Call The Shot Elephant

[HankBuck]

This bull is charging and at 10 feet you have enough time to raise your barrel and fire. No time to think. Where do you aim.View attachment 619396

@Altitude sickness - You create a real dilemma if the Elephant is only 10 feet away AND already charging….does it really matter where I aim ? (I’m already DEAD) Might as well save the ammo for my heirs…since the rifle will be crushed

 

[SStomcat]

View attachment 629508

Blue will not even phase it! It might turn it. This would be the shot to take to try desperately to get it to stop charging without killing it (e.g. accidental elephant charge while hunting buffalo), but if this does not work and it is close and truly coming, you are about dead...

Red, above the eyes, and just above the upper end of the zygomatic arches, will maybe graze the top of the brain, especially with a shot angling up, but more probably go just over it. A 9.3, .375 or even .416 will probably not knock it down, but a .500, .470 or .458 Lott will most likely drop it but not kill it. You have about 5 to 10 seconds to run sideways and put another one in the top of its head or a couple behind its shoulder.

I would go a little lower than discussed so far because its head is held up; the shot is angling up; indeed "when in doubt aim low" (attributed to Richard Harland in modern days, but he could have just repeated it from older hands, and in any case advised by Charlton McCallum in his videos) and they do not mean 1" low but 4" low - it is an elephant after all; and the shot is still in line with the zygomatic arches.


PS: red would work if it is coming for you from below, e.g. it is in a shallow river bottom and you are on the bank 4 to 6 ft higher than it.

If I can add, a proper solid like Woodleigh Hydrostatically Stabilised, North Fork CPS, or Swift Breakway in a 9.3, 375, or 416 would do more damage when hit in the Red spot due to the cavity and wound channel it creates. May even kill it, IMHO

 

[SStomcat]

This bull is charging and at 10 feet you have enough time to raise your barrel and fire. No time to think. Where do you aim.View attachment 619396

At 10 feet, I will shoot on the 2nd wrinkle or line below the red dot, or maybe between the first and 2nd crease line below: I have no no Elephant hunting experience, just theoretical knowledge of the anatomy of the African elephant's brain location.

 

[M70375!]

View attachment 629508

Blue will not even phase it! It might turn it. This would be the shot to take to try desperately to get it to stop charging without killing it (e.g. accidental elephant charge while hunting buffalo), but if this does not work and it is close and truly coming, you are about dead...

Red, above the eyes, and just above the upper end of the zygomatic arches, will maybe graze the top of the brain, especially with a shot angling up, but more probably go just over it. A 9.3, .375 or even .416 will probably not knock it down, but a .500, .470 or .458 Lott will most likely drop it but not kill it. You have about 5 to 10 seconds to run sideways and put another one in the top of its head or a couple behind its shoulder.

I would go a little lower than discussed so far because its head is held up; the shot is angling up; indeed "when in doubt aim low" (attributed to Richard Harland in modern days, but he could have just repeated it from older hands, and in any case advised by Charlton McCallum in his videos) and they do not mean 1" low but 4" low - it is an elephant after all; and the shot is still in line with the zygomatic arches.


PS: red would work if it is coming for you from below, e.g. it is in a shallow river bottom and you are on the bank 4 to 6 ft higher than it.

I think you are right on

 

[mitch4570]

At 10 feet! If you brain him he's going to fall on you. Jump to the side quick!

 

[SStomcat]

At 10 feet! If you brain him he's going to fall on you. Jump to the side quick!

In the videos I have seen for a proper head shot, the rear legs buckle, and the Elephant droops on the rear and topples to the side. Are you saying if you don't brain him properly, the momentum will carry him forward? I'm curious

 

[K-man]

In the videos I have seen for a proper head shot, the rear legs buckle, and the Elephant droops on the rear and topples to the side. Are you saying if you don't brain him properly, the momentum will carry him forward? I'm curious

The one charging cow elephant I have brained left skid marks in the road 20 feet long. Back end down first and then front legs then head. Shot at what I thought was 40 yards but was more like 32. Probably the speed she covered ground. At ten yards I would have needed to get to the side.

 

[mitch4570]

In the videos I have seen for a proper head shot, the rear legs buckle, and the Elephant droops on the rear and topples to the side. Are you saying if you don't brain him properly, the momentum will carry him forward? I'm curious

No elephant experieance, just saying at 10 feet it seems you are in real trouble!

 

[SStomcat]

No elephant experieance, just saying at 10 feet it seems you are in real trouble!

And also interested to know why wait for the elephant to come that close?

 

[Rule 303]

And also interested to know why wait for the elephant to come that close?

Might just be circumstances, whatever they maybe, causes this.

 

[mitch4570]

Maybe there is a hole under the blue dot that didn't put him down. Now he is mad and coming at you fast, and you only have one shot left in your double!

 

[grand veneur]

At 10 feet! If you brain him he's going to fall on you. Jump to the side quick!

10 feet is an extreme situation. I shot an elephant at night at maybe 20 feet. He came towards me, the PH stand behind me and the tracker with the light had some difficulty illuminating the head of the elephant. Luckily he managed to do that in the last moment so that I was able to shot the elephant with a frontal brain shot. The elephant went backwards and fell on the side. I did not have to jump beside. The only problem was that because of the dust cloud that arose, I could hardly breathe.