I used buckshot on most of these deer at ranges of less than thirty yards. I used a rifled slug on one at a distance of seventy yards. The deer was facing me with head erect, providing a good vertical target, but not permitting much lateral error in aiming. I aimed for a spot midway up its neck and the slug hit it in the throat, passing through the lungs and digestive organs, lodging in the fatty area where the flank joins the rear leg. The deer dropped in its tracks. If, on these excursions, I had used a gun which allowed me several rapid shots, I would probably have killed more deer; but I am sure that my killing average in relation to the number of shots used would be far below that achieved with the single-shot gun. I would have attempted many of the possible borderline shots depending on quantity of lead to compensate for open patterns and improper holding. Whenever anyone takes chances of this sort, there are bound to be some missed shots and some wounded deer that will not be recovered.



Most hunters will prefer a multiple shotgun of some type instead of the single-shot. The knowledge that a miss on the first shot can be followed by a possible hit on the next one does not encourage good marksmanship and careful shooting, but on the other hand, the indifferent marksman with only one shot at his disposal will have little chance to discover and rectify his shooting mistakes. When we consider rifle calibers, we are confronted with a maze of figures that have little meaning to a man who is not familiar with gun and bullet terminology. It is desirable that a man should have some understanding of the basic method which is used to differentiate guns of different calibers and powers, but fortunately, complete and exact knowledge of the terms is not essential to the deer hunter.

In the black-powder days, guns were designed to handle a certain cartridge and were identified, together with the cartridge, by numbers which indicated the bullet diameter followed by the amount of powder in the load and sometimes by the bullet weight. The bullet diameter was expressed in hundredths of an inch and the amount of powder, in grains. Thus we have the old 45/70 and the .45/90, both guns of the same caliber as far as bullet size goes, but two different guns in the powder department. Both employed bullets which measured 45/100 of an inch in diameter, but the cartridge for one was loaded with 70 grains of black powder and the other with 90 grains of the same powder. (Foreign gun makers use the millimeter [mm] as a unit in expressing caliber.)

With the advent of smokeless powder, the difference in the power of the two powders made the black- powder designation obsolete, but until new guns were designed, the cartridges were loaded with an amount of smokeless powder which would give power equivalent to that of the old black-powder charge.

It is desirable that a man should have some understanding of the basic method which is used to differentiate guns of different calibers and powers, but fortunately, complete and exact knowledge of the terms is not essential to the deer hunter.