224 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



tenth shot one got hit in the kidneys with a ball in- 

 tended for the shoulder, and about the seventeenth 

 shot a ball intended for the nearest of the two remain- 

 ing ones hit the other one standing a few steps beyond. 

 After the last cartridge was gone the last one still 

 stood looking, and stayed until I moved several steps 

 toward him with the empty rifle. During nearly all 

 this time I stood in plain sight, making plenty of 

 motion with loading and firing, and after shooting a 

 few times I had to move a few steps to a stone to sit 

 down upon. Yet all the while the deer seemed deter- 

 mined to know what sort of a noise that was, though 

 they saw me plainly. 



All such cases are, however, rare exceptions, and 

 generally happen only with deer that have seldom or 

 never seen a man or heard a gun. There is but one 

 sound principle to be drawn from them. And that is 

 this: whenever you see a deer moving, whether merely 

 traveling, or alarmed either by you or some one else, 

 get ahead of him and above him if you can do so. 



For this reason it is often advisable to open fire at 

 once upon a running deer, where you have a rifle that 

 can be rapidly loaded. But if you have a single-load- 

 ing gun or muzzle-loader, and are not a good shot at 

 running game, the chances of the deer stopping any- 

 how may be greater than your chances of hitting 

 him; and in case he does stop he is almost certain to 

 stop just long enough to let you load and raise the 

 rifle about half Way to a level and then he is canter- 

 ing gayly away. A deer running up hill is very apt to 

 stop once or twice to look back, and even when very 

 wild he is apt to stop at the top of the hill for an 

 instant. Hence it may be best to reserve your fire 

 unless you have a repeater or double breech-loader. 



