THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
low-trajectory rifles. In Mashonaland we used to hunt them, as a rule, on 
horseback. Except in the case of cows heavy with calf, they run well, and 
I have never been able to run down, or gallop past, a single bull. If chased 
by dogs, a bull sable antelope, when alone, will soon come to bay. If there 
is water near at hand, it will always make for it and stand in the middle of 
a pool where no dog can approach it without swimming. When unwounded, 
sable antelopes fight standing, but if badly hurt they will lie down and 
still continue to use their formidable horns with tremendous energy. 
Plucky dogs which are not used to these animals, and which run in and 
seize them in the flank or from behind, are certain to be either killed or 
badly wounded, as soon as they take hold, by a sweeping blow from the 
long curved horns delivered with extraordinary rapidity and accuracy. I 
once had four valuable dogs killed and four others badly wounded in less 
than a minute by a wounded sable antelope bull. I have never been able to 
bring a sable antelope bull to bay with dogs when it was with a herd of 
cows. When the dogs came up barking near the herd, the bull, or some- 
times a cow, would now and then turn on them for a moment, but always 
again rejoined the herd. A wounded sable antelope should never be rashly 
approached, as although as a rule it will only stand snorting defiance, and 
allow one to come quite near without charging, it may, on the other hand, 
charge desperately. One of Lo Bengula’s hunters was killed by one of 
these animals to my own knowledge, and a wounded bull once charged 
and chased my horse for quite a considerable distance. I was trying to 
drive it to my camp, and it twice turned and chased me. This, however, is 
the only experience of the kind that ever happened to me, and I have 
killed a great number of sable antelopes altogether. Like all others of the 
larger African antelopes, the sable is very tenacious of life, and if not hit 
in a vital spot will carry off a great deal of lead. It can certainly be killed 
with any of the modern small-bore cordite rifles, and I have shot several 
fine bulls myself with a *303 bore rifle and dum-dum bullets; but in 
countries where one has to hunt on foot, and where the first shot is always 
the one that counts, I would recommend the use of a somewhat heavier 
weapon, say a *350 or *375 bore. 
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