82 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



weapons to use continually, as their stopping power is not 

 great enough. 



Personally, as a man cannot shoot unlimited elephants 

 nowadays in any British protectorate or colony, I find that 

 I can kill elephants best with the rifle I use continually 

 on smaller game, and that a small bullet in the right place 

 is much better than a large bullet in the wrong place. 



A friend w r ho uses a '450 No. 2 bore tells me that when 

 hit well forward an elephant is practically anchored, as the 

 shock to his system seems to take away all power of 

 movement. 



The 7*gmm. Mauser rifles with a long, blunt bullet have 

 tremendous penetration, for I once fired a solid at an 

 mbawa (mahogany) tree, quite 2ft. in diameter. The 

 bullet went clean through it, and doubtless had sufficient 

 velocity to kill a man after that. For head shots at 

 elephant and hippo nothing can beat such a rifle, and they 

 are infinitely superior to a weapon firing a light, pointed 

 bullet, which will likely get bent and zigzag all over the 

 place. 



For killing soft-skinned game there are many good types 

 of bullets, such as hollow-pointed, soft-nose, " Dum-Dum/' 

 and slit. The soft-nose and slit expand more readily than 

 the hollow point and Dum-Dum, and the two latter types 

 are much the best for buffalo and eland. 



I will now mention a few incidents and accidents that 

 have occurred to big-game hunters, and I will begin with 

 Mr. F. C. Selous, certainly the most noted of living big- 

 game sportsmen. As I have mentioned, he began his 

 shooting career in Africa by using large 4-bore smooth 

 bores (called by the Dutch " Roers "), and then he mentions 

 using a lo-bore breechloader. One day, being unwell, he 

 followed a herd of elephants w r ith a -461 Gibbs falling 

 block single rifle, using, I think, a solid bullet of Syogrs. 

 weight. 



He killed five elephants and wounded a sixth, which 

 he found a few weeks afterwards. He also mentions in 

 his book "A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa" having 



