grand veneur
AH elite
Ooo , very impressive I still would prefer the power of a .500 Jeffery loaded with 570 gr Monolithic meplat brass Solids from Cutting Edge if l didn't have a PH to back me up though. I would attribute your success to pure skill . That said , l prefer the insurance of the .500 if anything does go wrong . An expert can of course use anything to pull off successful kills .
Mr. Mike LaGrange has probably shot more Elephant in modern time than any other gentleman ( being an elephant control officer ) . He never used anything other than a .30-06 M1 Garand loaded with A square monolithic meplat brass Solids . But for the " mortal man " he recommends at least a .458 of some sort.
I don't take offense to your view that .500s are for cowards. You are clearly skilled enough to be very successful with the .375 HH Magnum. I do find it , however , to be a very radical view , as the .500 is insurance for worst case scenarios. As an instance , my father recalls a rogue Indian Elephant in 1968 shot with a .416 Rigby . The Elephant was shot right through the ear and for all purposes , the hunters thought it was dead ! Then it got up again and had to be shot again ( frontal head shot ) . It fell and started getting up again ! Finally a Belgian Shikaree with a .577 Nitro Express Double Rifle Brained that Elephant with a 750 gr FMJ Kynoch slug.
Examination of the elephant caracass showed that both the first and second bullet had been correctly aimed , but didn't reach the brain . Penetration was ALMOST there. They made it through a lot of bone but didn't reach the brain .
Of course , this was a freak incident. The .416 Rigby is a VERY GOOD gun under normal circumstances . But in that kind of situation , having that .577 NE around was a big help . I don't see .500 users as cowards , but rather men who take no chances .
Let it be, it is hopeless.
Nobody has to convince me that cartridges like the 9,3x62 , 9,3x74R or 375 H&H Magnum are suitable for shooting buffalos. I have myself shot buffalos with this cartridges.
That cartridges bigger calibers, with which i also shot buffalos , work better and are an insurance if something goes wrong , there are a lot of people difficult or impossible to convince. They try rather to convince us on the contrary.