, 1889-12-12
rHRge pggR N IAREe SHOTS.
A Sportsman Tells tho True Story of How
He Did Such Good shooting.

hAs AAuE y VI III
He Did Such Good Shooting.
Late one afternoon in the early win
ter Of 1880, as / was leisurely riding
along returning to our Montana ranch
near the Highwood mountains, three
deer, a buck and two does, jumped out
Of a small clump of trees in front of
me, ran out a short distance on the
prairie, deliberately stopped short and
turned to gaze upon me. The distance
was well within $50 yards, and imme-
diatsly dismounting / threw up my
rife, drew sights on the buck. and at
the sharp crack he fell. With the re-
mark, well, old fellow, you are nv
meat" pumped in another cartridge
from the magazine and fired at the
largest doe. With one Jump down
she went sprawling. By this time the
third deer was running and had
reached the edge of the woods, and
while she was in the air bounding
over a log / fired. She also fell, but
was up and off again in a moment.
Feeling sure of the first two deer and
leaving them to take care of them
selves, l ran to the woods for the vic
tim of my third shot. As / expected
found the snow plentifully spattered
with blood. After following the trail
Tor a short distance l found where the
deer had lain down, leaving a pool of
blood, and not much further along |
found the doe again lying down and
gasping out her last breath. On ex-
animation l could not find where my
rifle ball had entered, but beneath the
right fore!eg / discovered a splinter
Of wood protruding from a Jagged
wound. The following day | returned
10 the spot where the doe had Jumped
the log when l shot at it, and discov-
cred the bullet hole in the log. l had
missed the deer, but as she jumped she
had been impaled upon a sharp
branch, and in this extraordinary
manner had received her death
wound.
AS for the second deer at which 1
had shot, and which l supposed |
should find dead at the spot where it
had fallen, or not far away, on return
ing to the place / was forced to the CON
clusion that l had missed it. There was
no sign of blood on the snow, and
nothing to make me believe that the
deer had been wounded. The cause of
its fall was apparent; at its first jump
and at the moment shot it had struck
a piece of ice covered lightly by the
snow, slipped on it and went down in
a heap. ! never saw the deer again.
| then looked for the buck at which l
had first fired. He was nowhere to be
found. | saw where he had fallen and
houndered in the snow, and then
where he had made off. Two days
later l saw a party of a dozen Black
feet or Piegan Indians circling a deer
on the prairie about n mile distant.
After an exciting chase, in which they
turned the deer from point to point by
their shots and shouting, they rode
the bewildered animal down and shot
him. | rode TO the spot, and there lay
the buck at which l had fired. l was
confident it was the same from a mall
formation of the antlers, which l had
noticed when | had shot at him two
days before. And there was the mark
of my bullet through the top of the
neck. The ball had creased the deer,
that is, it had gone through the gristle
on the top of the neck, and had drop
ped him as effectually as if shot
through the heart, but the wound had
only stunned him, and had done him
no further injury. This is the true
history of how l knocked down three
deer in three shots. Forest and
Stream,