Hunting A Rogue Asiatic Elephant

[Professor Mawla]

Today , I will write about an incident where I was fortunate enough to shoot a rogue Asiatic elephant in 1977 . This incident features in chapter eight of my book and I personally consider it to have been one of the most exciting highlights in my dangerous game hunting career . During my youth , I have been unfortunate enough to have been charged by many different kinds of dangerous game animals : Wild boars , cheetahs , Asian sloth bears , a Royal Bengal tiger and even a rogue Asiatic elephant bull . But I do not think that any of the other animals can ever hold a candle to the elephant . The sheer size and resilience of the animal makes it an extremely difficult one to have to contend with .

Before I begin , I would just like to verify that all of the photographs used by me in this article , are my personal photographs. Thus , I own exclusive rights to them . They may not be copied or reproduced without my permission .

The author ( left ) and Upojati tribal elephant tracker , Lahiri ( far right ) . September 20 , 1977

 

[Professor Mawla]

It was September 19 , 1977 . I was conducting my work as a supervisor for the construction workmen in one of the tea estates around the Habiganj district . We were building a small irrigation canal from a nearby stream . After the work was over , the kind owner gave me permission to shoot half a dozen red jungle fowl on his property ; which I could take home for eating .

That evening , I had a go at them with my Laurona 12 bore sidelock ejector side by side shotgun ( which I always kept under the seat of my Ford pickup truck ) and a packet of Eley Alphamax number 4 birdshot shells . I was quite successful at this , even managing to shoot two of them with one shell . At the time , my close friend and fellow war veteran , Niyazur was going through an extremely difficult time . He was going through his fifth divorce and this ex wife had successfully kicked him out of his own house . As a result , I let Niyazur stay in one of my two rooms for a few weeks until he could win a legal battle in court against his ex wife and get his house back . I decided to take back the six red jungle fowl to my home and share them with Niyazur , after gutting and cleaning all of the downed birds .

Niyazur and I spatchcocked two of the red jungle fowl and seasoned them with salt , pepper , sour cream and paprika . Then , we grilled them over an open fire and ate them with fried potatoes , canned spaghetti and two bottles of local Hunter brand beer . I had already purchased a television for my flat , by that time and we were both watching the local news . The local police DC was talking about a rogue Asiatic elephant bull which had come down from the hills , recently . This animal was wantonly destructive and had gone through two entire villages , destroying everything in his wake . To make matters worse , he had already killed ten people . The DC offered 2000 Taka to any of the local hunters / arms owners who could successfully kill the rogue elephant , before further loss of human life was incurred .

Hearing about this amount of money , I felt tempted to try my hand at elephant shooting . I owned a large calibre rifle ( a .458 Winchester Magnum ) and had a good stock of solid ammunition for it . 2000 Taka was roughly four times of what used to get offered for a man eating cheetah and I could use that kind of money . I asked Niyazur what he thought about my idea and he remarked that it would just be like Stewart Granger shooting an elephant bull at the beginning of the 1950 cinematic adaptation of “ King Solomon’s Mines “ ( a favorite childhood film of Niyazur’s and mine ) , but far more exciting .

I went to my closet and retrieved my .458 WM ( Winchester Magnum) . It was custom built by Flaig’s in Millvale , Pennsylvania on a Winchester Enfield 1917 action with a Douglas Premium barrel and a French walnut stock . I had purchased it from Colonel Mirza just a few months back and had only used it so far against an Axis deer , a pair of wild boar and a marauding Royal Bengal tiger. I then opened my safe , where I kept all of my ammunition . I had two boxes of Winchester Super Speed factory loaded ammunition ( with the boxes advertising a velocity of 2130 feet per second ) in the safe :
* One was a box of 510 grain soft nosed ammunition .
* One was a box of 500 grain round nosed steel jacketed solid ammunition .

These , I carefully kept in my safe with a little silica gel in order to prevent moisture from making contact with the ammunition . Colonel Mirza had educated me about a few traits of the .458 WM calibre . Since it employed a 500 grain bullet being propelled at 2130 fps ( feet per second) from a 2 1/2 inch shell , the gunpowder needed to be severely compressed . This compression ( while of no consequence in freshly manufactured ammunition ) would lead to severe fluctuations in velocity in ammunition which had been lying around for a year or two after being exposed to the elements . By using silica gel , the Colonel had figured out how to keep the moisture out of unopened packets and preserve the freshness of the .458 WM ammunition for more than just a few years . Ever since then , I have always kept my .458 WM loaded ammunition in a tight safe with some silica gel in order to keep out the moisture .

I carefully removed the box of 500 grain solid ammunition and laid them next to my .458 WM . I felt hopeful that it would prove adequate for the rogue elephant bull .

.458 WM belonging to the author .

 

[Professor Mawla]

The next day , I drove my Ford pickup truck to the head office of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards and asked them to grant me a signed LOA ( Letter Of Authorization ) to allow me to legally hunt the rogue elephant . The armory of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards at the time , was fairly reasonable for a third world country . The standard department issue rifle of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards was the .303 calibre Lee Enfield bolt action rifle . The Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards were issued two different kinds of ammunition for sorting out problem animals , back in those days :

* Remington 215 grain soft nosed ammunition
* Bangladesh Ordinance Factories 215 grain round nosed copper jacketed solid ammunition ( when Major Poton Khan Sir later became a supervisor at the factory from 1982 to 1988 , he had the jacket material altered from copper to steel and the nose profile altered from round to meplat ) .

They also had one Westley Richards .577 NE ( Nitro Express ) single trigger droplock ejector side by side double rifle , for shooting rogue elephants . This large double rifle was originally brought into the country sometime before 1947 , when Bangladesh was formerly a part of British Colonial India . For this rifle , the Forest Guards had four boxes of ICI ( Imperial Chemical Industries ) Kynoch 750 grain round nosed steel jacketed solid ammunition . However , all of this ammunition was old stock , because ICI Kynoch had ceased manufacture of all metal cased centre fire ammunition in 1972 .

After getting my LOA , I asked the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards if they knew which direction the rogue was headed . They told me that the rogue was moving westwards towards the urban areas . I asked them if they could get me a tracker or two , to help me trace the rogue a little easier . This , they duly arranged . I was assigned to work with an elderly Upojati tribal gentleman named Lahiri , who was specifically skilled in tracking the movements of rogue elephants through any kind of terrain . So , Lahiri and I set off on my Ford pickup truck ; intent on finding the rogue .

At the time , I was actually quite surprised as to how far a rogue elephant can go . It took us two hours before we finally reached an abandoned village where all of the tin grain houses and thatched huts were destroyed . Just by taking one glance at the damage , Lahiri simply replied that all of this was the rogue elephant’s doing . I got out of the pickup truck , with my .458 WM in my hands ( which held three rounds in a fully loaded magazine ) and 12 extra rounds in an ammunition belt which hung from my waist . Lahiri got out , as well . We were determined to find out what happened to the villagers .

This did not take us long . We found the villagers on rafts , floating in the middle of a lake . They were so terrified of the rogue that they had retreated to the one pace where they were sure that the elephant could not reach them - The water . Lahiri and I tried our best to convince them that the rogue was no longer in the village , but they refused to come ashore until they knew for a fact that the rogue was killed . I relented and asked them which way the rogue had gone . They all pointed at the nearby forest . I then told Lahiri to lead the way . We were going to enter the forest.


I followed Lahiri into the forest as he kept following the tracks of the rogue . This forest was normally inhibited by a significant number of wild boars and barking deer . However , today it was quite silent . Almost as if all of the animals had been frightened off by something else . Eventually , we found a massive pile of elephant dung and Lahiri approached it . Slipping off his left sandal , he curled his toes and dipped them into the dung . He immediately got extremely nervous and told me that the dung was quite warm , meaning that the rogue was even in this area perhaps five or six minutes ago . Possibly , the rogue might even still be here .

Upojati trackers employed by the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards . September 20 , 1977

 

[Professor Mawla]

I immediately looked left and right , worried about where the rogue might be . Finally , my eyes locked with a massive pair of bloodshot red eyes staring at me from behind the coconut trees . It was the rogue . He had ambushed us by standing perfectly still amidst all of the coconut trees and had somehow managed to blend perfectly in with the foliage . By reading this part , I am certain that many will question exactly how difficult it might be , to spot a huge elephant . Those who have actually had to hunt elephants will know that it is actually quite difficult to do so in thick cover . Asiatic elephants have a surprisingly stealthy ability to quietly move through forests and get behind their quarry , should they wish .

The rogue was about 30 yards away from us , when he decided to charge . He loudly blew his trunk and had his ears cocked back . Lahiri nervously got behind me and I hurriedly raised my .458 WM to my shoulder , flicking off the safety catch . I lined up my sights , intent on making a frontal brain shot . During the war in 1971 , the Bangladeshi soldiers stationed in the Maulvi Bazaar forests often needed to shoot Asiatic elephants to source fresh meat for supplementing camp rations . This was often done by shooting the animals to death , with jeep mounted .50 calibre Browning M2 HMG ( Heavy Machine Gun ) units . Since I used to aid in the butchering process , I knew the anatomy of Asiatic elephants rather well . An elephant bull’s skull was roughly twice as thick as an elephant cow skull . The skulls are much thicker at the front than at the sides . The bone structure of the skull is honeycomb like with pockets of fluid . The brain is roughly the size of a football and located back in the head . Attempting to visual the rogue’s brain , I fired .

The elephant’s head recoiled slightly , as if someone had pelted him with a rock . But he came on , unfazed . Cycling the bolt , I gave him another frontal brain shot while he closed about 20 yards distance . Again , the elephant’s only reaction to the shot was a slight flinch . Lahiri now started screaming at me in terror , that I had loaded my .458 WM with soft nosed rounds by mistake . He took to his heels and began to run , yelling at me to do the same . But I still had one last round in the magazine and decided to switch tactics . Cycling the bolt frantically , I took aim once again . The rogue was less than 12 yards away . What I did next was not my proudest moment , but to quote Major Poton Khan Sir “ Self preservation is a man’s first duty “ .

I fired at the right knee of the elephant bull and I could hear a loud snapping noise . The elephant’s leg bone broke and gave away , as the elephant loudly crashed onto the ground . He was dazed and confused ; struggling to regain his footing . But to no avail . A Royal Bengal tiger with one broken leg , can still attack the hunters . However , an elephant ( on account of it’s great weight ) will not be able to move . I reloaded the magazine of my .458 WM with three more rounds and cautiously approached the immobilized rogue ; taking care to avoid his trunk . The confused elephant was painfully moving his massive head from left to right . He was far too preoccupied to even look at me , although he certainly noticed me . Raising my .458 WM to my shoulder , I took aim at the point behind the rogue elephant’s left ear and fired . The elephant dropped dead ; the 500 grain .458 calibre round nosed steel jacketed solid bullet having penetrated into his brain .

Later that day , an autopsy was conducted on the rogue elephant . The reason for his aggression was soon discovered . About a dozen large maggots were found squirming around , inside his brain . My three Winchester 500 grain round nosed steel jacketed bullets were also recovered from the elephant’s head . The first two ( used for attempting the frontal brain shots ) were badly deformed . The steel jacket had ruptured and the nose had flattened . The lead core was found squished out of the back of the bullet base . The third bullet ( used for making the fatal side brain shot ) was still reasonably intact , but had buckled slightly . The construction of those 500 grain Winchester round nosed steel jacketed “ solid “ bullets clearly left quite a bit to be desired . The rogue had reasonably heavy tusks . About a hundred pounds per side . To this date ,the tusks may be seen in the head office of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards .

We decided to gift the meat of the rogue elephant to all of the Upojati trackers employed by the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Department , because we knew that the Upojatis consider elephant meat to be a rare delicacy . They were incredibly grateful to receive so much fresh meat , as a reward for their services . The Upojati tribes ( used to ) have a very particular method for cooking elephant foot . First , a hole was made in fairly hard ground and a fire was built in this hole . The fire was kept burning , until the temperature was high enough to warrant removing the fire . The entire foot (skin included ) was now wrapped in banana leaves and placed in the hole . The whole setup was covered in earth and a fire was kept burning on top , for three days . I was fortunate enough to try the finished product with some paratha flat breads and I must admit that it did not taste bad . Especially after being washed down with a cold Budweiser beer .

The author ( seated , right ) and the villagers preparing to transport the rogue’s corpse to the head office of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards for assessment . September 20 , 1977

 

[Professor Mawla]

Even though that was the only rogue elephant which I was fortunate enough to shoot ( until now ) , I trialed several other brands of solid ammunition ( both factory and hand loaded ) for my .458 WM over the years . These ; I used on barking deer , Axis deer , wild boars , crocodiles , blackboard and even elephant skulls sourced from dead zoo animals ( which died due to natural causes) .

In 1979 , Joy had arranged two boxes of Barnes branded .458 caliber 500 grain solid bullets to reach me . These had copper jackets ( 0.49 inch thickness) , lead cores and rounded noses . They had a pinhole located at the nose and at the base of the bullet . After hand loading these with IMR 3031 gunpowder and trailing them , I noticed that the copper jacket is quite prone to deforming upon striking hard bone ( such as the front part of elephant skulls ) .

In 1994 , I trialed Federal’s new 500 grain bronze jacketed Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid factory ammunition ( which originally advertised it’s velocity as 2150 feet per second on the box ) and was quite impressed . When I originally published “ Jokhon Shikari Chilam “ ( When I hunted Dangerous Game ) in 1999 , I listed these 500 grain Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid bullets loaded by Federal as my favorite elephant hunting factory loads for the .458 WM calibre in the “ Rifles for dangerous game “ section of my book . However in recent years , not only has the quality of the Trophy Bonded Bullets deteriorated ( even since their inventor , Jack Carter stopped being involved with Federal ) ; but Federal has also reduced the powder charge in their .458 WM factory loaded ammunition . Currently , the advertised velocity is only 1950 feet per second .

In 2019 , I finally found the perfect solid ammunition for the .458 WM calibre . These were the 500 grain “ DGS “ ( Dangerous Game Solid ) series of factory loaded ammunition released by Hornady . They employ 500 grain meplat nosed bonded steel jacketed bullets , being propelled at an advertised velocity of 2140 feet per second . My chronograph readings indicated a velocity of 2136 feet per second , which is certainly not too far off from their advertised figures . And the bullets certainly held together far better than any of the Winchester brand round nosed steel jacketed solid bullets from the 1970s . If only such ammunition for the .458 WM existed , back in 1977 .

Top to bottom : Vintage 1980s era Winchester Super X 500 grain round nosed steel jacketed solid factory ammunition owned by the author , Barnes .458 caliber 500 grain copper jacketed lead core round nosed solid bullets ( for hand loading ) , Recovered 500 grain .458 caliber Hornady DGS meplat nosed steel jacketed bullet ( fired from factory loaded ammunition ) showing no perceptible deformation .

 

[Professor Mawla]

I truly hope that everyone has enjoyed my relating of this incident . If you all have enjoyed it , then I can write one or two more in the next few days .

The End

 

[Major Khan]

You are most fortunate , Anayeth . I have always dreamt of shooting a bull elephant . I have always wondered why your book did not mention Speer Grand Slam Solid tungsten cored solid metal covered bullets . They were rather popular during the 1990s . Tungsten , being more dense than lead ... allowed for a shorter length bullet to easily weigh 500 grains .

These were reported to significantly increase the case capacity in the .458 Winchester magnum cartridge ... Thus improving velocities significantly .

 

[Professor Mawla]

You are most fortunate , Anayeth . I have always dreamt of shooting a bull elephant . I have always wondered why your book did not mention Speer Grand Slam Solid tungsten cored solid metal covered bullets . They were rather popular during the 1990s . Tungsten , being more dense than lead ... allowed for a shorter length bullet to easily weigh 500 grains .

These were reported to significantly increase the case capacity in the .458 Winchester magnum cartridge ... Thus improving velocities significantly .

@Major Khan Sir ,
I have heard some very good things about them . However , I only trialed conventional lead core cored bullets for the rifle calibres which I mentioned in my book ( Winchester , Remington , Barnes and Federal ) .

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Very interesting as this is only the third hunt I have read of for Asian elephants. I am surprised the tusks were so heavy, I suppose the government had to keep them?

 

[mark-hunter]

Great story, and great good old times you have witnessed @Professor Mawla.
I cant imagine for my self today to get paid for shooting a rogue elephant, or any other dangerous animal.

Pls do not stop writing!

 

[Adam From Africa]

Enthralling. Thank you Sir and keep them coming.

 

[Nyati]

A great story, and a pity you could not keep the tusks !

 

[Andrew Short]

Love your stories!

 

[Professor Mawla]

Very interesting as this is only the third hunt I have read of for Asian elephants. I am surprised the tusks were so heavy, I suppose the government had to keep them?

@Wyatt Smith
Actually I kept them for a while ( I have a photograph with them too , in my book ) . But when the head of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards offered me 200,000 Taka for each of the tusks in 1979 , I accepted his offer . 400,000 Taka in 1979 Bangladesh , was a great deal of money . I somewhat regret my decision now , as the tusks would be worth ten times as much today . However , I sold them because of two reasons :
* At the time , I was still living in a small two room rented flat . I needed some extra funds to purchase my own house ( a war veteran’s pension can only get you so much ) .
* We were all under the impression that the sale of ivory would be completely banned all over the world by the United Nations , very soon . Therefore , I resolved to sell them off as quickly as I could and for the best deal possible .

 

[Professor Mawla]

Great story, and great good old times you have witnessed @Professor Mawla.
I cant imagine for my self today to get paid for shooting a rogue elephant, or any other dangerous animal.

Pls do not stop writing!

@mark-hunter
Thank you very much . It was actually very exciting . But I wish that ai was able to kill him with the first bullet .

 

[Professor Mawla]

Enthralling. Thank you Sir and keep them coming.

@Adam From Africa
Thank you so much .

 

[cpr0312]

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed the read!

 

[Professor Mawla]

A great story, and a pity you could not keep the tusks !

@Nyati
Actually I kept them for a while ( I have a photograph with them too , in my book ) . But when the head of the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards offered me 200,000 Taka for each of the tusks in 1979 , I accepted his offer . 400,000 Taka in 1979 Bangladesh , was a great deal of money . I somewhat regret my decision now , as the tusks would be worth ten times as much today . However , I sold them because of two reasons :
* At the time , I was still living in a small two room rented flat . I needed some extra funds to purchase my own house ( a war veteran’s pension can only get you so much ) .
* We were all under the impression that the sale of ivory would be completely banned all over the world by the United Nations , very soon . Therefore , I resolved to sell them off as quickly as I could and for the best deal possible .

 

[Professor Mawla]

Love your stories!

@Andrew Short
Thank you so much .

 

[Professor Mawla]

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed the read!

@cpr0312
Thank you so much .