Big Game Shooting 



I suppose every one knows that, on being hit 

 in the heart, an animal goes off with a rush for 

 fifty yards before falling dead ; hit in the lungs, 

 he will not go very far, and a bloody froth comes 

 out of his mouth and nose ; whilst a shot in the 

 neck floors him on the spot, but does not neces- 

 sarily kill him. One knows when one is shooting 

 straight, in which case go for the neck. It settles 

 the matter at once. 



I am very much afraid I shall be thought to 

 be peculiar about stalking when I say that I have 

 an absolute mania about being by myself, and not 

 having a gun-bearer within two hundred solid 

 yards, if that. I am not talking about the actual 

 pursuit of dangerous game, when one wants a 

 second gun at one's finger tips, but of ordinary 

 common or garden game. Given that one has 

 taken proper care (one should know that for 

 certain), and that the wind is all right, if that 

 animal goes off with a rush, turn round at once, and 

 six to four you find it's the beastly gun-bearer who 

 is doing something foolish. He either is saying, 

 " Shoot ! Shoot! " in his particular lingo in a sten- 

 torian whisper, or else says that he wanted " to see 

 Master kill his animal," and so has shown himself. 

 That is as good as telling you he has got bored. 

 It is part of his job to be thoroughly bored ! He 

 has to wander round behind Master all day and 

 every day carrying a very heavy double cordite. 

 He may be sent into camp to fetch porters to 



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