November, 1918 
FOREST 
AND STREAM 
643 
RIFLE SHOOTING IN TIMBER COUNTRY 
THE VERY SAME METHODS THAT PROVE SO SERVICEABLE WITH A SHOTGUN 
ARE FIRST ESSENTIALS IN SNAP SHOOTING WITH A RIFLE IN TIMBER 
By JEAN DE MACKLOT 
N EARLV all shooters, no matter how 
expert elsewhere, as with the shot¬ 
gun, have to change their mode of 
shooting considerably in a timber country. 
The old adage, “A good shot one place a 
good shot elsewhere,” has a weak link in 
its makeup, especially when that marks¬ 
man has had his shooting experienced to 
a certain locality. 
It is within tangible reminiscence where 
a good rifle shot fell down deplorably the 
first time he had an opportunity to display 
his shooting skill among the switch cane 
brake and cypress grdves of the South. 
Years ago in the West I saw this man. 
The first time he exhibited to me just what 
he could do—and what he did accomplish 
with a rifle appeared to me marvelous. 
Furthermore, among the parks and rough 
open altitudes of the Rockies, he performed 
on game, and every time he shot I won¬ 
dered how it was the outside world had 
no knowledge of the almost uncanny skill 
shown in his rifle shooting. But it was 
only shortly ago that he invaded a timber 
country, and just before that visit I had 
watched him in western Kansas. At long 
range he flung into the ribs of a running 
coyote a .303 missile. The reduction of 
size in other game, a jack rabbit, proved 
no exception to his deadly marksmanship. 
So when he failed to make good in timber, 
it was not by me attributed to his age that 
was denying him his usual keen vision. 
We posted that rifle shot in a grove of 
black oaks, margined by a long narrow 
reach of switch cane. He had there the 
best deer stand in the country, the easiest 
to shoot from. At the time we drove deer 
with dogs. We had no excuse for it, 
either! Every time I heard our hounds 
open up and continue in their fast drive, 
staccato chant, accompanied a moment later 
by the spiteful intoning of smokeless pow¬ 
der, I was positive that a bounding white 
tail had met death. 
Three deer were put by that Westerner 
on that very morning, and one black wolf 
that whipped our pack aloof into trembling 
silence. When we came to the Western¬ 
er’s stand there was neither evidence of 
game, nor wolf. We searched hither and 
thither in full view of from where he had 
been seated on a fallen log, just at the 
opening of a cattle trail leading from a 
blackberry thicket into the rustling cane. 
But the Westerner was not there. 
Presently we observed him in the cane, 
disconsolately scanning the trees, brush 
and parts of the cane. 
“Did they all pull away?” we queried. 
“Yes,” he returned with a sickly smile, 
“they all pulled off, but their flags were 
behaving mighty saucily when they did!” 
From this, without further explanation, 
we inferred correctly that he had missed 
three straight deer and a lone black wolf! 
Something that was regarded at that close 
range as almost impossible, and in what 
we considered open woods. 
N OT to be deemed critical and moved 
by the courtesies due a visitor the 
same afternoon we put him in a 
cypress brake. There was some under¬ 
brush—elbow brush, blackberry and ubiqui¬ 
tous saw brier—not difficult to shoot in as 
A trophy of skill that merits pride 
it was sparse. We were sure that any deer 
which jumped north of us would run 
through it. We wanted venison in camp, 
and the first time we heard that .303 whine 
after we had put up a deer in a grove of 
tupelo gum we forgot the past and saun¬ 
tered over in the Westerner’s vicinity, per¬ 
fectly confident, despite the noisy red bone 
bitch, still ringing gloriously on trail, that 
he had effected a kill. 
We found he had again missed. Mr. 
Westerner was out of patience with him¬ 
self and could not understand the cause 
of his failure—-all clean inexcusable misses! 
By going over his past I began to dis¬ 
sect Mr. Westerner’s shortcomings. I re¬ 
called immediately that in the West most 
of his shooting had been done under dif¬ 
ferent conditions. He was quick, yet de¬ 
liberate, and a marksman of proven abil¬ 
ity. Now what was the matter? 
Mr. Westerner had to learn over his rifle 
shooting a bit. He had to learn over just 
what people alone experienced in shooting 
a shotgun had to do in the timber. Snap 
shooting—snap shooting with a rifle in tim¬ 
ber, is just as necessary as with a shotgun! 
With a shotgun I had undergone the 
same experience and had to unlearn my 
old style. 
My friend from the West and 1 strolled 
back to camp, and finally we discussed the 
subject; at first he thought the change in 
his mode of shooting was unnecessary, but 
his recent performance made my arguments 
ring mighty convincing. In a moment we 
got together and the idea of holding and 
pulling instantly was discovered by him. 
The very same modes were suggested as 
prove so serviceable with a shotgun, and 
the added warning against cultivating that 
old frailty of jerking the trigger. The co¬ 
ordination of eye, ear, and finger were ac¬ 
centuated of great importance in snap 
shooting. The old practice of closing the 
eyes, then quickly bringing up the rifle, and 
pulling quickly, convinced my companion 
that there was immediate progress to come 
from its consideration. 
The following day he dropped a nice 
four point buck as it was trying to jump 
over a heap of down timber. Now the 
Westerner was cured of a weakness be¬ 
cause he knew a rifle and mastered prompt¬ 
ly what snap shooting exacted. His failure 
at first was much similar to what happened 
to so many good rifle shots in the un¬ 
familiar deer woods of the south. They 
first take a long sight, then pull. They 
overestimate distances, and in consequence 
become adepts in manufacturing goose 
eggs. The next thing that comes along as 
a natural sequence is that these lose their 
temper, and naturally the other associated 
evils bring on a profuse attack of missing. 
T HERE are men who are born good 
snapshots with a rifle, and yet are 
very inferior performers at a target. 
The failure of so many with a rifle in 
Southern woods is not only attributed to 
the change in shooting conditions, but also 
to the change of arms. In being equipped 
for a hunt invariably they are recommended 
by the sporting goods dealer to use a 
shorter barreled rifle—more of the carbine 
length. The sudden change is what hurts 
at once in snap shooting. Small an item 
as that inch or two in deficiency of barrel 
length seems, it works havoc on the marks¬ 
manship of the one who has not studied it. 
At first it appears remarkably easy to 
hold with the short fellow at close range. 
Then when the object is just beyond close 
range suddenly you discover that it is not 
so facile to place that bead on the object 
as with your long rifle. It seems almost 
insignificant a matter to remind the sports¬ 
man of this, but it is often due to the lack 
of observing just such little things as this, 
and adjusting themselves accordingly, that 
the little white tail or the highly prized 
gobbler saunters away unhit. 
Snap shooting with a rifle in brush is a 
valuable accomplishment in Southern sec¬ 
ond growth woods, especially in that all-de¬ 
fying rufus-leaved second growth post oak 
thicket. Turkeys in its midst have a habit 
of springing up almost simultaneously, and 
then as abruptly vanishing in the leaves. 
There is only one cure for a missing 
streak. There is only one true way; for¬ 
get slow deliberateness and learn the un¬ 
known art in the woods as you would with 
a shotgun, holding and pulling instead of 
observing, then sighting and pulling. And 
the name of that elusive, spectacular art is 
called snap shooting! 
