I have always been more struck by the fact that they set there and peppered the dang mule deer from 600 yards away and made the thing suffer when they weren't up to the shot. I'm certain Elmer could have made the shot with the rifle but Paul emptied the gun at the thing without putting it out of it's misery and even if Elmer got the "killing" shot at that range it didn't have the power to get it over with very quickly. The humane thing wasn't to sit there and take pot shots at it with his revolver. The humane thing would have been to do what my grandfather did when I lamed a white tail when I was 10 years old and it was streaking for the brush, he grabbed the rifle from me and finished it before it got away. People wonder why some are so opposed to hunting---this story right here is exhibit A. While I typically enjoy Elmer's writing, I have never enjoyed this particular story. Of course I typically have not been a fan of Elmer's fondness for raking shots either, but he did grow up with a completely different reason for hunting.
Elmer was the guide if I remember correctly. His client was still shooting. It wasn't the guide's place to take his client's rifle and shoot the deer. You're way off base on this. Elmer was an outstanding shot with a handgun.
