318 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



shoot even that far if there is a fair prospect of shorten- 

 ing the distance. I fully believe I have gotten more 

 deer by it. I certainly know that there have been fewer 

 broken-legged cripples. For deer and antelope on 

 the plains fifty yards might be added to this distance, 

 for elk another fifty yards, and for buffalo another 

 fifty. Beyond this point you had better make it a 

 rule to get closer. 



All this is of course on the assumption that the 

 game does not see you. If it sees you, longer shots 

 must often be taken. But I have seen deer so tame 

 that your chances of running or even walking sixty or 

 seventy-five yards closer were much greater than the 

 chance of hitting at two hundred yards. And this, 

 too, when they were looking directly at one. But 

 where the game is not alarmed it is a safer rule to 

 treat the best long-range gun as if it were a short- 

 range muzzle-loader, and turn every point to make a 

 sure shot. 



I know that some will disagree with this. I know 

 all the stories about how So-and-so killed an antelope 

 at eight hundred yards, and how What's-his-name hit 

 a goose at half a mile, and how the other man hit a 

 deer in the heart running at five hundred yards, etc. 

 etc. etc., ad infinitum. I know, too, how it all is done. 

 Nearly every one who has played much with a long- 

 range rifle has made remarkable shots at long dis- 

 tances. I have made my full share of them. So long 

 as these are classed where they belong, as accidental 

 shots, it is well enough to tell of them. But when any 

 one attempts to draw conclusions from them, then, in 

 the name of philosophy, I protest. Until one can 

 make them at least once in ten trials at unmeasured 



