 shot ; and there is a well-authenticated story of an old 

 hunter in the ' nine-mile bottom ' of the Purgatory Eiver 

 bagging seven antelope and a fine dog, with one discharge 

 of a huge weapon which he called a shot-gun. 



These are all exceptional cases. Under ordinary 

 circumstances the rifle is the weapon for plains shooting ; 

 and if the choice of the hunter is limited to one arm he 

 should take the rifle, if he knows how to use it. 



It is a very singular fact that even the best rifle shot 

 varies very greatly in his shooting at different marks. One 

 of the very best target marksmen I ever knew could not 

 hit a living animal at fifty yards, and some of the most 

 successful hunters are very poor shots at a target. I know 

 a good hunter who has killed . an immense quantity of 

 nearly all kinds of large game, who cannot bag a black- 

 tail deer though he has been shooting at them for years. 

 I rarely miss a decent shot at a deer or an antelope, yet I 

 find it almost impossible to hit a wolf or a hawk ; and 

 though I have, I am sure, fired at least 500 shots 

 at wolves, I have killed with the rifle less than twenty in 

 all my life. It is impossible to account for this ; but 

 almost every good hunter with whom I have compared 

 notes on this subject, confirms my own experience. How- 

 ever skilful and successful each may be, there is yet some- 

 thing at which he shoots, with no confidence in his ability 

 to hit. 



Dead game should be butchered at once ; all large 



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