SPOTTED DEER 



the best for a fairly heavy rifle such as a .450, and often 

 results in dropping your game in its tracks, but may result 

 in only one broken leg or shoulder, with which an unfor- 

 tunate animal can, and often does, get clean away. There 

 are, of course, lots of other places your bullet may luckily 

 find, such as the heart, spine, kidneys, &c., all immediately 

 fatal, but the above-mentioned shots offer big marks not 

 so easily missed. The lung shot also almost invariably 

 leaves a blood track, and one there is no possibility of 

 mistaking, owing to the bright scarlet colour and frothi- 

 ness. 



If following on a slight blood trail of dull-coloured 

 blood, you may early make up your mind that you will 

 never get your deer unless a limb is actually known to 

 be broken or a bad body-wound suspected, in which case 

 a^ very careful advance along the track, and frequent 

 crouchings to scan the forest ahead of you under the 

 undergrowth, may enable you to find your animal lying 

 down and get in a finishing shot. This tracking will 

 best be left to your native, you following some five or ten 

 yards behind, as he will see the animal before you can 

 and is well used to that little game. 



In the case of knifing a deer to put it out of its misery, 

 take care of its horns and sharp hoofs or you may be hurt. 

 My plan is to pull the buck over on its left side, putting 

 my left foot on the lower antler, pressing it to the ground 

 and holding the upper one in my left hand, from behind 

 the animal's back of course, and then leaning over and 

 knifing through the heart in the white between and behind 

 the forelegs. In this way you escape the frantic kicks of 

 the legs, whilst the head properly held cannot be moved, 

 and, more important, you do not spoil the skin. If you 

 leave the knifing to a native, he will either saw its throat 



209 o 



