I have been reading The Great Boer War by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He relates when the war started the British were contemptuous of the Boer burghers, saying they were a surly and slouching bunch, looking like strange grotesque figures, walnut brown, and shaggy bearded in their scruff coats and hats. But he said the Boer’s marksmanship with the Mauser rifle soon changed that attitude. At the early battle of Nicholson’s Nek, the British on the hill were lounging relaxed watching the Boers advancing from over a thousand yards away, when the Boers opened with rifle fire from that distance. The bullets hit right in their midst, slapping and pinging off the rocks, the dull thump when they found a human target and the men began dropping.
The British found the marksmanship of the Boers almost incredible and officers quickly learned to not distinguish themselves by dress or action when in contact with the enemy.
Ironically, once incorporated into the Empire the Boers were superb soldiers on behalf of the Crown.
I remember reading a wartime account by an American armorer who was in both the European and Pacific theaters. During his time in North Africa he allowed a visiting South African Boer officer to try out an M1 Garand...apparently the Boers still retained a love of fine firearms, because he recalled that the officer fell so in love with the rifle that it practically had to be pried out of his hands!