A race horse going off at 100-to-1 odds is a "Long Shot." So is a natural royal flush, as are many other risky enterprises that don't fulfill their promise. And so is sending a pointed metal cylinder weighing less than half an ounce through several hundred yards of turbulent, moving air to strike a game animal's vitals.

Many hunters who snipe their deer from elevated stands seem to believe that elevation alone makes worrying about wind superfluous. (Those who don’t know enough to worry about wind direction and force anywhere, anytime, may stop reading right here, because what follows will probably only confuse them.)

Since trophy hunters seem to be in low esteem among uninformed non-hunters, I cannot so identify myself without a word of explanation. First, true trophy-deer hunters are highly selective, discriminating and skilled hunters who kill very seldom and who help keep the age and sex ratios in a whitetail population as much like an unhunted herd as possible.

The odds are that your hunting rifle is not perfectly sighted-in, no matter what you remember from the most recent firing. Rifles can change, for many possible reasons.

Sooner or later, most shooters get around to trying a muzzleloading rifle. When that urge came over me, back in the ’50s, there was no such thing as a replica hunting rifle. I dug up an original caplock rifle in a hock shop in Richmond, Texas. To say it had seen better days is a serious understatement, but all the parts were there and the bore still showed signs of having been rifled at one time.

Speaking of ways to add challenge to your deer hunting (which we were, in this space two weeks ago), perhaps you’ve been considering a handgun, in addition to traditional muzzleloaders or string guns.

It is the nature of mankind to enjoy a challenge, and hunters are no different. This is why some deer hunters turn to the so-called “primitive weapons” — archery or traditional muzzleloading rifles.

It’s a fair question. When I loaded my first cartridge, back in the early ’50s, properly assembled handloads beat factory ammo on every count. The homemade product was cheaper, more reliable, usually more accurate, commonly more powerful and flatter shooting, more versatile, and could use much superior bullets for whatever the task at hand. The only things going for factory ammo were convenience and savings of time.

Faulty range estimation may cause more misses by experienced riflemen at big game than any other single factor.

Experience, patience and attention to the smallest details ensure recovery. Somewhere out there in the hushed woods is a wounded deer, and it's up to you to follow and find it.