Well after hearing about the lion update in this thread I decided to update the game and have a spin on the Africa map and.. Only went and bagged a blooming great big "very hard" lion in the first 30 mins!
For those of you who know the game well here's the full story (I'll include a few tips for beginners too):
I loaded up the game and was dropped very near to where you start on the Africa map. Prior to the lion update I'd only loaded up the level to check it out and had shot a couple of springboks at range with the rifle because I was unable to get close enough for some shotgun action without spooking them. This time around I was determined to put a shotgun slug into a springbok or similar prey animal and if I managed to encounter a lion then all the better.
So I got the wind in my face, set the map marker 500m or so upwind and set off in my normal stalking manner, which is in the crouch position but with sprint enabled. This means that you move fast enough to cover some ground (although still quite slow) but won't make a noise loud enough to put the sound meter into the red. The key is to avoid running or walking round (which makes lots of noise) and expecting to see something, in the unlikely event you spot something the chances are it's already aware of you and preparing to make off. Pick an imaginary target within range, such as a tree, and slowly stalk it. If you don't encounter anything, pick another point along your route that's within range and repeat. Quite often you'll hear footsteps and either the target will emerge for you to ambush or you can change course (wind permitting) and set up a shot once within range.
So I'm ambling along slowly and there's nothing for the first 10 mins or so but that's cool, I haven't played for ages and it's nice listening to the birds and scanning the landscape (I think it's a very pretty game). Every time the horizon features changed I stopped and did a full scan with the binos, but there was still nothing visible for the moment. I encountered a big bunch of springbok tracks which consisted of several animals but unfortunately they were heading downwind which was no good. I kept going and my route took me into some very tall (about 6 foot high) grass where I could see nothing in my crouch/sprint position, so I kept slowly moving forward and stopping each time it looked like the grass was thinning to ensure that I didn't blunder out into the open and spook whatever was possibly there before I spotted it.
Before long the edge of my cover appeared and I gingerly got close enough to the open to have a scan with the binos. Bingo! They were hardly visible in the knee-high grass of the field I was emerging into but the humped back of an animal and 2 long horns stuck up in the air indicated there was a target to be had. I was still just inside the cover of the very long grass so risked standing up to get a better view. A group of five springbok were resting in the grass and unaware. The rangefinder measured the closest at 90 metres, too far (for me) to take a decent shot with the scoped pump-action shotgun and a solid slug. I needed to get nearer and this involved going out into the open.
Back on the range I'd thoroughly tested the pump-action with the slug rounds and (from memory) up to 30 metres I can aim on point, 40 metres requires aiming about 3 inches above point, 50 metres about 6 inches and 60 metres involves aiming a full foot above the target point. Anything further away and it's a fluke if I hit the target at all. I can't guarantee these figures, I wrote out a little range card when I was right into this game which has since been binned, but you get the picture: The slugs have a massive drop at range. So ideally I needed to get within 30 metres for a catastrophic head/heart shot, and with them all lying down it looked like a headshot would the only viable option.
Before venturing out into the open I needed to sort my range out because this was going to be a belly crawl. Once you get down below the grassline it's easy to lose track of distance (and direction if the wind changes) because you often can't see anything until you pop up again. When you do pop up you'll want to be within range pointing directly at your target. This is a little trick I use: Once you have a static target sighted out in the open, place your map marker behind it. If you've been stalking along in the way I've described it'll probably already be behind the target anyway. Before you break cover look at the distance to your map marker. Now use your rangefinder and look at your distance to target. Deduct your distance to target from the distance to your map marker and remember that figure. Once you're out in the open going along on your belly and the target is unsighted the map marker will still be visible, all you need to do at any time is face the map marker, deduct the figure you remembered from the distance to the map marker and that's your distance to target! So you can slowly belly crawl blindly along, knowing exactly where the target is (provided the target stays static of course) and once you're within your calculated range you simply face the map marker, get the weapon into the aim and when you rise into the crouch position you're ready to take the shot quickly at close range.
Anyway, I got my distances sorted and began belly crawling out into the knee-high grass. Slowly but surely I closed in on the now-unsighted springboks. 80 metres came and went, 70 metres came and went, I got within 60 metres and was really tempted to pop up and take a long shot, but kept on going. The wind was still in my face and everything was going well, I couldn't hear footsteps so they hadn't got up and started clip clopping about so all was good. I got within 50 metres, then 40 metres. I was counting down the last 10 metres to my firing point as I crawled forward when suddenly there was a stampede of hooves! Thinking I'd somehow spooked them I rose to a crouch and they were all running, but not directly away from me as I expected but from right to left and slightly towards me! They were now galloping past on my left about 20 metres away, I quickly unholstered my gun and was just about to take a pot shot at the closest when the thought struck me that something else must have spooked them rather than me, I turned right towards the direction they were running from and at that exact moment a lion burst out of the treeline and started charging across the field after them!
I got the weapon up into the aim and was just about to fire at centre mass when the lion pulled up and stopped, so at the last moment I quickly moved the sights up to the head and fired before thinking about aiming points or anything. The lion dropped down dead. It turns out that in my haste I'd accidentally equipped the 7mm rifle instead of the shotgun anyway, and with 55 metres being nothing for the flat trajectory of the 7mm I got a brain shot. Here's a couple of pics:
