THE BEST SHOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BEST SHOT.

A party of Yankee sportsmen on a trip through the Maine woods were sitting by the evening camp fire and ■ reviewing the day's sport. The talk turned upon a remarkable shot made by one of them that day, and a discussion arose, some claiming that such shots were due more to luck than to skill, and telling incidents which seemed to prove it. At last one of the party turned to the guide who accompanied them and asked his opinion. " Well," he replied. " I ftever was much of a shot, and the best shot I ever made, or the one that killed the most, was certainly due to luck. I was out for meat one da,didn't care much what kind—but I couldn't find any kind at all. At noon I was ten miles from my camp, and hadn't seen a thing. I sat down under a sprucetree and ate a lunch I had in my pocket, ami then I leaned against the tree and smoked until, being tired with my tramping, I dropped asleep. I woke with a start, thinking I was in camp and the alarm-clock was going off. But when I got my eyes open I saw a big rattler coiled within ten feet of me, with his tail going like an electric buzzer. I raised my gun thinking I'd put a bullet through him, when a slight sound caused me to look up, and on a limb above my head I saw a half-dozen partridges. 1 thought a club would do for the snake, and was just sighting the birds when out of the brush near by came a fine deer. I changed sight mighty quick. " Just as 1 was covering the deer he give a jump, and up from the other side comes a black bear. Bear-skin is worth more than deer, also a dead bear is safer to have round than a live one, so I fired at the bear—and the gun burst. "The bullet killed the bear all right, though, and just as I fired the deer came by and a piece of the barrel went plumb through his heart— him dead. The lock flew off, and as the rattler had bM mouth open it went clean down his neck and choked him to death. The stock flew up and hit the branch above my head such a crack the shock killed all the partridges, and the explosion threw me more'n thirty feet, and I lit on a couple of rabbits. " Yes, gentlemen ; so far as game went it was a good shot, but it was luck—just luck."