Dinosaur Hunting Guns: Taking Down T-Rex and Other Extinct Reptiles

[spoonieduck]

Ok guys; I've been resisting this thread but here is my Euro mount... Taken cleanly with the 505 Gibbs and Flat Point Solid Brass bullets.
View attachment 39248

Does Obama know that you used prohibited ammunition?

 

[colorado]

I've got 5 boxes of the .510 caliber 570g banded solids. Holding on to them for dear life.

 

[Rifleman]

I found a pic of the perfect solution!

 

[Saul]

Anyone seen "Jurassic World" yet? In the film, they were using a Marlin 45-70 lever rifle

 

[colorado]

Haven't seen it yet, good luck with that lol

 

[Spydr]

Great post! I'll take this... with or without Jesse the Body...

 

[Saul]

Great post! I'll take this... with or without Jesse the Body...View attachment 43594

You could always trade him in for Carl Weathers

 

[tigris115]

Staying on the topic of hunting long dead beasts, there's this blog post by a guy I follow that IMO, would make an amazing concept for a game. The basic concept is a period accurate hunting-survival game set in L.A. 15,000 years ago.

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Mind #33: Pleistocene (Original Game Idea)

 

[Panielsen]

Thankfully for us, our fore thinking brethren at A-Square already developed the dino-devistation we are pondering. The .577 T-Rex has been out for years now and should stop the offending beasties in there tracks! The .460 Weatherby is, according to Wiki, the only sporting rifle recognized as acceptable for whale harvesting given it's penetration. The .700 Nitro Express should do nicely as well as it packs even more energy than the previous two calibers I listed. Unfortunately, all but a few of us would require gym hours to pack on the needed muscle mass to shoulder such artillery, as when facing down a large carnivore such as T-Rex, you don't want a flinch! We had a chance to review the ballistic evidence in the second of the films, but a bleeding heart environmentalist threw away the ammunition. The hunter did successfully dart T-Rex, but the green hunt mentality failed in epic proportions in that film. I say use the formula provided by A-Square, and the genius/insanity of Roy Weatherby and you can't go wrong. I'll be in the Land Rover with my Nikon and Winchester .458!

 

[matt85]

We had a chance to review the ballistic evidence in the second of the films, but a bleeding heart environmentalist threw away the ammunition. The hunter did successfully dart T-Rex, but the green hunt mentality failed in epic proportions in that film.

ugh i saw a portion of that movie last night... the anti-hunting propaganda is so thick in that movie you could spread it on pita bread.

-matt

 

[Panielsen]

ugh i saw a portion of that movie last night... the anti-hunting propaganda is so thick in that movie you could spread it on pita bread.

-matt

Indeed.....

 

[Saul]

Indeed.....

I really didn't see it as anti-hunting. If you are referring to the rich guy who owned the park, he said that the dinosaurs were for enjoyment and wonder. That sounds like any national park or hunting trip to me. Chris Pratt, who plays the protagonist, is an avid hunter in real life. So where is this anti-hunting message coming from? I think you guys are reading way too much into a dinosaur action movie.

 

[Panielsen]

I really didn't see it as anti-hunting. If you are referring to the rich guy who owned the park, he said that the dinosaurs were for enjoyment and wonder. That sounds like any national park or hunting trip to me. Chris Pratt, who plays the protagonist, is an avid hunter in real life. So where is this anti-hunting message coming from? I think you guys are reading way too much into a dinosaur action movie.

Lol, in the story he unloads the double and hides the ammo to prevent the hunter from killing a T-Rex. That is where we are getting that. In any event, I would have liked to see the results of the rifle on the T-Rex from a ballistics point of view just in case someone clones Dinos' and the open a season on them. Who knows, maybe Hornady will unleash a line of "Dino-Max" ammo next!

 

[Saul]

Lol, in the story he unloads the double and hides the ammo to prevent the hunter from killing a T-Rex. That is where we are getting that. In any event, I would have liked to see the results of the rifle on the T-Rex from a ballistics point of view just in case someone clones Dinos' and the open a season on them. Who knows, maybe Hornady will unleash a line of "Dino-Max" ammo next!

I thought we were talking about "Jurassic World" but you are talking about a scene from "Jurassic Park: The Lost World". The point that scene was making was that guy was NOT a real hunter. He was supposed to be a psychopath who used people as bait to kill a T-Rex. I also think there were scenes in the film where him and his men tortured and killed some other dinosaurs. Plus, I think that guy was holding them captive and was trying to profit monetarily from the dinosaur excursion.

 

[matt85]

I really didn't see it as anti-hunting. If you are referring to the rich guy who owned the park, he said that the dinosaurs were for enjoyment and wonder. That sounds like any national park or hunting trip to me. Chris Pratt, who plays the protagonist, is an avid hunter in real life. So where is this anti-hunting message coming from? I think you guys are reading way too much into a dinosaur action movie.

1. first the "heroes" release all the captured animals in a glorious scene showing how great echo terrorists are.

2. the "hunter" captures and wounds a baby t-rex to lure its parents to a location of his choosing. this part bugged me the most, talk about cruel and unsportsmanlike!

-matt

 

[tigris115]

Yeah, I'm not a really big fan of The Lost World. Aside from Ian Malcolm and Eddie Carr, the protagonists were all morons. For example, were led to believe that Sarah Harding is an animal expert whose resume includes studying African carnivores up close. So of course the first thing we see her do is get extremely close to a baby Stegosaurus and piss off the herd. Not to mention that most if not all of the deaths can be indirectly traced to Sarah and Nick Van Oven such as Sarah carrying around her jacket covered in baby T. rex blood. This film REEKS of environmental cliches. The scene that gets to me the most is when Roland Tembo says "predators don't hunt when they're not hungry" than Nick says "No, only humans do." God I hate this character. Oh and there's the part where the little girl defeats a raptor with a gymnastics routine. Yeah there's a reason this is a contentious film among the Jurassic Park community. For me, it's has it's faults but at least it's not as bad as #3. Well at least JW makes up for all that.

Here's two reviews by Jontron and The Nostalgia Critic that put all this in better words than I can.

 

[Cervus elaphus]

Dinosaur Hunting Guns: Taking Down T-Rex and Other Extinct Reptiles

Written in April 9, 2013 by John B. Snow

View attachment 34239

Over the weekend I took my two children to see Jurassic Park, which has been re-released in 3D to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film’s introduction. I find it impossible to watch without putting myself in the shoes of the professional hunter whose job it is to somehow manage the beasts once they escape.

His firearm of choice is a Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun, which has the ability to work both as a semi-auto and a pump-action. The extended magazine tube, oversized foreend and skeletonized folding stock give it some serious bad-ass cred and it’s hardly surprising that it has appeared in numerous films, including the Terminator, the Matrix, RoboCop, and Snatch—not counting a whole host of utterly forgettable action films. (Blastfighter, anyone?)

But I digress. The real question is what is the ideal gun for the job as head game ranger on an island full of dinosaurs?

T-Rex
View attachment 34237
A full grown T-Rex is 40 feet long, stands 13-feet tall at the hips and weighs somewhere around 6 tons and is estimated to have the most powerful bite of any terrestrial animal in earth’s history, generating more than 15 times the chomping power of an African lion. Making matters worse, conservative estimates put its top speed at 25 mph while some scientists believe it could truck along at 45 mph, which is faster than either a charging grizzly or a lion.

If the movie is accurate, then one slight blessing is that the animal’s sight cues in on movement, so, in theory, if you stay still it should have a more difficult time finding you.

Needless to say, a shotgun isn’t worth a warm bucket of spit against an animal of this stature.

Being over-gunned is an impossibility against a T-Rex, but with a true charge-stopping rifle, like a Merkle double, you’d at least have a chance. Personally, I wouldn’t go any lighter than a .458 Lott. The .470 NE, .500 NE and .600 NE would also be good contenders. I would probably opt for a double-rifle with a red-dot sight on it. I’d want that red dot for precise bullet placement as the only shot that makes sense is a broadside shot that takes out either the hip or smashes the knee. Take out the leg to put it down and then finish it off with a double lung shot or a shot in the neck.

The open sights that are usually on a rifle like this, meant to stop a charging animal, would be worthless against a charging T-Rex. With a puny brain inside a massive skull the chances of turning off the switch with a head shot are minimal. Of course, the only bullets worth using on a T-Rex are solids. I’d be curious to see how Federal’s new safari load would fare.

Velociraptor
View attachment 34238
As any self-respecting first grader knows, the velociraptors in Jurassic Park were not accurately depicted. True velociraptors stood about a foot and a half high at the hip, were approximately 7 feet long from nose to tail and only weighed about 33 pounds. I wouldn’t underestimate the little monsters, but a good semi-auto shotgun loaded with buckshot should settle their hash without much difficulty. So I’ll go with either the Remington Versa Max Tactical or an FNH SLP Mk1 Tactical.

Deinonychus
View attachment 34240
This fearsome predator is more akin to what Spielberg was going for with his “velociraptors” in the movie. These larger cousins of the smaller true velociraptors grew to 11 feet long, could weigh as much as 160 pounds, and were, by all accounts, very smart pack-hunting animals that used the large curved talons on their feet to deadly effect. Picture them with the speed and agility of a leopard and the killing power of a lion and you’ll get some idea of what they could do. It probably wouldn’t require a lot of gun to take one down, but woe to the hunter who only wounds one. A semi-auto shotgun loaded with slugs might serve well, but I’m going with a Springfield Armory M1A Socom 16 for this job. I’d put either an EOTech optic up front on it or something like the Trijicon SRS. Mount a SureFire X400 combo weapon light/laser and you’ll be good to go.

Editors Note:
I thought an article about firearms for dinosaurs would be a bit too silly for the actual Articles thread. I would also like to hear what thoughts on this subject. Personally, I can talk about dinosaurs and other extinct animals for hours on end as family and friends can testify. I'd also like to hear your ideas of calibers and firearms suitable for extinct fauna.

In a presentation by a pro Alaskan fishing guide at our local club, he said the fishing guides carried 20g or .410 similar shotguns with fine birdshot. If there was no choice in an encounter with a big brown two guides use the fine pellets to take out Bruin's sight and hearing, then they can get in close and finish the animal off. The presenter said that the paperwork followup was horrendous and the remains less the meat had to be skinned out and handed in. Up there, one guide to one client and if you went for a dump the guide came with you. I love my fishing but think I'll stick to sandflies and german wasps.

 

[spike.t]

In a presentation by a pro Alaskan fishing guide at our local club, he said the fishing guides carried 20g or .410 similar shotguns with fine birdshot. If there was no choice in an encounter with a big brown two guides use the fine pellets to take out Bruin's sight and hearing, then they can get in close and finish the animal off. The presenter said that the paperwork followup was horrendous and the remains less the meat had to be skinned out and handed in. Up there, one guide to one client and if you went for a dump the guide came with you. I love my fishing but think I'll stick to sandflies and german wasps.

Did they give you that story on 1st of april by any chance?....

 

[Cervus elaphus]

Did they give you that story on 1st of april by any chance?....

No, I was at the presentation and saw the pics

 

[spike.t]

No, I was at the presentation and saw the pics

Ok sounds like a tall story to me....taking out their eyes and ears with 410 or 20 with birdshot so can get in close to finish it....and finish it with what?...