Lions might be killed with one shot at a distance when they are unaware.  Wound them?  A hyper-adrenaline rush occurs and you can shoot them through the heart and still the lion you killed can kill you.  Here's a dramatic example of how this can happen. Full Frontal Lion Charge   Note: Some of you may find the video off-putting because of its hunting content, but keep in mind that hunting is the lowest impact "tourist" activity and does more to conserve habitat than most any other activity.  Still, I hope the big fellow made it. </DIV>   Here is an excerpt from the book -- The Man-eaters of Eden" -- about lion charges...      Stevenson-Hamilton considered it beyond foolishness. An exhausted lion or a lion caught unawares could easily be killed with one well-placed round. But the literature of lion hunting is filled with stories of what happens when a lion is wounded and then charges. Peter Capstick catalogued these dangers in one of his epic hunting books.     “First among them is his inclination to charge from close quarters where only a brain or spine shot will anchor him. You may blow a hole in his heart big enough to accommodate a navel orange, but in his condition of hyperadrenia, there will still be enough oxygen in his brain to carry his charge for a surprising distance and enough moxie left over to turn you into something that would give a hyena the dry heaves.     “The second factor is the combination of his speed and strength and the small target he offers in a frontal charge. In times of stress their movements are virtually nothing but blurs, a very unnerving fact at a time when you yourself are probably scared witless. A typical charge by a lion from sixty feet takes a blinking of an eye, the average shot will be about fifteen yards. At such a short range it is impossible to overestimate the degree of danger a hunter is subjected to. A lion can cover forty five feet quicker than you can pronounce it.” Add on to that, the deceiving target of the lion’s head. There is very little skull or brain above the lion’s brow, Capstick noted, “just a mass of fatty tissue and mane.” Yet the instinct of a hunter seeking a brain shot, is to shoot into this area, thinking he has the head well-targeted when actually he may just be combing the lion’s mane a new part.     The lions ever have been indiscriminate in their attacks without consideration for royalty or race, title or class. Sir George Grey, the brother of a prime minister of Great Britain, took the charge of a lion in the early twentieth century. He stood solidly and his shots were well-placed and landed well in the lion’s chest, but the lion killed him nonetheless. Grey’s fatal mistake might have been to use too little gun – a small .280 Ross high velocity rifle. It was common among sportsmen then to hunt large game with what Robert Ruark called “souped up .22’s” – a practice he decried in a book entitled, “Enough Gun.” The .280 carried a wallop from its velocity, but the actual bullet itself had little mass. Moreover, Sir George appears to have had no back-up shooters to protect against the charge. But none of that explained what happened on a Kenyan safari in 1967. Hunter and author Brian Herne chronicled the series of events in his book, “White Hunters.” Veteran guide and hunter Henry Poolman took an experienced client out looking for the “Big Five” – lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino. Pete Barrett, the client, was a crack shot and experienced hunter. Both men packed formidable weapons: a .458 Winchester for Barrett; a .470 double rifle for Poole. Either weapon could take down an elephant and in fact they were often looking for elephant. Guides and bearers and scouts also carried a mix of weaponry, including a shotgun and a 7 mm rifle – the preferred weapon for lion at a distance. They came upon a lion at relatively close range, and Barrett let loose with a 510-grain bullet – nearly four times heavier than Ross’s little 140 grain. The big cat ran as he fired, however, and they thought they had missed. Then, when they topped a ridge, they saw the cat lying dead. “Congratulatons!” Poolman said to Barrett, and at the sound of a human voice, the “dead” lion rose and charged Barrett. Poolman then did what the white hunter code called for. He placed himself between the lion and his client and as the lion was upon him, blasted away with both barrels of his elephant gun, squarely striking the lion with both shots. The point blank impact of an elephant gun slowed the lion hardly at all. It bowled over Poolman but did not harm him. The lion was after Pete Barrett. He caught up with the client, threw him to the ground and mauled him. Barrett gave the lion one arm and attempted to fend the lion off with the other. Poolman could not find his rifle, lost during the charge, but barehanded came to Barrett’s aid. He pulled the lion’s tail, attempting to deflect its focus on Peter Barrett. Meanwhile, one of Poolman’s experienced gunbearers rushed forward with a 7 mm rifle and from a side vantage point, so neither Poolman nor Barrett were in the line of fire, placed three large caliber slugs directly through the lion’s heart and lungs as quickly as the man could work the bolt of the rifle. The lion reacted not at all and shot through now with five slugs continued to maul Barrett. In the confusion, an inexperienced gunbearer took aim at the lion’s head as Barrett continued to pull on the animal’s tail. The 12 gauge buckshot missed the lion, perhaps because of the disorienting nature of the mane. But the buckshot struck Poolman fully in the chest, killing him instantly. Just moments later, the bullet-riddled lion simply stopped and rolled off of Barrett, quite dead. The client survived the mauling, perhaps because Poolman’s first shots had broken its lower jaw. Herne’s take on lions? “If the first shot is not well placed on a lion, it will trigger a swift adrenaline response. There is little question subsequent body shots are, for the time being at least, going to do very little to slow him down. If that first shot is not immediately fatal, the lion may quickly become the most formidable terrestrial animal on earth.” It was this sort of danger Trollope courted, sometimes several times a day. He forced the charge. On every hunt, he bet that he could place a bullet at exactly the right spot in the lion’s head or spine to stop a charge that a heart shot would not. Was Trollope a sportsman or a bit touched? The other rangers thought a bit of both, but there was no doubt about one thing. He was a dead shot and no lion laid tooth or claw upon him. Sometimes they would fall within feet of him. But he never was mauled or injured. He devastated the lion population in the 1920’s until he tired of the sport and moved on. It seems appalling in this day and age. But Trollope gave Stevenson-Hamilton enough political capital to quell the anti-lion sentiment. And if nothing else could be said of Trollope, these two points surely could: he gave the lion a chance; and once Trollope passed through an area, no-one suggested Stevenson-Hamilton and the reserve rangers were soft on lions.  But when it happens today, the shooting of lions has none of the glory that attached to it in the days of the Great White Hunter. There is no ethic of “fair pursuit.” These are not brave sorties into the bush after fleeing demons. No Patterson at Tsavo. No Rushby in Tanganyika. No Hemingway or Ruark, with their immense but fragile egos, plucky wives and witty safari sundowner banter. No Corbett chasing serial killer tigers in India. No noble Sir George Grey with his high velocity little gun. No brave Poolman. No guts. Above all, no glory. Not even rifle shots mark these events. The truth is that while the lions of Kruger are the most deadly in all of modern history they are the least dangerous to kill. They are habituated to humans and simply do not fear them. The lions of Tsavo, of Tanganyika, knew humans as a foe and were in fact ferociously aggressive and cunningly elusive. The lions of Kruger know humans as slightly more dimwitted than warthogs and a lot easier to catch. Why run from a human? Or a landie filled with rangers and their dart guns?