The copper era., 1901-09-26
SOME REMARKABLE SHOOTING
Colonel Crawford Tells of the Great Slaughter of Game in
 New Mexico.

ing trip through western New Mexico
 in company with Col. Dell Potter does not hesitate to say that he thinks
 MT Potter is about the handie,t man with a shot gun with whom he eyer had the pleasure Of travelling. Col
 Crawford is no slouch with d shot gun
 himself, and is therefore a competent judge ot expert work in that line.
 They had been in the hills about two
 weeks and were getting awfully tired
 of bacon and ham. The new game
 law in New Mexico prohibits the kill
 ing of deer, antelope, turkey and
 elk, .and prescribes a heavy penalty for those who disregard it. The Col.
 says the country was absolutely full of
 game-never saw SO many deer and
 antelope since he and Kit Carson
 hunted together in the good old days
 of long ago. And tame, Why" said
 the Colonel, they were as tame as
 Mary's little lamb. It was awfully
 tempting, l assure you, but being in a
 foreign land, and not wishing to get
 into trouble, we let them severely
 alone, unless they bothered around
 our camp, when one of us would shy a
 stone at them, to drive them away.
 They seemed to know all about the
 new game law. at least I had never before seen them so gentle. But l
 started to tell you of remarkable
 shot made by my friend POtler, which
 for genuine slaughter of game has not
 been equaled since Nimrod, the
 mightiest hunter before the Lord, was
 in the hunting business. One evening
 while we were getting supper, our mules came snorting into camp, and Potter said he thought there must be
 bears around pretty close, so he got out his shot gun and proceened to load up. He remarked at the time that he believed he would put thirteen buck shot in each barrel, just for luck, but was busy getting supper and did not pay pay much attention to him. When he got loaded up and started ou { it was just getting dark, and l told him not to be gone long as supper would soon be ready. I had just finished frying a pan of nice flat bacon, and was put ting d pan of ham on the fire when there was the gol darndest biggest ex- plOsiOn l ever heard in all my life actually shook the mountains. ran down the canyon about hundred yards and found Potter covered with blood, and with pistol in one hand and d Bowie knife in the other. At first l thought he was dead, but soon found that he was only stunned 1 ran to the brook and returned with my hat full of water, which I dashed in his face, and he soon revived. When he was able to talk he asked about the 9earo :s ot and Saiaeo eo .whate hear Pells, cause I thought he was jared loose in the upper story. He diG not reply but walked up the side of the mountain orty or fifty steps, and there were two ,f the biggest bears l ever saw, and each with it's head torn to pieces. It seems that when he ran onto them they showed fight, rose up on their hind feet and made for him. be turned loose both barrels. The gun exploded and the recoil hurled him town the mountain where l found him. He pulled his pistol and Bowie knife while en transit, as he thought they were after him, and you know he learly loves hand to hand encounter with d bear While l was complt- him on his shot 1 noticed a dead turkey on the ground, and picked it up. Potter picked up another, and W hen we had gathered them all up we had thirteen. They had been roasting in tree, and had been killed by the fragments of the gun when it exploded. We carried d number of the turkeys into camp and were returning for another load, when l fell over deer with its back broken. but still alive. While We were discussing how such an accident could have happened, the deer breathed its last. After careful lQNeStlSallOn we lOunu lldl Wucu tOl- ter first strck the searth about twenty five feet from the spot where his gun exploded. lhe force of his fall loosened a boulder which rolled down the can von and killed the deer. The next morning when we went out to skin the bear, we were greatly surprised to see three dead antelope little further on which were in range of the gun and killed accidentally. It was all quite but 1 hope you won't say about it in the ERA. as the New MeXicans are peculiar class of people, and might make Potter some trouble, thinking that he did not have a sufficient respect for their game law. Besides, Colonel Potter, as you know, is very modest man. and would not like to see the story in print. But it was remarkable, in fact quite extraordinary. It beat anything l had previously seen, and 1 am something of d shot and a hunter myself"
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