Opening the text

Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)

General

Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.

Name: Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.
Author: Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)

Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)

Hunting; Trapping

Now I wish to ask, why it is that a hunter cares for a high power gun
that will shoot into the next township and kill a man or a horse that
the hunter was not aware of existing, when a gun of less power will
do just as good execution in deer hunting? The ammunition for the gun
of lower power costs much less and there is far less danger in
killing a man or beast a mile away. We hear men talk of shooting deer
200 and even 300 yards. In the many years that I have hunted deer, I
believe that I have killed two deer at a distance of from 50 to 75
yards, to one a distance of 100 or 150. I believe most deer hunters
will agree that there are far more deer killed at a distance of 50 or
60 yards than over that distance. I think that if those hunters who
kill deer at a distance of 100 or 200 yards will take the trouble to
step off the distance of their long shots, instead of estimating
them, they will find that 100 yards in timber is a long ways. Yes,
boys, 20 rods through the timber is a long ways to shoot a deer. Why?
Because the deer can not often be seen at a greater distance, where
there would be any use of shooting at all, and the little .38 will do
all of that and more too.

* * *

Perhaps the average beginner at trapping makes his greatest
mistake in listening to those who have had more experience in
handling the pen than the trap. For instance, someone advised readers
to use a No. 2 or 3 Newhouse trap to catch marten and said that
marten frequented marshy places. Now if they had asked the editor of
Hunter-Trader-Trapper, he would have told you that the Pine Marten
frequented the higher and dry grounds in dark, thick woods and that
it was their nature to run on old down trees and to run into hollow
stubs, trees, etc., and that these were the places to set your traps.
Unless you were in a country where the snow fell very deep, then you
should use the shelf set. He would have also told you that the No. 1
and 1 1/2 Newhouse trap was plenty strong enough for the marten, that
many use No. 0.

  [Illustration: SPRING SET FOR FOX.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)

General

Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.

Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)

Hunting; Trapping

Now I wish to ask, why it is that a hunter cares for a high power gun
that will shoot into the next township and kill a man or a horse that
the hunter was not aware of existing, when a gun of less power will
do just as good execution in deer hunting? The ammunition for the gun
of lower power costs much less and there is far less danger in
killing a man or beast a mile away. We hear men talk of shooting deer
200 and even 300 yards. In the many years that I have hunted deer, I
believe that I have killed two deer at a distance of from 50 to 75
yards, to one a distance of 100 or 150. I believe most deer hunters
will agree that there are far more deer killed at a distance of 50 or
60 yards than over that distance. I think that if those hunters who
kill deer at a distance of 100 or 200 yards will take the trouble to
step off the distance of their long shots, instead of estimating
them, they will find that 100 yards in timber is a long ways. Yes,
boys, 20 rods through the timber is a long ways to shoot a deer. Why?
Because the deer can not often be seen at a greater distance, where
there would be any use of shooting at all, and the little .38 will do
all of that and more too.

* * *

Perhaps the average beginner at trapping makes his greatest
mistake in listening to those who have had more experience in
handling the pen than the trap. For instance, someone advised readers
to use a No. 2 or 3 Newhouse trap to catch marten and said that
marten frequented marshy places. Now if they had asked the editor of
Hunter-Trader-Trapper, he would have told you that the Pine Marten
frequented the higher and dry grounds in dark, thick woods and that
it was their nature to run on old down trees and to run into hollow
stubs, trees, etc., and that these were the places to set your traps.
Unless you were in a country where the snow fell very deep, then you
should use the shelf set. He would have also told you that the No. 1
and 1 1/2 Newhouse trap was plenty strong enough for the marten, that
many use No. 0.

  [Illustration: SPRING SET FOR FOX.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.

Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.

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