Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-01-08
Three Marvellous Shots.
A Series Of Short Stories of the Sort
to Make the Trigger Finger
Twitch.

One day / followed a does tracks
from / a. N. till sunset without hav-
ing obtained anything like the merest
glimpse of my game. 1 was fast loos-
ing hope, as but a few moments of day.
light were left to me, when, on coming
to the edge of fiat, covered by heavy
yellow birch timber, and terminated on
the further side by an abrupt bank, like
that of river, saw the old doe stand
ing half way up the bank, ,broad5ide too.
the fawn below her, its slender neck up
stretched exactly in line with its moth
er's shoulder. At that distance (9j
very long paces) the neck looked about
the size of a hoe handle, but / took a
quick look through the double sights
and fired. The fawn went down like
stone the doe gave one convulsiYe
bound, nearly twenty feet. to the top of
the bank, dropped dead in her tracks
and rolled back across her fawn.
My next shot, purely one of chance,
think can be classed as wonderful.
was following the tracks OF doe and
fawn. Within twenty rods OF where I
struck the tracks suddenly saw half
the neck and the head of the fawn,
which was lying down. partly turned
from me, placi1ly chewing its cud. A
shot through its neck stretched it life
less. and, with my rifle held ready for a
second shot, / advanced cautiously, ex-
pecting to see the doe but, nothing
stirring, 1 concluded that she had got
away unebserved in the thick spruce
growth. So setting away my rifle, I
began TO dress the fawn, which proved
to be very large and fat one. In do
ing this had changed my position, so
that on rising | caught full sight of the
doe lying dead, twenty feet away to the
left, and right angles with the line of
fire. Half Stupified with anaZement
walked up to her, and found the warm
blood still trickling from a bullet-hole
in the centre of her belly, and saw that
she had died in her bed without kick.
On going back to the fawn to inveSti-
gate, found that the bullet Ia pointed
onel about four feet beyond the neck of
the fawn, had passed through hack
matack sapling two inches through. a
little to the left of the centre, tearing
the left side out and cutting the tree
nearly half down then turning at
right angle, it had struck the doe as
mentioned, passed directly upward be-
tween the kidneys. cutting off the big
artery and burying itself in the spine.
The deer was as safe from a direct shot
as though the Rocky Mountains had
interposed between us. n
At another time, when following
big, fat doe in a feathery snow, which
adhered to everything, on coming to an
alder run, about eighty yards across,
filled with these bushes from the size
of knitting needle to oyer an inch
through, / caught sight Of her black
tail hanging down motionless. There
was about one chance in a thousand of
getting bullet through, but / always
took all such chances, and fired without
moments hesitation. The tail dis
appeared instantaneously and, fixing
my eyes on an object III range, so as to
advance in a direct line, followed the
path of the bullet. Half way across /
found an alder about as big as pipe
stem cut off clean; half way from there.
to where the deer stood, and fully ten
feet to the right Of the line, ! saw a.
mother alder fully an inch in diameter
cut off not more than foot aboYe the
ground and thrown three feet from it's
stump. THAT settles it, II said to my
self and started rapidly forward to take
up the track again. On reaching the
spot found some black hairs lying on
the snow exactly as if cut out by bull
let and the first bound of the deer was
nearly twenty feet. This looked like a
wounded deer, but smiling at the ab-
surdity of the idea. pressed forward
and within ten rods came upon my
game stone dead, with q bullet exactly
through the centre of its tail. To have
struck the deer at all after being defect
ed ten feet out of its course would have
been sufficiently remarkable, but to go
exactly to the spot aimed at was SIN
gular chance.