202 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



If a well-used water-hole could be found where game was 

 in sufficient quantities to attract lions, it would be advisable 

 to watch it on the chance of getting a shot at a lion a 

 chance which may not be offered for months by daylight, though 

 lions may be heard roaring near the camp night after night. 



And now to deal with the last feature of a stalk the shot. 

 It may be taken as a general rule that all big game should be 

 shot behind the shoulder. 



Roughly speaking, a bullet placed in the lateral centre of 

 the body, or a trifle below the centre, and a few inches behind 

 the shoulder in a perpendicular line with the back of the foreleg, 

 will kill anything, provided, of course, the bullet has sufficient 

 penetration ; as, even if the heart is not touched, the lungs, 

 which are a much larger mark, and almost equally vital, 

 certainly will be. The chest shot when the beast is facing the 

 sportsman is equally good. With elephants, however, when at 

 close quarters, which would be either in long grass or thick 

 bush, the head shot is preferable, as a bullet in the brain will 

 be instantly fatal, and the risk of a charge under conditions 

 unfavourable to the stalker will be avoided. The danger of 

 a charge in such circumstances, more especially on a calm 

 day, is greatly increased by the dense cloud of smoke caused 

 by the explosion of ten or twelve drachms of powder, which 

 hangs in the air and prevents the stalker from seeing the result 

 of his shot. 



With all one's care to avoid the infliction of needless pain, 

 cases occur from time to time in every sportsman's experience 

 in which it seems almost impossible to despatch a mortally 

 wounded beast with anything except a shot in the brain or in 

 the vertebrae of the neck. The wounded animal appears in 

 these cases quite impervious to all sense of pain, being appar- 

 ently in a state of semi-consciousness after the first shot, the 

 shock of each subsequent shot seeming to have no further 

 effect upon its nervous system, yet in nineteen cases out of 

 twenty a beast hit in the same spot and at the same angle 

 would die almost immediately. 



