Every forest sight or sound was familiar to him.

He knew the cries of the birds and beasts so well that no imitation could deceive him.

Once he was nearly taken in by an unusually perfect imitation of a wild gobbler; but he finally became suspicious, and "placed" his adversary behind a large tree.
Having perfect confidence in his rifle, and knowing that the Indians rarely fired except at close range--partly because they were poor shots, partly because they loaded their guns too lightly--he made no attempt to hide.

Feigning to pass to the Indian's right, the latter, as he expected, tried to follow him; reaching an opening in a glade, Mansker suddenly wheeled and killed his foe.

When hunting he made his home sometimes in a hollow tree, sometimes in a hut of buffalo hides; for the buffalo were so plenty that once when a lick was discovered by himself and a companion,[26] the latter, though on horseback, was nearly trampled to death by the mad rush of a herd they surprised and stampeded.
He was a famous Indian fighter; one of the earliest of his recorded deeds has to do with an Indian adventure.