THE LION 
not stop a charging lion, though I feel sure that a properly placed bullet 
from a smaller bore would. After the first barrel of a double rifle has been 
fired at a charging lion without stopping it, the second should be held 
till it is quite close up. New rifles are being put on the market every day, 
and they are probably all good if the right bullet is used with them. When 
shooting in East Africa a few months ago, I used a *275 magnum by 
Holland and Holland, and I was supplied with cartridges loaded with 
bullets of two kinds, solid nickel -coated, sharp pointed, and another kind 
of the same size, weight and shape, but copper-pointed. The copper- 
pointed bullets I found most unreliable at short ranges, as they burst 
into a number of small pieces on striking even a small animal, thus 
inflicting an enormous surface wound without penetrating to the vitals. 
It would be dangerous, I think, to use such copper -pointed bullets on a 
lion. On the other hand, I found the solid nickel-coated pointed bullets 
most satisfactory. I believe they must turn and rotate on striking an 
animal. At any rate, in my experience, they do not merely drill a small 
hole, but inflict extraordinary internal injury, and tear a large hole at 
the point of exit through the skin on the further side. In spite of their 
small size, I believe that such solid nickel-coated bullets would prove as 
effective against lions as they certainly are against the larger African 
antelopes. 
EE 
209 
