APPENDIX 



have smashed through," &c. &c. You must take your shot accord- 

 ing to the rifle you are using that is to say, if a light rifle, you 

 must if possible gain a position from which you can make, or ought 

 to be able to make, a fatal shot. With a heavier gun you need not 

 take so much precaution, but I prefer the lighter gun and a careful 

 stalk more sport in it. 



Give me my .303 and a careful stalk, and the fault will be mine 

 if I don't kill as clean as my friend with the big .450 ! I was 

 originally prejudiced, I admit, but being a smallish, light man I 

 found I could not, with comfort, carry and use a heavy rifle, and so 

 was practically driven to a .303 ; but since then I have become so 

 enamoured of it, that I would not willingly change. 



Referring to sights, I have already, in my chapter on spotted 

 deer shooting, fully recorded my opinion that nothing can beat the 

 Lyman combination of ivory-bead foresight and open-aperture back- 

 sight, with a folding-leaf sight in the middle as a check or for 

 shooting in the dusk. 



Considering the short ranges at which shots are taken out here, 

 there is no necessity for other than a 100 yards sight to be fitted. 

 This will give an effective range of fully 300 yards with any ordinary 

 .303, and about 220 yards with a " Savage." My practice is to adjust 

 my Lyman back-aperture sight until, at about 120 yards, the ivory- 

 bead foresight must cover the object to be hit. There is no mark 

 on an animal, as a rule, against the bottom edge of which, so to 

 speak, you can align the top of your bead target fashion, so I find 

 it much the best to have my sights arranged to necessitate covering 

 with the bead the spot you wish to hit. 



Coming now to your ball-and-shot gun, this is useful as a stand- 

 by, or for shooting at close quarters, for shooting in forest or 

 undergrowth, for water-hole night shooting, and, finally, for off-day 

 shot-gun work. 



My own gun is a 1 2-bore " Paradox " double-barrelled breech- 

 loading hammer gun, and has been my faithful companion for fifteen 

 years, but is still as good as ever. 



With it I have shot, in former years, everything from a snipe to 

 an elephant, and nowadays it is always my stand-by, jungle trip 

 shot-gun, and, above all, my " water-hole " gun. 



Its only fault is too great a tendency to send its hollow-pointed 

 (supposed) expanding ball clean through an animal, and this, I 

 venture to think, might be rectified if no hardening tin were put 

 into the lead for this class of ball, having them of pure lead only, 

 and therefore softer than those made of the mixture. 



The hardened lead is perfect for the solid ball for use on hard- 



35 



