"hunting" versus "shooting." 85 



It may be as well to state that the range of a rifle has, as a rule, nothing to do 

 with the safety of the hunter. A rifle may have a range of two thousand yards, but if 

 you cannot see your game till you get within fifty yards this does not much help you. 



Elephant are shot at from thirty to fifty yards, and in the thick grass and bush 

 which they inhabit often cannot be seen farther than twenty yards. Rhino, in bush 

 country, are generally shot at about the same range. Lion and buffalo, when they 

 are wounded, and that is when they are most dangerous, are, as a rule, shot at 

 twenty to thirty yards or under. I have only twice in my life shot leopard. On the 

 first occasion I was firing through a zareba, and my rifle touched the animal ; on 

 the second occasion the animal was concealed in a small thorn bush, and I had 

 to approach, with a single loading '303, to within two yards before I could get a 

 clear shot. 



The mechanism of a magazine or double ejector is also tremendously in favour 

 of the hunter ; but if anything goes wrong at a critical moment, such as a jam or 

 missfire, he will discover how entirely nature has failed to equip him with any natural 

 means of defence. He cannot bite or scratch or sting or even run away. He may 

 have fancied himself as a runner with spiked shoes on a track, but in the bush it is all 

 he can do to make his way through the thick and tangled undergrowth at a 

 snail's pace. 



In the old days the approaching of dangerous game with a muzzle-loader or 

 single-loader must have been very much more dangerous work than is the present- 

 day approaching with a rifle. However, I take it that the countries hunted over in 

 those times were far more open and favourable, as a rule, than the present hunting- 

 grounds of Africa. Although there were patches of thick bush and grass, even these 

 probably gave better "going" than the thick, matted and tangled country, with the 

 rank and tropical growth of the present-day hunting-grounds. For instance, I have 

 very seldom indeed seen elephants in a country in which it would be possible to follow 

 them on horseback even for a short distance. I take it that in the very early days 

 the hunting of elephant in South Africa was more akin to the present shooting of 

 rhino on the East African plains, and quite unlike the following up of elephant in 

 thick bamboo or tangled grass, where it is diflicult to proceed on foot, and which 

 has to be resorted to to-day. As years went by the elephant were pushed back into 

 the more tropical and more thickly overgrown countries. 



Lions may sometimes be shot at long ranges on the East African plains, but at 

 these distances it is generally difficult to do more than wound an animal. The 

 wounded animal has either then to be followed up into such cover as he selects and 

 there shot at close quarters — or left alone. 



