Camp Comfort 
Its Game and its Ways—Rifle Repairing Under 
Difficulties—The Capture of a ’Coon— 
Part IV.—Conclusion 
By H. H. BRIMLEY 
W HILE targeting K.’s rifle I had tried a few 
shots with my magazine rifle witli most 
disappointing results. I could not under¬ 
stand the wildness of some of the shots at all, and 
almost began to think that something was wrong 
with the ammunition or that the gun had gone bad. 
I knew that the lands were somewhat worn, but 
it had been shooting well, and it did not seem 
likely that this would cause it to fall off in its 
accuracy all at once like this. I had about de¬ 
cided that it was I that was in fault, and I went 
out the next morning with but little confidence 
in either the gun or myself. 
We had six guns out. It was agreed that D. 
should not turn the dogs loose until he was in¬ 
formed, by a couple of blasts from N.’s horn, 
that all the guns were on their stands. K. went 
to his old stand in the pine, and Mr. D. took 
the gum with M. in between. N. took the lower 
side of the pocosin, with G. half way across and 
back of the line between K. and N. I was as¬ 
signed to the stand inside the woods. These 
woods are merely a rather thick pocosin, with 
the pines somewhat larger and less scatter.ng 
than usual, but with another of these little lad¬ 
ders that are so useful in enabling one to see 
over the bushes, my view was pretty well un¬ 
obstructed for 300 yards or more in every direc¬ 
tion but one, and that side was covered by the 
other guns. 
While seated on the ladder with no dogs with¬ 
in hearing I started to examine mv rifle more 
carefully and found, to my great delight, that 
the barrel was slightly loose in the stock. That 
accounted for the wild shooting at the target, 
and confidence returned once more. I found 
that both of the screws that held the barrel were 
slightly loose, and I tightened them up to the best 
of my ability with my pocket knife. The front 
band that goes around barrel and fore-end was 
also a bit loose, and I tightened that by twisting 
it sidewise as far as I could with my hands. 
Just before leaving home I had had the trigger 
pull adjusted and the gunsmith, knowing my par¬ 
tiality for tinkering with firearms and expecting 
that I wou'd take it to pieces again to examine 
the work he had done on it, no doubt had not 
tightened it up as it should have been. Hence 
the wild shooting. 
The wind was blowing so through the pines 
that it was only occasionally that I heard dogs 
at all, and then only very faintly. I got pre.ty 
tired of the long wait, but it is a rule of the 
game not to leave your stand until the horn 
blows, so I stayed on. When the horn blew 
I waded on through the tangle of bushes and 
green briers out to the path and almost up to 
K.’s stand. As I stopped to speak to him he 
yelled : “The dogs are running again and com¬ 
ing this way.” That was enough, and my stand 
was soon occupied again. Nearer the dogs came 
until I felt certain that the deer had passed with¬ 
in shot of my stand while it was unoccupied. 
The worst of pure bad luck, thought I. 
Across the pocosin went the dogs, never in 
sight, but so near that I thought I must have 
seen a leaping deer had. it taken the same course 
while I was there. Down into the Bear Branch 
thickets they went, and I knew that the hunt 
was over unless the deer should come out into 
the open pocosin near N. or G. before making 
for the lake. But you can never tell. The dogs 
worked around into the Branch and then back 
and behind me, evidently getting nearer, but no 
deer showed up, and the dogs within a few 
hundred yards. There is no general rule as to 
how far ahead of the dogs a deer may be. They 
seem to care nothing whatever about the dogs 
that are following them and evidently take the 
chase as a bit of exercise, usually moving at a 
very deliberate gait and stopping frequently to 
listen, often for minutes at a time. Most of the 
country they traverse when chased is so hard 
for the dogs to penetrate that they can scarcely 
go beyond a walk, while the deer bounds over 
the briers and bushes without effort. I have 
seen them killed before the dogs were within 
hearing distance even, and they may be a mile 
or more ahead, or only a few hundred yards. 
This particular deer was evidently one that 
liked to have the dogs near him. Every moment 
I expected to hear the crack of N.’s rifle, when 
suddenly I saw something moving that I thought 
at first was the tan-colored hound, it was so 
close to where the voices of the dogs seemed to 
come from. Another move, and the white flag 
waved over the bushes. Near as the dogs were 
to him, he seemed perfectly unconcerned as he 
loped easily over the obstructions. He was right 
behind me now, so I watched my chance and 
altered my position on the ladder while he was 
moving. Then he stopped to listen and I cov¬ 
ered him. Again he moved, crossing me, but 
getting a trifle nearer, until I could get at him 
from the left side of the tree. When he stopped 
again his body was practically hidden among the 
bushes, though his head and the line of his back 
showed clear. He heard me move and turned 
his head my way. The distance was a trifle 
under a hundred yards, as near as I could esti¬ 
mate; my front sight wavered around where the 
bullet should go, and I drew the trigger. A slight 
movement of the bushes followed, and I saw the 
position of his head change to catch the direc¬ 
tion of the sound. It was a c ear miss and I 
thought, as I jerked in another cartridge, that 
the barrel must still be loose. The position was 
an awkward one for me, having to stand on an 
uncertain rung of the ladder and brace my knees 
against another loose one, to say nothing of the 
cramped position in shooting around the left 
side of the tree toward the right. But the second 
shot went home. The deer started off straight 
away with tail down, and I noted the last place 
in the bushes where I had seen any part of his 
body. 
It took time to get through that hundred yards 
of pocosin, and the dogs were there before I 
was. He was a rather small buck, in fine con¬ 
dition, with spike horns, and he had run about 
ten yards before falling dead. The bullet had 
gone in a little too far forward for the heart, 
but it had cut through the big arteries at the 
base of the heart, and death was a’most instan¬ 
taneous. I could not understand the bullet holes 
at first. The one that should have showed small 
where the bullet went in was as large as the 
exit hole, and I could only account for this by 
supposing that the bullet had struck a twig first, 
causing it to start to mushroom before entering. 
But considering everything it was not a bad shot, 
though the boys did guy me about its being three 
inches too far forward and too low. 
He was cleaned and we carried him out on a 
pole in the approved fashion. We had plenty 
of help and the task was comparatively easy. 
The auto brought him into camp from the end 
of the trail. 
This drive was a short one and we were back 
in camp with the deer before 11 o’clock. After 
dinner the south drive was made again. I was 
placed out on the marsh on the edge of the lake 
where a deer could- be seen for nearly a mile 
out toward the open water and half a mile up 
the shore. Toward the woods of course the dis¬ 
tance was short. I cut down a small pine to 
make a seat, and propping my rifle against it, 
tried to make myself comfortable during the 
wait that lay ahead. The dogs had several deer 
up, and I cou'd hear two sets of them in the 
