THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
with shots through the heart. The great elephant hunter, Mr Arthur 
Neumann, killed a number of big bull elephants in the neighbourhood of 
Lake Rudolph, with shots through the heart, with a *303 rifle, and since 
then many other men have done the same. However, when it is remembered 
that elephants are often, indeed usually, encountered in dense jungle, 
long grass, or bamboo thickets, in which their forms can only be dimly 
seen, and it may be impossible to get a clear shot, or to tell exactly at 
what angle they are standing, and where at any moment one may be 
charged at close quarters, a rifle is required which will not only kill 
an elephant when a picked shot can be obtained, but one which will 
also give the hunter the best chance of success under the most 
unfavourable conditions, and be likely to stop a charge in thick cover 
at close quarters. Such a rifle, in my opinion, should be the heaviest 
weapon that can be used easily. A powerfully built man would not find 
a double ‘577-bore cordite rifle too heavy for him, whilst one of slighter 
build might do better with a *450. Mr Arthur Neumann, in his later 
hunting expeditions, always used a double ‘450 -bore cordite rifle by 
Rigby, and he told me himself that he could not have wished for anything 
better. 
These heavy double-barrelled cordite rifles of the best English make, 
although they are probably the very best weapons for killing elephants 
which have ever been made, are, however, it must be remembered, so 
expensive that they are beyond the reach of any but the rich; and the man 
of small or only moderate means who is going to Africa and hopes to shoot 
an elephant or two, but cannot afford to purchase a very expensive rifle, 
would be well advised to take with him, in addition to his small bore, for 
all ordinary game, a magazine rifle taking a heavy cartridge. 
A friend of mine has shot many elephants during the last few years in 
different parts of Central Africa with a *405 -bore Winchester rifle, and 
during his recent year-long hunting trip with his father through East 
Africa, Uganda and the Sudan, Mr Kermit Roosevelt used nothing else 
but one of these rifles, with which he shot elephants, rhinoceroses and 
buffaloes without any difficulty. These Winchester rifles have the great 
advantage for a man of limited means of being very cheap, but English 
rifle makers are now turning out magazine rifles which shoot a larger 
charge of powder and carry a heavier bullet than a *405 Winchester, and 
which therefore must be much more powerful weapons than the latter. 
Such weapons would, I imagine, be found very effective against elephants 
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