bob above their pits and around trees--just
forty yards away.

The event in which centered the interest of all gathered at those
Saturday matches, was the shooting for the beef.

Each man prepared his own target--a small board, which was charred over
a fire built of twigs and leaves. On this black surface was tacked a
piece of white paper, about two by three inches in size, and in the
center of the bottom margin of the white paper was cut a notch-an
inverted "V," not over a half-inch in height. This permitted the
marksman to raise the silver foresight of his rifle over a black,
charred surface until the hairline of the sight fit into the tip of the
triangle cut into white paper. It was a pinpoint target that left to the
ability of the marksman the exactness of his bead.

The tip of the triangle in the paper was not the bull's-eye. It was
simply the most delicate point that could be devised upon which to draw
a bead.

The bull's-eye was a point at which two knife-blade marks crossed. When
the target was in position this delicately marked bull's-eye could not
be seen by the shooter.

With practice shots they established how the gun was carrying and the
direction in which the nerves of the marksman's eye were at the time
deflecting the ball. Finally the marksman drew his bead on the tip of
the triangle and where the shot punctured the white paper the bull's-eye
would be located.

This was done by moving the white paper until the knife-blade cross
showed through the center of the hole the bullet had made in it. The
paper in this position was retacked upon the board, and underneath was
slipped a second piece of paper making the paper target appear as if no
hole had been torn through it. The bull's-eye so located was usually
within a half-inch radius of the triangle tip.

So exact was the marksmanship of these men that they recognized that
neither gun nor man shot the same, day after day. They knew a man's
physical condition changed as these contests progressed, and that the
gun varied in its register when it was hot and when cool.

The range for the beef-shoot was forty yards "ef ye shot from a chunk."
Twenty-seven yards, or about two-thirds the distance, if the shot was
offhand. "A chunk" was any rest for the rifle--a bowed limb cut from a
tree, the fork of a limb driven firmly into the ground, a part of a
log--anything that was the height to give the needed low level to the
rifle-barrel when the shooter lay spra