Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-06-07
p%IscRAcEFUL SPORT.
A Slaughter of n Herd OF AnteIopes In n
Barbed Wire Enclosure In wyoming.

A story OF an antelope hunt ONE
from Wyoming, which, though inter-
esting. Is by no means cheering to the
sportsmon who dread the utter destruc-
ton of all game by useless slaughter.
Ii appears that a large ranch in Wyom-
ing was managed by ah Englishman
and owned chiefly by Englishmen. al
though there was some American cap
ital invested. The ranch included
eighteen sections Of land, and was laid
out three miles wide by six long. The
whole was enclosed by a tive-wire buck
thorn fence of the most substantial
character. Large breadths had been
sown to wheat, and so last spring,
after warm weather came. the ante
lopes gathered from great distances to
eat the young grain.
To the mind of the English manager
of the estate this called for a violent
remedy. He therefore sent TO his
friends around about, and a party was
gathered as if for a wolf hunt. Mount
ing their horses, they formed a line
across one end of the plantation and
rode slowly toward the opposite end,
intending to orner the game and
then shoot it down comfortably, just as
the natives in Africa drive game into a
V-shaped corral aud butcher it.
This was made possible, with skill
full management, by the fact that an
telopes. although they easily jump a
fence when entering a field, get so ex-
cited when chased by a whooping gang
of horsemen that they run h.ther and
yen along the fence, until at last they
charge back among the advancing
butchers.
The line in this case was fortunately
not well managed, though the slaught.
er was bad enough. The men in line
were armed with repeating rifles. BE,
fore more than half the ground was
covered two or three of the party be.
came so excited over the appearance o.
the game that they opened fire. Ante.
lopes that were from / 200 to 1,50(
yards away were shot at with the effec.
of alarming them and causing many Of
them to stampede back through thu
line before it had closed in sufficiently
to make the slaughter complete.
: A little later, when the game WAS he
ing driven toward q corner. a bunci
broke back through the line, and two
of the men got down off their horses
and shot three dead. 1t happened
that this killing was done in u hollow
where the rest of the men in line did
not see it. SO the line kept advancing
and, luckily for the antelopes, a widen.
ing gap was left in the center of the
line where the two men had dropped
out to cut the throats of the game shot
Though this gap more than a score o
the antelopes escaped.
Having finished with the three deaC
Antelopes, the two men galloped or
after the line. When they overlook i
there were still nearly IA hundred an
telopes enclosed within it, and the long
range shooting was still serving tC
save the lives of some of the unfortu
nate beasts.
Eventually, however, the men got 81
close to the game that five antelope.
were killed from one bunch. WheI
these had been attended to, the CRANE
final onslaught was made. Curiousl,
enough, it happened that the mail
body charged or a man who had beef
reserying his fire in order to make j
deadly at short range. His associates
looked on as the game approached hin
with the liveliest anticipations OF see
ing a great slaughter. but only to SCI
him at last working the pump handle o
his gun with desperate but unavailins
energy. He went through all the mo
tons properly, but no flash nor smok,
was seen nor was any report heard
Again the pump would be worked Blu
with the same result.
When the game had all scattered
and other men in the line had kille,
three head only, they gathered abou
the luckless gunner. He declared tina
he bad somehow forgotten to charg,
his magazine. and he was in a state o
great excitement over it until some o
the party went to the place whore IN
had stood trying to fire. There the,
discovered a magazine full Of car
tridges lying On the ground. An ex
animation showed that the cartridge
had been reloaded by the gunner him
self, but he had forgotten to remov
The old caps from the shells and put OF
new ones before reloading.
In all eleven antelopes were killed i
ihe round up. and It Is supposed
dozen more were wounded, but es
capped. That was bad enough, thong
aot so bad as other r~oundups whic
we're probably held afterward wer
likely to be. 1t seems particularly IN
fortunate that an animal like the au
ielope should be slaughtered in sue
merciless fashion, when it is remem
bered that ave in western Texas an
In two or three districts in the north
ern part of the country the species !
sxtinct. N. Y. San.