| As most of the hunters always do, it is | | | | followed for about a hundred feet and found a |
| always good to check the shot if you are | | | | dead deer. Another road hunter told me about |
| confident of your marksmanship. If you are | | | | shooting at a deer and how he had missed the |
| confident then you don't have to look for | | | | shot. The next day, while hunting in that |
| your shot every time. There are many | | | | locality, I found a blood trail near the |
| instances of the shots not being checked any | | | | place. I followed this trail for a short |
| more and the deer left wounded and some time | | | | distance and overtook a deer, which had two |
| dead and not being picked up. Find some | | | | broken front legs. It was a simple matter for |
| methods on how an experienced hunter makes | | | | me to finish killing this deer. |
| his shot | | | | |
| | | | I have found several dead or badly wounded |
| In the second incident, I was trailing a deer | | | | deer, which had been shot by hunters who |
| which I sighted standing in back of a pile of | | | | never bothered to check the results of their |
| pulp in a chopping. All that I could see was | | | | shooting. Some of them were worth recovering, |
| its head, which appeared to be sitting on the | | | | while others were too long dead to be edible |
| pile of wood. I shot at the head and it | | | | and were nothing but carrion. Much of this |
| disappeared. Having little confidence in my | | | | waste could be avoided and many apparently |
| marksmanship I waited for the deer to run | | | | unsuccessful hunters could fill their license |
| from the cover of the pulp so that I could | | | | by merely investigating every shot which they |
| try another shot. Nothing happened. It would | | | | make. Many deer hunters are not aware of the |
| require the aid of a psychiatrist to explain | | | | extent of this waste, but fox hunters can |
| what followed. The evidence should have | | | | tell of the large number of dead deer which |
| convinced me that I had killed the deer. | | | | are left in the woods at the end of the deer |
| However, I almost convinced myself that I had | | | | hunting season. |
| not even seen a deer, that I had not shot at | | | | |
| one, and that it would be useless even to | | | | A large proportion of these unrecovered deer |
| look for one behind that pile of pulp. Common | | | | are wounded late in the afternoon after the |
| sense finally won the mental conflict and I | | | | sun has set. At this time of day, many deer |
| collected my deer. | | | | will be sighted at the edge of fields and if |
| | | | such deer are wounded at this time, it is |
| Since then I have always checked the result | | | | almost impossible to trail them into the |
| of every shot, even when I was sure that I | | | | woods because of the increasing darkness. |
| had missed. I was well concealed by a stone | | | | Some could be recovered if the shooter would |
| wall and watching a feeding deer and waiting | | | | return to the scene the following morning. |
| for it to walk into the range of my gun, when | | | | Few hunters will do this, preferring to hunt |
| a road hunter spotted the animal from his car | | | | another deer in another section of the |
| and stopped and fired. I was sure that he had | | | | country. |
| hit the deer, which ran into the woods, and I | | | | |
| started to walk towards him with the | | | | In hunting deer, we can find many wounded |
| intention of congratulating him and offering | | | | deer which the hunters did not bother to |
| my help in recovering the animal, but he got | | | | check the results of their shootings. As a |
| in his car and drove off. I went to the edge | | | | hunter you should have the fun of the hunting |
| of the woods, found a blood trail, which I | | | | game with responsibility. |