THE RED DEER 
After a while there is a pause, and the rifle is drawn from the cover. 
It is now that the stalker should show what he is made of, and not tremble 
or hesitate; for such signs of indecision are sure to have a bad effect on 
the beginner. Some of the oldest and most experienced stalkers, men 
who know all sides of the game thoroughly well, are fearful muddlers 
when they get within shot of a stag. A good stalker quietly hands the 
rifle to the shooter and says something of this sort; “ Don’t put your head 
up, but crawl to the side of that rock, and lean against it, as you look round. 
You will see the stag about eighty yards off. If the deer do not see you, 
take plenty of time, to get a good broadside shot. Mind and cock your 
rifle.” 
Of course many different things may happen when the tyro has once 
looked round that rock; and only experience can teach him what to do 
to make a successful shot; but we must presume that a youth has had 
some practice with the rifle, before he goes to the hill at all, and so he 
ought to be prepared to take the stag in some vulnerable part, even if it 
is not standing exactly broadside, or not even quite still. I have always 
thought that far too much is made of the difficulty of shooting moving deer, 
and quite agree with the late Lochiel, who said that it is a much harder thing 
to hit from a cramped position a deer lying down in an uncertain light, 
than to kill a trotting or a galloping stag going broadside on. If the 
beginner will only practise with his Mannlicher or *280, or whatever rifle 
he has chosen, at rabbits in an open warren, at rooks in a field, or shoot 
a few gulls sitting on the sea, he will begin to know his weapon far better 
than by blazing off endless rounds at bottles or targets. Of course, in a 
narrow English landscape it is not always safe to do this, but in Scotland 
there are nearly always wide stretches to be found, where it is possible 
to indulge in a little practice of this kind. Another point to remember, 
and one which the young shooter of wealth nowadays may miss, is, never 
in any circumstances to change your rifle; if you have once managed 
to shoot well and quickly with it — ^that is to say, a weapon which you can 
put to the shoulder and place a bullet within a square of a foot and a half, 
at 80 yards. 
A stag is often missed by a young shooter through jerking off the trigger 
instead of pressing it, and it is very necessary that the foresight should 
be held on to the spot which it is desired to hit, right on, and after the 
moment of explosion. This, of course, is not easy to do at first, but if a 
man can do it when firing at a rabbit, he can do it with a stag. Another 
137 
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