Under the circumstances the hunter may not be able to hold his rifle steady enough to hit these aforesaid spots.
That is when the paradox comes in.

The hunter points it in a general way in the direction of the oncoming beast, pulls the trigger and hopes for the best.

The paradox bullet hits with the force of a sledge hammer, and stuns everything within a quarter of a mile, and the hunter turns several back somersaults from the recoil and fades into bruised unconsciousness.
We decided not to get the paradox, preferring to trust to hitting the small vital spots rather than transport the weapon by hand through long tropical marches.
The nine-millimeter rifles were said to be large enough for nearly all purposes, but not reassuring in extremely close quarters.

The .256 Mannlichers are splendid for long range shooting, as they carry a small bore bullet and have enormous penetrating power.
The presumption, therefore, was that we should first shoot the lion at long range with the .256, then at a shorter range with the nine-millimeter, then at close range with the .475 cordite, and then perhaps fervently wish that we had the paradox or a balloon.
After getting our arsenal, we then had to get the cartridges, all done up in tin boxes of a weight not exceeding sixty pounds, that being the limit of weight which the African porter is expected to carry.

There were several thousand rounds of ammunition, but this did not mean that several thousand lions were to be killed.