The author was so confident of the first shot on this Marco Polo ram that he didn't shoot again. They caught up with the animal one ridge later, just before dark, at 16,000 feet in extreme cold.

I don't know about you, but I always feel a great deal of pressure when I take a shot at a game animal. At least some of this is self-imposed because I really hate to miss, especially in front of witnesses. Part of it is normal, or at least I hope it is, because as much as I hate to miss, I most especially don't want to wound an animal. I want to do it right, so when I shoot an animal and see it go down I feel not only elation but a whole lot of relief.

Game doesn't always drop to the shot, though, and sometimes there is a second chance, and whether you should shoot again or not is a tough call. After all, dead is dead, and a well-placed shot will be fatal.

Why mess up more meat than necessary? And since the second, more hurried shot will rarely be as good as the first, there's also risk of unnecessarily damaging the hide or even ruining the horns or antlers on a trophy.

Obviously taking a second shot depends tremendously on the circumstances. I've been criticized for this, but if a potentially dangerous animal is still on its feet I keep shooting, provided there's no risk of hitting the wrong animal.

I don't do this out of lack of confidence, but simply because I don't want a hairy follow-up if it can be avoided, and I don't like betting my skin (or the skins of folks with me) on either my shooting or the performance of my bullet.

I think this is a sensible policy with dangerous game--especially tough dangerous game, whether bears or buffalo. With everything else there is sometimes a decision to be made. Sometimes there isn't.

No matter how fast you are, a spooked animal (hit or unhit) can move pretty darned fast. It's best to be as careful and as sure with that first shot as you possibly can be because it's a rare situation when your second shot opportunity is as good as your first. Even so, I believe in instantly getting ready for a second shot--and then, sometimes, you can have luxury of deciding whether you should use it or not.

When you lose an animal it's because the first shot wasn't placed well enough or because the bullet failed, which does happens but much more rarely than shooter error. Unfortunately, if you lose an animal you almost never really know which it was, and it doesn't matter; it's still a horrible shame.

Perhaps there wasn't time to fire again those subsequent (and more difficult) shots missed, and that's horrible. But it's even more horrible--at least in terms of kicking yourself--if you had a chance to shoot again but failed to do so because you were too certain of that first shot.

The decision to shoot again or hold your fire and let the first bullet take effect is thus a matter of confidence. To some extent this decision gets simpler the more experience you have, but unfortunately field experience in shooting game is hard won. This can be mitigated by lots and lots and lots of practice.