BIG GAME SHOOTING 9 



and authoritative as possible. The remarkable stories 

 used to illustrate the methods of the chase are true 

 stories. It is gratifying to note that the attention of 

 sportsmen is now given to the rules of "fair chase"; 

 that many of the questionable methods of taking game 

 have been abandoned by sportsmen who have been 

 instrumental in the passage of laws prohibiting "fire 

 hunting," "hounding" and "crusting," or the night 

 shooting with shot-guns by the aid of torches or 

 lamps, the driving of deer to runways or to the water, 

 where the guide often held the animal by the tail while 

 the sportsman (?) despatched it with a shot-gun, and the 

 pursuit of moose on the crust of deep snows, when the 

 animal, breaking through the crust at every step, was 

 easily overtaken and slain with a club or knife. 



The weapon for big game is the repeating-rifle. 

 The shot-gun is the weapon for game birds. I am 

 aware that the gun is still used in the South and some 

 other places to shoot deer and the smaller bear, but 

 the riffe should be the only weapon used for big 

 game. The heavy gun loaded with buckshot will do 

 the work at short range; there may possibly be some 

 excuse for its use when the game is hunted on horse- 

 back and shot running — but all of the animals are 

 such large marks that anyone should be able to hit 

 them with a rifle when within the range of the gun. 



As to the kind of a rifle— there are many good ones. 

 1 have seen more of the Winchester than of the others. 

 I have killed many of the big-game animals with the 

 ordinary single-shot Springfield rifle and carbines, 

 such as were used by the infantry and cavalry when I 

 went to shoot in the West. 



