TO MANAGE A DEER WHEN HIT. 261 



very best shots I have ever seen, men whom I believe 

 it almost impossible to excel; and when we come to 

 analyze shooting I will try to prove them from indis- 

 putable principles: 



ist. To hit a running deer in any part of the body at 

 any distance is a first-class shot. 



2d. To hit at a hundred and fifty yards anywhere 

 within ten inches of the center of the shoulder of a 

 standing deer or antelope, or strike the body any- 

 where at two hundred yards, is a first-class shot. 



3d. To hit a deer at all at a hundred yards when 

 you can see only part of it in brush or among trees 

 is a first-class shot. 



4th. To hit one in the vitals at only sixty yards 

 when it shows only a small spot of dull color in dark 

 heavy timber is a first-class shot. 



It being now impossible to hit the majority of deer 

 or antelope where you wish, let us consider the effect 

 of bullets upon different parts of the body, and the 

 vitality of the animals after being .struck. I speak 

 now only of the ball in common use, a solid ball of 

 about forty-five hundredths of an inch in diameter, 

 quite long and generally hardened with tin. 



A shot in the head or spinal column will drop a 

 deer in his tracks. A shot through the kidneys or in 

 the rectum will nearly always do the same. A shot 

 anywhere in a circle of six inches around the point of 

 the shoulder will often drop a deer at once, but is 

 much more likely to let him run from fifty to two hun- 

 dred yards, and sometimes half a mile or more. Shot 

 above the center of the shoulders or in the brisket only 

 a deer may run for miles. Shot anywhere between 

 five inches back of the shoulder and the hams a deer 

 may run all day if kept going. Shot in the haunch 



