THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
throbbing heart, and hands that would fail to hold the sights of the 
rifle on a haystack at a distance of fifty yards. 
“ And such quick shots are of frequent occurrence, for when one 
has once reached ground frequented by chamois, any sudden turn, 
or the topping of ever so slight a ridge, may display a solitary old 
buck taking his morning ramble ere he seeks his shady couch during 
the hot hours of the day. Then comes the moment of supreme agita- 
tion, when the keeper, now also trembling with excitement (for he has 
seen at the first glance that it is the buck of the glen, possessor of rare 
10-inch horns), will grab one by the arm and hiss, * Shoot, shoot; it’s 
the big buck — shoot ! * into one’s ear. And shoot you do, and shoot, and 
shoot, until the five cartridges in the magazine of your Mannlicher 
or Mauser repeater have drilled holes in the air somewhere near 
the chamois, but, alas ! never a hair of that waving, much -prized * beard ’ 
(the ridge of long hair growing along the backbone of old bucks) will 
grace your hut a la Tyrolese. And, sooth to say, what else but a miracle 
could have guided that flat-speeding, nickel-coated bullet into that 
small, rapidly moving mark, for was not the hand that clutched the 
rifle ‘ all over the place ’ ? Far better one had Iain till the buck was out 
of sight, and then, after a breathing spell to compose nerves and lungs, 
continued the stalk. If not violently alarmed, which they principally 
become by getting their pursuer’s wind, such solitary bucks are apt 
to take things easy, and come to a halt within reasonable distance, 
so that in such instances a carefully continued stalk may, after all, 
end quite satisfactorily.” 
Other methods of killing chamois are by driving, which is not hard work 
for the shooter, or by walking with the “ movers ’’and taking the chance of 
a shot. 
Some good chamois shoots are generally to be let in Styria and cost 
far less than Scotch deer forests. A good ground where fifty or sixty may be 
shot can be taken at a rent of £400 to £500, which includes the use of a 
lodge and the staff of keepers. 
The finest red deer in Europe are not found in Austria proper, but in 
Hungary, Galicia and the Danube neighbourhood. Here there are always 
a few magnificent trophies roaming the woods as good and often better 
than the great New Zealand stags that British sportsmen go so far to 
seek, but they are always very hard to obtain even in the more carefully 
preserved forests. These great stags call but little, but choose their autumn 
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