Items related to The sporting rifle; the shooting of big and little...
The sporting rifle; the shooting of big and little game, together with a description of the principal classes of sporting weapons - Softcover
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...fact he used to consider seventy yards a long shot. In his poaching experience he had found that the first shot fired, coming unexpectedly, did not enable poachers to be located, but if a second shot had to be fired, that meant detection. Consequently, his stalking principle was to get so close that the shot was a certainty, instead of doing as most stalkers are apt to do, if they are at all lazy, make "their gun" fire long shots, to save trouble in getting up to the deer, and then lay all the blame on "the gun" if the stag is not got. The old man said that, as there was no cover, I had better crawl by myself very slowly and steadily straight towards the deer, of course being in full view of him. Leaving the forester behind, I started. Almost immediately the stag saw me, and got up, looking intently in my direction. I lay quite still for some minutes, and as soon as he glanced away I got a few yards nearer. This continued for a long time, I getting nearer only by inches'. At last the stag would not take his eye off me. Suddenly he gave a grunt and came trotting towards me, and I shot him, still advancing, when he was some sixty yards off; I really believe he would have come quite close up to me if I had waited. The old forester said that probably the stag mistook me for a fox. Be suspicious of too long a "spy" for deer on the part of the stalker; it may only be his lazy way of passing the time. A stalker who knows his business only looks for deer in sheltered places, not all over the ground. Once I caught two stalkers (who did not think I understood any Gjelic) "spying" the oats in each other's crofts, and comparing their ripeness, when they were supposed to be spying for deer. The manner of weighing deer is unsatisfa...
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