340 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



Here is, I think, the whole ground of disagreement 

 about these bullets: A thing once highly praised is 

 soon fancied good for everything. Found not good 

 for everything, the natural conclusion often is that it 

 is good for nothing. 



I very soon found that the killing power of such 

 balls upon an animal struck in or very near the 

 right place was immensely greater than that of solid 

 balls, that they were but a trifle better upon "paunch- 

 shots" and not as good upon " haunch" and "stern 

 shots" as the same ball solid. I lost deer struck 

 in both places, and even a half-grown fawn I fol- 

 lowed for over two miles, though a ball had exploded 

 exactly in the center of its body. As one may shoot 

 twenty successive deer with a .35-caliber solid ball and 

 drop them all inside of a hundred yards, so one may 

 shoot as many with one of these balls and see most all 

 of them wilt like wet rags almost in their tracks. 

 From such data the reflective hunter reasons not. He 

 well knows that two hundred shots might tell a very 

 different tale, and that, year in and year out, pene- 

 tration is just as essential as striking surface. 



The ball made with a small tapering hole will not 

 produce such instantaneous death upon striking the 

 vitals as does the ball that flies to pieces. But as it 

 nearly doubles its diameter, its effect is about four 

 times what it would otherwise be. And this is quick 

 enough upon all the vitals of ordinary animals. Such 

 a ball can also be given all the penetration that is 

 necessary for ordinary animals. For unusually large 

 animals they must be vastly superior to the more 

 hollow ones. 



Making a ball expansive does not, however, com- 

 pletely compensate for smallness of caliber. For 



