Ready to Hunt Elephant

[Nyati]

Charlie, can´t give you any advice, just wish you the best of luck

 

[ActionBob]

Big5
That is part of the cool thing on a wilderness area elephant hunt. You just don't know where it will need to be recovered from.

The chainsaw was to cut a large log in half to get the truck around... Of course it broke down half way through.

Much of the meat was carried off in buckets and sacks, but also donkey carts and some by our driver with the hunting truck.

Even though we hunted some very remote areas miles from any resemblance of a road... I ended up getting my bull a couple hundred yards behind the tent camp. But that was pretty remote itself.

The recovery is truly an experience in and of itself.

 

[billc]

To me it still comes down to make sure you trust the outfitter you pick. The right outfitter makes the hunt go smooth and takes care of that stuff that comes up when hunting africa sometimes.

Good luck and I hope you have a great hunt.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Take LOTS of pictures of your Ivory. Every unique marking. Various angles.
Measure them accurately: length, circumference(s).
This may help you avoid the wrong Ivory showing up for whatever reason.

 

[CAustin]

Good advice Brickburn. I will do just that. I'm learning a lot on this thread. I'm very glad that I started it.

 

[CAustin]

Brickburn I guess one should take a tailors tape to take the measurements and I assume the outfitter will have a scale. Action Bob indicates that the guys hacking the tusks out of the skull will make some marks so that will help with identification.

 

[ActionBob]

Charlie;
You may have thought of this already, but I'll mention it anyway;

When that elephant hits the ground, and you walk up and put your hands on his tusks.... No other person has touched them before. Your PH and trackers should know this and allow you the honor.

Then there is the tradition of cutting the tail off to "claim" your elephant. This originates from the old days when after an elephant was shot, the hunter may have to leave and walk a long ways to get help with the recovery... Often returning to find others wanting to claim it! By taking the tail with him, he had proof that it was his elephant.

Some outfits will have you cut it off and others expect the tracker to have the responsibility. I expect you will likely have that mounted in a glass case or something.

A side note to the tail thing. There were many cases of elephants running around the bush without tails when a hunter missed the brain and just knocked the beast out, cut the tail off and went for help only to return and discover the elephant woke up and left!

Always good to pay some insurance if any doubt. Many PH's will have you put a solid through the chest and another in the head.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Charlie, After watching a few videos on Elephant hunting I was amazed at just how easy it is to misjudge where the brain is actually located.

I started to wonder about practicing by mounting my rifle and following a football on the end of a string held up in air at the elevation of an Elephants head.

We practice on sticks and being steady offhand. I never see anything about following a moving target effectively. Up, down and sideways.

Brickburn I guess one should take a tailors tape to take the measurements and I assume the outfitter will have a scale. Action Bob indicates that the guys hacking the tusks out of the skull will make some marks so that will help with identification.

I am thinking more along the lines of the natural breaks and cracks that occur. Those can not be changed easily.
Those things that really make it an individual.
The Outfitter can weigh them for you. Great if you can get a picture of that to. (a great personal record of the process)
Tailors tape should do the trick.
(If you want to be an official measurer you have to take two wraps around your hand and then measure your trophy, just to be accurate. )

 

[BRICKBURN]

I just looked it up and the average shoulder height is 13 feet.

Found this being quoted on a Zombie killing website. Who'd have thought!

The point of impact change is amazing.

 

[Velo Dog]

VeloDog I do plan to use the Ruger 416 Guide Gun with the Luepold VX 6 scope attached. With 0 magnification you have a 120' wide field of view that makes for quick sighting of the target.
I would love to have a double but I bought this Ruger with the big five in mind. It shoots a Hornady DGS 400 grain round at 2400 ft per second so I'm thinking it will get the job done. I can chamber the second round quickly with the short bolt action.
Honestly my biggest concern is judging the angle to hit the brain on a frontal shot. A side brain shot is what I would hope for, but will follow the instructions of the PH. When you look at the shot placement shots on this site it can be a little difficult to see where the round has to end up.

CAustin,

Again, I believe from all I have read and heard spoken by those who have taken elephant that, your .416 Ruger / 400 gr "solid" will be plenty for elephant.
Likewise, I am very concerned about the shot placement on elephant, if I ever even get to hunt one.
For buffalo, I studied everything I could get my hands on.
I trained with my rifle from field positions, mostly over the sticks, for a solid year, firing no other during that time.

I fired it at targets from about 15 feet to a couple hundred yards but, primarily from 25 yds to 75 yds.
I even bought a huge paper target depicting a buffalo, built a portable frame to fit and patched my "buffalo" with black tape many times to keep using it.
The rifle range probably paid their light bill that year with the lead they recovered from my .450 N02 training sessions.
Unfortunately it was broadside but nonetheless, it was a real good investment.
I studied enough about buffalo anatomy to know exactly where to place the bullet from any acceptable angle.

By the time I saved up the money, I was confident and it really paid off at the moment of truth.
If/when I'm able to hunt elephant, I plan to repeat the above.
All except the life size paper target -LOL.
At least two of the PHs I have spoken with about elephant hunting, have told me they would happily bust their shoes getting me into position for a fast right and left heart/lung shots, of course at very close range.
But, I will memorize all acceptable vital shots, including the more difficult brain, from all acceptable angles, in case the elephant refuses to pose classic broadside.

No doubt you already have read Dr. Robertson's excellent book "The Perfect Shot".
Personally, I believe this book should be #1 required reading for anyone planning to hunt Africa.
A couple of Boddington's books likewise should be required reading.
Speaking of books, Tony Sanchez-Areno wrote one worth reading called "Elephant Hunters".
Not really instructional but an excellent read anyway.

Help, I'm typing and I can't stop.

NNTR,
Velo Dog.

 

[Environ]

I'm reading Craig boddingtons "Elephant!" in anticipation of my hunt and I'm finding it both useful and interesting...I think I should also get the perfect shot, thanks Velo dog

 

[ActionBob]

Charlie I do suggest you let your PH fully explain his thoughts on the preferred shot... But be ready for all eventualities!

The heart lung shot may not be preferred in a herd situation or near a border. I went into this in my hunt report.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

Elephant shot placement: http://www.africahunting.com/threads/hunting-elephant.220/

 

[Velo Dog]

I'm reading Craig boddingtons "Elephant!" in anticipation of my hunt and I'm finding it both useful and interesting...I think I should also get the perfect shot, thanks Velo dog

You're welcome and now I must get Boddington's book "Elephant!" so, Thank You.

 

[Big5]

I just looked it up and the average shoulder height is 13 feet.

Found this being quoted on a Zombie killing website. Who'd have thought!

The point of impact change is amazing.View attachment 36786

On the first evening in camp the PH discussed shot placement with me and drew a few basic pencil sketches of those shots for illustration. With regard to taking a frontal shot he explained that proper shot placement was difficult due to variables such as animal distance and whether the head was facing straight on or at an elevated or lowered angle. Because of the variables he told me that if a frontal shot was to be taken I should imagine a horizontal line dissecting the skull between the ear holes and a vertical line between the eyes. The aim point would of course be where those two lines intersect.

I took my bull with a frontal shot at approximately ten paces using that formula. The bull did drop straight down to that shot, although I did follow up with a couple of up close and personal shots just to make certain he was down for the count (one to the heart and one addition brain shot). I must add that even though the old guy went down to that first shot I may not have properly brained him because his rear legs did not collapse first. I'll never know if that was due to a slightly misplaced aim point, or a lack of sufficient penetration by way of my using a 375H&H which is what I had back then.

At the end of the day what I do know is he did drop in his tracks and the hunt will always remain in my memory to replay from time to time. What can be better than that.

 

[ActionBob]

Big5 my experience was somewhat similar but I did not get that exciting frontal presentation when I shot... The elephant dropped the same way indicating a possible miss of the perfect brain shot. And I followed up similarly.

I did stand in front of elephants on at least 3 occasions but there were no shots taken. My PH explained the frontal shot by saying to imagine a broomstick through the head at those points you mentioned... and told me to clip the broomstick in half with the shot.

My bull was walking right to left across in front of us through tall brush and when he cleared the brush, I shot him in the ear but as he was moving forward it was an inch or two back and upon dissection the head it looked like the bullet cut across and slightly through where the last vertebra enters the head. It dropped him nicely, but front first. A 3rd shot follow up through the top of the head did the final job for sure.. Second was into the chest, top down as his back was laying towards us. The tracker found that 3rd bullet in the lower jaw bone and it is the only one I have. The first exited about 2" behind the ear hole.. The entry looked good but he must have had his head slightly turned when it hit and should have been 2-3" farther forward.

This is why I think a few practice aiming sessions on live elephants would be great! I do hope to go back for another go at this, but it is not an animal most of can get any decent amount of practice on.

I think you are mistaken about the 375 penetration. I believe it is widely accepted that the 375 will penetrate as good or better than most.... Boddington wrote a recent article in Dangerous Game Hunting magazine discussing this topic all the way up .700 NE.

Penetration has a lot to do with frontal area of a bullet vs. energy and the 375 with a smaller frontal area scores very high.... If you look at a 458 Win Mag, the muzzle energy is basically the same as Charlie's 416 Ruger or my 416 Rem Mag. But it has greater frontal energy so one might expect less penetration.... There is the school of thought that the pure weight of a bullet is important and it may help a lot, carrying momentum better and shedding it slower???? But Boddington has examples of very large bullets failing to penetrate because they were not quite up to snuff on speed. (1950 fps vs. 2050 was enough to make the difference).

The thing about a 416 vs a 375 is the 20 to 25% more energy when it does hit may just make the difference in knocking the beast down if the brain shot is slightly off... But a top quality 375 solid placed correctly will surely penetrate to the brain.

I know Barns banded solids are popular and I sure admired the performance of my hydro solids. Question I would have is do you need a flat or cupped solid to get maximum performance?

In my opinion Charlie has a great gun and scope combo! I would prefer better bullets than the DGS but I do not think they will fail to do the job.

 

[ActionBob]

Charlie, After watching a few videos on Elephant hunting I was amazed at just how easy it is to misjudge where the brain is actually located.

I started to wonder about practicing by mounting my rifle and following a football on the end of a string held up in air at the elevation of an Elephants head.

We practice on sticks and being steady offhand. I never see anything about following a moving target effectively. Up, down and sideways.

I don't think I could easily find a safe place to practice shooting up at an elevation similar to shooting an elephant.

 

[BRICKBURN]

I don't think I could easily find a safe place to practice shooting up at an elevation similar to shooting an elephant.

I guess I have a great advantage with having those Rocky Mountains so close.

 

[BRICKBURN]

http://www.africahunting.com/threads/the-red-man.10942/#post-86330

Bell's version of shot placement.

 

[CAustin]

I think the advice in simplest form is to practice practice practice! I shall do exactly that.
Action Bob I like the idea of touching the elephant's tusk first and cutting off the tail.