The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-03-20
MARVELLOUS SHOTS.
STORIES WHICH MAKE THE TRIGGER
FINGER TWITcH.
A Shot After Sunset-Kiiling Q Doe
"Around the Corner"-A Bullet
Strikes the Mark After Ten
Feet DETECTION.
Forest and Stream.l |

One day followed does tracks from II
o. m. till sunset without having obtained
anything like the merest glimpse Of my
game. ! was fast losing hope, as but Q few
moments Of daylight were left me, when, ON
coming to the edge Of q fat, covered by
heavy yellow birch timber and terminated
on the further side by an abrupt bank, like
that Of a river, I saw the old doe standing
half way up the bank, broadside to, the fawn
below her, its slender neck upstretched ex.
actly in line with its mothers shoulder. At
that distance (ninety very long paces) the
neck looked about the size Of hoehandle.
but took quick look through the double
sights and fired. The fawn went down like
. stone; the doe gave one convulsive 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, I
think can be classed as wonderful ! was
following the tracks of q doe and fawn.
Within twenty rods of where l struck the
tracks l suddenly saw half OF the neck and
the head of the fawn, which was lying down,
partly turned from me, placidly chewing its
cud. A shot through It's neck stretched 1t
life!ess, and, with my rifle held ready for a
second shot, advanced cautiously, expect
ing to see the doe; but nothing stirring,
concluded that she had got away unobserved
in the thick spruce growth. So setting away
my rifle, began to dress the fawn, which
proved to be a very large one. In doing this
had changed my position, SO that on rising
l caught full sight of the doe lying dead,
twenty feet away to the left, and at right
angles with the line of fire. Half stupefed
with amazement I walked up to her, and
found the warm blood still trickling from
bnllat-hnla m Har
belly, and saw that she had died
in her bed without kick. On going
back to the fawn to investigate, found
that the bullet "a pointed one), about four
feet beyond the neck of the fawn, had passed
through hackmatack sapling two inches
through, a little to the left of the center,
tearing the left side out and cutting the tree
nearly half down; then turning at a right
angle, 1t had struck the doe as mentioned,
passed directly upward between the kidneys,
cutting off the big artery and burying itself
in the spine. The deer was as safe from
direct shot as though the Rocky mountains
had interpcsed between us.
At another time, when following big, fat
doe in feathery snow, which adhered to
everything, on coming to an alder run, about
eighty yards across filed with these bushes
from the size Of a knitting needle to over an
l.
hanging down motionless. There was about
one chance in a thousand Of getting bullet
through, but I always took all such
chances, and fred without a moments hesi-
tation. The tail disappeared instantaneously
and, fixing my eyes on an object in
range, so as to advance in q direct line,
! followed the path Of the bullet. Half way
across / found an alder about as big as a
pipe-stem cut Off clean; but half way from
there to where the deer stood, and fully ten
feet to the right Of the line, saw another
alder fully an inch in diameter cut off not
more than a foot above the ground and
thrown three feet from its stump "That
settles it, said to myself, and started
rapidly forward to take up the trock again.
On reaching the spot I found some black
hairs lying on the snow exactly as IL cut out
by q bullet and the first bound of the deer
was nearly twenty feet This looked like q
wounded deer, but, smiling at the absurdity
Of the idea, Ipressed forward end within
ten rods came upon my game stone dead,
with bullet exactly through the center of
its tail. To have struck the deer at all after
being DETECTED ten feet out Of its course
would have been sufficiently remarkable,
but to go exactly to the spot aimed at was
singular chance.