Elephant Shot Placement & The SuperPenetrator

[Norbert Hansen]

Elephant Shot Placement & The SuperPenetrator

In the season 2001/2002 I tested the SuperPenetrator on hunting elephant cows and this was simultaneously a lesson on shot placement. The SuperPenetrator, optimized for elephant head shots, performed extremely effective. The tissue pressed out the ears and trunk indicates high pressure damage inside.

Eight big mature elephant cows were hunted, 5 with tusk and 3 tusk less.
Distance was between 15 to 22 meters.
Five frontal head shots, all one shot kills under very varying angles.
One side brain shot, also an one shot kill.
Two side head shots which were not perfect and needed two respective three more shots.
White arrows indicate the bullets entrance, red lines mark the bullets path inside.

My experience from many head shots now is, that it is more likely to bring down an elephant with a frontal head shot than with a side head shot, though the brain itself is a smaller target from the front than from the side. The reason is, that a good bullet / cartridge combination after passing the brain can damage also the first vertebrae of the neck. When missing the brain from the side, a quick neck shot is a very effective means to bring down the animal.

Frontal head shot, head was angled down, one shot kill

Frontal head shot, angled sideways, one shot kill

Frontal head shot, downhill, one shot kill

Side head shot, one shot kill

Frontal head shot, uphill, one shot kill

Frontal head shot, very straight, one shot kill

Side head shot, too high, second neck/spine shot takes it down, third finishing shot in the chest

Herd was running away, quick shot was too high, elephant was stopped with a hip shot (1), brought down with a spine shot from behind (2) and finished with a brain shot slightly angled from behind (2). (1) in the third image is the bullets exit from the first shot.

An elephant bull with a clean frontal brain shot

Cartridge
.458 Lott/Watts.
Case length 2.85
COL 3.64
SuperPenetrator 500 gr at 2380 f/s
Compact brass design with integral disk.

 

[crs]

Thank you Norbert.
This is one of the few times that the hip/pelvis shot has been recommended to bring down a larger animal.
If the target animal is facing away, the pelvis seems to be one of the few shots that will drop the animal. I used it successfully on a heart shot Cape Buff to keep it from disappearing into thick cover. Very effective.

 

[TOBY458]

Absolutely amazing that this great thread is from 2010 and never got a response until now! Very good info and pictures here!

 

[fourfive8]

Yah, kind of interesting but lacks a few critical details. What in the world is a "compact brass design with integral disk"? Without those details??? not much info other than shooting elephants in the brain, either frontal or side. Do a search for SuperPenetrator bullets and you'll end up with a whole bunch of junk. Plus, if you click on the signature link, it's a site in Afrikaans- okie dokie "Bigwildhunting" or some such translation

 

[BRICKBURN]

Yah, kind of interesting but lacks a few critical details. What in the world is a "compact brass design with integral disk"? Without those details??? not much info other than shooting elephants in the brain, either frontal or side. Do a search for SuperPenetrator bullets and you'll end up with a whole bunch of junk. Plus, if you click on the signature link, it's a site in Afrikaans- okie dokie "Bigwildhunting" or some such translation

It is actually German. If you take a moment and click the flag button in the upper right hand corner you can view the website in English. (Guess which flag)
No clue if there are more details to answer your questions.

 

[TOBY458]

Either way, it's strange that it never got a response until now. I guess maybe AH didn't have the following in 2010 that it does now. I recently shot an Elephant cow with a 300gr CEB Brass Solid in 375. Those bullets whistle through an elephant skull like butter. I assume the "super penetrator" may have been similar in construction, but probably not in actual design.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

The ideal frontal brain shot on an elephant is an imaginary line from eye to eye , a palm’s width above the line and in the middle of the forehead. The shot is taken when the head is in the normal position, with the tusks held low. There is an oblong skull cavity at this point, where the bullet meets no heavy obstruction on it’s way to the brain at the back of the skull. It must be borne in mind that the skull of an elephant is far thicker at the front than at the sides. The skull is also of honey combed structure with pockets of fluid . The skulls of bulls are also twice as thick as the skulls of cow elephants.

The 300Gr Norma flat nosed monolithic solid out of a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum is perfectly adequate for brain shots on elephant from any angle.