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Cape Buffalo Skull Thickness
- Thread starter Teddy430
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grand veneur
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Tell us who you are and why you are asking such a somewhat strange question.
Firebird
AH legend
More than one of the early great
Elephant hunters had ele skulls cut apart so they could answer and explore your same question-just on elephants rather than buffalo. The difficulty is that most of us aren’t willing to cut apart our prized skulls to gain the answer. Maybe a taxidermist that does a lot of African animals can give you a real answer to your question. I would suggest a private message to “buck wild” who is a member of this forum much like yourself would get you the information your inquiring mind seeks
Elephant hunters had ele skulls cut apart so they could answer and explore your same question-just on elephants rather than buffalo. The difficulty is that most of us aren’t willing to cut apart our prized skulls to gain the answer. Maybe a taxidermist that does a lot of African animals can give you a real answer to your question. I would suggest a private message to “buck wild” who is a member of this forum much like yourself would get you the information your inquiring mind seeks
About 2”-3” of honeycomb skull. Easily doable with solids for sure.
grand veneur
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It is all good, but why ask that question?
I can’t remember. I think it has dangerous game in its title. That should narrow it down. 
I’ll take a quick look through my not inspired by Dewey decimal library
I’ll take a quick look through my not inspired by Dewey decimal library
Ontario Hunter
AH ambassador
Seems to be quite a bit of disparity between the brain location in the different illustrations. I think I'd go with the photographic cross section. Presumably the bottom one is from Robertson's book?
They are pretty close. In the colored drawings the grey above the orange brain is air space and honey comb skull.
The black and white photo of a skull cut in half is obviously more accurate than an artist’s rendering. And shows exactly where the brain is.
The real picture is from Bill Stewart’s book.
The black and white photo of a skull cut in half is obviously more accurate than an artist’s rendering. And shows exactly where the brain is.
The real picture is from Bill Stewart’s book.
Thank You Jay! Exactly the info I was looking for.
Last edited:
Chris Burger
AH member
Welcome aboard, Teddy — it's a good question, and not a strange one at all; anyone thinking hard about a frontal shot ends up asking exactly this.
The honest answer is that there isn't one "thickness" to give you, because it isn't a single slab of bone. On a mature bull the frontal is a sandwich: an outer plate, then a honeycomb of sinus (air cells), then an inner plate — and only behind all that does the brain sit, smaller and lower than most people picture, roughly on a line level with the eyes rather than up between the horns. Above the eyes, where you're pointing, you're mostly into that sinus honeycomb rather than solid bone, so it's less about a measurement in inches and more about how much structure a bullet has to stay straight through before it reaches anything vital.
Two things that matter more than the number: on an old bull the boss adds inches of solid horn over the top of all that, which is why a high frontal glances or stops short; and it's why a frontal brain shot wants a heavy, well-constructed solid on a very precise line — centred, level with the eyes. A soft, or a shot placed high, is trusting that honeycomb to do you a favour, and it won't.
If you can get your hands on an old euro-mount and look at it side-on, it tells the whole story better than any figure I could give you.
The honest answer is that there isn't one "thickness" to give you, because it isn't a single slab of bone. On a mature bull the frontal is a sandwich: an outer plate, then a honeycomb of sinus (air cells), then an inner plate — and only behind all that does the brain sit, smaller and lower than most people picture, roughly on a line level with the eyes rather than up between the horns. Above the eyes, where you're pointing, you're mostly into that sinus honeycomb rather than solid bone, so it's less about a measurement in inches and more about how much structure a bullet has to stay straight through before it reaches anything vital.
Two things that matter more than the number: on an old bull the boss adds inches of solid horn over the top of all that, which is why a high frontal glances or stops short; and it's why a frontal brain shot wants a heavy, well-constructed solid on a very precise line — centred, level with the eyes. A soft, or a shot placed high, is trusting that honeycomb to do you a favour, and it won't.
If you can get your hands on an old euro-mount and look at it side-on, it tells the whole story better than any figure I could give you.
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