Going hunting doesnt always mean that you can always have steak on the dining table at the end of the trip. Sometimes, hunter can also miss the target.

Another time I was hunting down state, with my trusty .38/55. This is one of the most dependable guns I ever owned. It has never failed me, except one time when I broke the loading gate, and another time when I tried some reloaded fodderloaded with home-made black powder. It is best not to fool with such stuff unless you know what you're doing. Black powder fouls up everything.

I had hunted all morning without a bit of success and, since I was near home when noon came, I went to the house for lunch. I had some "little ones" around at that time, and I jacked the cartridge out of the barrel when I took the gun inside. However, I left the cartridges in the magazine. After eating, I went in another direction, thinking deer might be in that locality.

I hadn't gone far, following a game trail up over a ridge, when I detected motion in the trail ahead. I stopped and awaited developments. A big doe and fawn came down trail towards me. Now in a case like this, I like to wait and see what the deer will do. In this instance, I knew well enough that the doe would keep coming until she saw me, then would swing broadside and stop for a short time until she had positively identified me. While I waited, I considered how lucky I was to find my deer so near the road and with a downhill haul all the way. The doe came to a point within a hundred feet of me before she saw me. When she did, things happened as I expected, and I swung the gun so that the sights were lined on her shoulder. I squeezed the trigger, and nothing happened except the click of the hammer on the firing pin. I had forgotten to jack a cartridge into the barrel when leaving the house.

At the click of the gun, the doe took off through the brush. She made a half circle around me at a distance that never exceeded two hundred feet, always in sight through the trees. I fired six shots at her without ruffling a hair on her hide. Such slight things will upset the nervous system of most of us and I had a serious case of buck fever at that time. Oh well! There is always another deer. Speaking of unsuccessful morning hunting, three of us had such a morning some years ago in the woods of our Somerset County.

There had been a heavy, damp snow during the night. It stuck to the trees so the woods were very quietyou know that such stuff on trees will absorb any sound a hunter might make. These conditions make ideal hunting, if a man doesn't mind a little snow down his neck; but the deer seldom move about on their own. A hunter must stalk their beds or kick them out in order to have a track to followif he expects to do much. We hunted all morning without finding a track. By noon, we were soaked to the skin and ready to call it a day. Leaving the woods we went to a farmer's house, where we'd left the car. The farmer invited us in to dry out and eat our lunch. We were thirty miles from home and hated to leave without a deer.

There is always another day to come back for hunting if the first attempt doesnt come successfully.