4.—WITH BOTH EYES OPEN.
The whole of the head is visible through the hands and rifle.
THE DOTTED LINES SHOW THE POSITION OF THE HEART AND LUNGS.
WITH THE HERD IN THE PAIRING SEASON.
The natural inclination of most men is to fire and fire quickly, straight at the beast, anywhere. This must be resisted at all costs. If you can force yourself to wait until you have counted ten slowly, the animal is yours. The mere act of asserting your mentality gives such ascendency to your powers of judgment and such confidence that you will be surprised to find yourself coolly waiting for a better chance than the one you were quite prepared to take a few seconds before. When you are in this state of mind, try and get to a range of about thirty yards at right angles to the fore and aft line of the animal. Now see if the fore leg is clearly visible for the greater part. If it is and is fairly upright you may use its centre line as your direction. A third of the distance from the brisket to the top of the back is the elevation. If struck there or thereabouts either the top of the heart or the lungs or some of the arteries will be pierced and the animal cannot live, even when the bullet used is as small as a ·256. He may run fifteen or twenty yards, subside into a walk for another forty or fifty yards, stand about for some time and then subside. This is a pierced artery. He may rush away for thirty to sixty yards at a great pace and fall in his stride. This is a heart shot. Or he may rush off spouting bright red blood from his trunk in great quantities. This is a shot in the lungs.
If you have missed the deadly area and are high, you may have touched the spinal column. But it is so massive at this spot in a large elephant that it will rarely be broken, so that even when he comes down he will soon recover and be up and off. Too far forward you may get the point of the shoulder and your bullet may have so weakened the bone that when he starts off it may break. An elephant can neither trot nor gallop, but can only pace, therefore one broken leg anchors him. It is true that he may just stagger along for a few yards by substituting his tusks as a support in place of the broken leg. In a case of this sort you will naturally dispatch him as quickly as possible.
If your bullet has gone too far back and got into the stomach you may be in for a lively time, as nothing seems to anger them more than a shot so placed. If he comes for you meaning business, no instructions would help you, simply because you wouldn’t have time to think of them. Hit him hard quickly and as often as you can, about a line between the eyes, or in the throat when his head is up, and see what happens. Never turn your back to him. While you can see him you know where he is. And besides, you cannot run in thick stuff without falling. Always stand still and shoot whichever animal threatens you most is what I have found to be the best plan.