Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
General
Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)
Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
Game and game-birds; Hunting
a shot or a signal to come on, he pushes forward with the greatest
caution, a curious mixture of coolness and intense excitement.
Should the nature of the ground in which the sportsman finds them be
open, so as to prevent his getting nearer than 40 yards, the shoulder
shot is the best to take at elephants, and I believe is almost
universally recommended by all old elephant hunters. Should the beasts,
however, be found standing in dense bush or tall cane-like grass
(and they are very partial to these places) where it is impossible
to see them until within 20 yards or less, and where even then all
but the head and outline of the back is hidden, the temple is the
best shot, and a shot anywhere between the eye and a little dark mark
which indicates the orifice of the ear would be instantly fatal. When
elephants are standing in thick bush and long grass, unless a sportsman
has had a good deal of experience with them, the fact of seeing their
huge backs towering above the covert is rather apt to deceive him in
regard to the position of their heart and lungs. The great depth of
their bodies would probably lead him to shoot too high, and a bullet
placed too high, although it might eventually prove fatal, would not
prevent the beast getting clean away at the time.
The hunt after the first elephant I ever killed is a very fair example
of many which I have had, though I regret to say a very large
proportion have not been so successful as this was.
In May 1887 I was encamped on one of the numerous streams on the
southern slopes of Kilimanjaro, below Kiboso, with my friend Mr. H. C.
V. Hunter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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