R EC RE A TION. 



207 



when, in a region almost devoid of grass, 

 he suddenly saw the tips of a buck's 

 horns over the top of a little hill he was 

 climbing. The buck had evidently 

 stopped for an instant, probably alarmed 

 by the noise of the hunter's approach. 

 To move was to lose the shot, and, aiming 

 at once point blank at the space between 

 the horns, the hunter fired. The ball, 

 after passing the crest of the ridge, 

 fell sufficiently to strike the head and kill 

 the game. It often happens that one can 

 see a portion of an animal in grass or 

 timber, and deduce from its appearance 

 where a more vulnerable part lies, so as 

 to shoot through the grass or leaves and 

 make a fatal shot. I once finished a 

 wounded buck that I had followed a 

 long way, and always with the result of 

 alarming him so that he got up and went 

 off before I could get a fair chance at 

 him, by shooting underneath and to the 

 left of his horns as he lay in the tall 

 grass, judging by his position that the 

 shot should strike his shoulders. It was 

 effective enough to prevent his arising 

 from his position. 



I have often killed a rabbit with the 

 shotgun, running in brush or grass — and 

 it is a common practice with other shoot- 

 ers — by shooting at the place where the 

 rabbit should be as judged by his speed 

 and direction when visible, at a time when 

 he was entirely hidden from view. It is 

 only fair to add that I have missed more 

 than I ever killed by such scratch shootin g. 



If one sees only a part of an animal in 

 the woods, and is uncertain what part it 

 is, he should wait until more certain of 

 the situation and character of the game, 

 before shooting. Most of the lament- 

 able accidents here in the West, and 

 doubtless in other regions, in which a 

 hunter wearing a buckskin suit is killed 

 by mistake for a deer, have occurred be- 

 cause the shooter fired before he was 

 certain what he was firing at.* 1 have 



* On the very day on which I wrote this article, 

 the following telegram appeared in the Denver 

 Republican, and is so apropos that I insert it : 



New York, Nov. 13. — Many sportsmen took 

 advantage of the second day of the short hunting 

 season about Ronkonkoma and Central Tslip, L.l. 

 It is estimated that twenty deer have been brought 

 down. Several accidents were also reported, 

 the most serious being the shooting of George 

 Smith, of Islip, who was perhaps fatally injured by 

 Richard Raynor. of Manor. Smith was creeping 

 through the underbrush, gun in hand, when Ray- 

 nor, mistaking him for a deer, fired, sending a 

 load of buckshot into Smith's bodv. 



known indirectly of several such acci- 

 dents, and the curious part of the whole 

 matter is that the least harmful shot made 

 under such circumstances, so far as I 

 have known, necessitated the amputation 

 of an arm. All the others have been 

 fatal. If one follows his game and sees 

 it stop, in such a position as to be almost 

 hidden by foliage, I should think it best 

 to prepare to shoot at the exposed por- 

 tion, and then wait, ready to fire instantly, 

 hoping that the animal would move and 

 give an opportunity for a better shot. In 

 such a case, one would have to follow 

 the advice of an old frontier friend of 

 mine, who, when pressed by a tenderfoot 

 to tell where he aimed when shooting 

 buffalo, said, "I always shoot right at 

 the buffalo." 



If I saw only the forelegs, or the hind 

 legs, of an elk, for example, in the tim- 

 ber, and under such circumstances as to 

 make it reasonably certain that I could 

 break both of them, I think I should try 

 to do it if it were impossible to get a 

 better shot, and trust to getting another 

 shot before the animal could get away ; 

 for the game would almost certainly 

 come down from such a shot. If sure 

 that no large saplings intervened, how- 

 ever, and especially if the range were 

 short, I should prefer to shoot at the 

 place where I judged the shoulders 

 to be. Yet there is much danger that a 

 tree or limb will deflect the ball, and 

 thus prevent an effective shot. It would 

 be much safer to shoot directly through 

 a six-inch pine tree, with a heavy rifle, 

 if the game were directly behind it, than 

 to risk deflection of the ball by a much 

 smaller tree at a considerable distance 

 this side of the game. 



With the rifle mentioned above, I have 

 fired a bullet through a 12-inch moun- 

 tain spruce tree, so that one of much less 

 diameter would prohably not prevent 

 the ball from killing a deer. One should 

 not use an explosive ball, nor one with 

 a hollow point, if firing in timber, for 

 either would be deformed if it struck a 

 limb of any size, and might cause one 

 to miss his game. 



When a deer stands behind a hill, 

 showing only his back, one would be 

 safest in attempting to strike his spine, 

 and especially that portion near the 

 shoulder. I have known the bullet taken 

 from an antelope killed in such a way to 

 show pieces of gravel imbedded in the 



