The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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WAS HARD TO CONVINCE THAT HE HAD KILLED
THREE DEER AT ONE SHOT
By S. C. Turnbo
One of the strange accounts I have in my collection of the killing of three deer at one shot was told me by John Carr, a former resident of Carroll County, Ark. When I saw him he lived at the little town of Choska in the Creek Nation. In furnishing the story Mr. Carr said that when he was a little fellow he went with his father on one election day to the voting precinct in Kings River Township in Carrol County. "Two men of the name of John Avery and John Crapaw was with us and all the men carried guns," said he, "and while we were on our way there we met a big bunch of deer. Avery picked on one of the deer that suited his fancy and shot at it and away it went as fast as it could go with the remainder of the herd. But from its actions while it was running the hunter was convinced that the bullet from his gun had hit it and he went back home for one of his dogs to trail it up and I and my father and Mr. Crapaw followed the herd and we found the one Mr. Avery had wounded lying dead in a half a mile from where it was shot and while we were looking at it Crapaw says, "Lord God, there lays another dead deer," which proved to be shot entirely through the body and so was the first one. And while we were examining the last one found Crapaw says to my father, "Mr. Carr, I swear to God, if there don’t lay another dead deer." An investigation showed that the ball had passed through the deer and lodged against the hide on the opposite side from where the bullet had struck it. It was settled beyond a doubt that Mr. Avery when he shot at the one he had selected out of the bunch had killed it and two more. But we could hardly convince him of his lucky shot. He thought my father and Mr. Crapaw had killed the other two. Avery said that when he shot at the deer he saw two deer in the bunch standing side and side with broadside toward him just beyond the one shot which accounted for the other two dead deer."
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