Why Are Elephants So Tough And Hard In The Modern Era?

[sambarhunter]

Billy Finaughty shot hundreds and hundreds using a muzzle loader. Reading his book shows that he had lots of multiple one shot kills. Quite a few he dropped with shoulder shots,are they getting tougher as the years go by?
Its a great read btw.

William Finaughty (1843 – 1917) one of the great elephant hunters who knew both Mzilikazi and Lobengula and brought the two ship’s cannon now at the Natural History Museum in Bulawayo. | Zimbabwe Field Guide

zimfieldguide.com

 

[Certus]

What’s his book to buy?

 

[rinehart0050]

The Recollections of William Finaughty: Elephant Hunter 1864-1875 (African Collection)​

Link to buy the book

 

[IvW]

Do not believe everything you read as being exactly the way it happened...

Hunting elephant during his time is not comparable to modern times...

In that time hunting pressure was non existent....none of those hunters wrote or documented the number of failures or wounded and lost(including Bell and other hot shots)....unless there was a positive outcome....wound an elephant and don't recover it today is a major issue back then they just looked for the next one and nobody wrote about those.....

Now a days in a serious hunting area you best be properly armed with an experienced guide/PH....especially when hunting cow elephant in herds...just the way it is.

 

[Dragan N.]

There are probably several factors here. One as has been mentioned is likely that they did not really write about all the misses or woundings that they had. But I think there is also a level of skill involved here too. Think about it the hunters of bygone years who were writing about their exploits where probably among the best hunters of their day. They probably did not represent the average Joe going on a safari. Furthermore its probably their level of experience as well- they had likely shot hundreds of elephants in their life times. Practice makes perfect. I doubt many people alive today have that level of experience- with the probable exception of some of the people who took part in the elephant culls of the 80s. Most people who hunt elephants in Africa today are clients on a safari- who likely do not have this level of expertise...

 

[sambarhunter]

In that time hunting pressure was non existent..

Better read his book as he often mentioned how the elephants would disappear from the district on hearing any shots,the pressure was very well on according to the bloke who was there at the time.

Most people who hunt elephants in Africa today are clients on a safari- who likely do not have this level of expertise...

Very well said Dragan N

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

just remember as with all books etc, they have to sell the books and need people to want to read them. so they are not a point for point document of all the happenings they have some flare and poetic license to make things seem more romantic, exciting etc etc.
yes if you have shot lots of the same species animal you do become better at it, obviously.

regards

 

[sambarhunter]

yes if you have shot lots of the same species animal you do become better at it, obviously.

Yes that`s why I love to read of blokes like Billy above as he has a hell of a score of elephants /buff/rhino etc to his name. Numbers that are impossible ever again.
He is a true and real name and well worth reading about.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I finished reading this book today, and I have some thoughts. William Finaughty hunted from 1864 to 1869. He used a 4 bore muzzle loading rifle (“a heavy old muzzle loader” charged by “a handful of black powder & a bullet weighing something like a quarter of a pound”) exclusively during this time. He sold the gun in 1870, when he retired from hunting and became a trader.

In 1875, he made one last elephant hunting trip where he hunted two days. On the first day, he used a 12 gauge breech loading shotgun (“twelve bore breech loader”) and ”home made cartridges“ (“The bullets I had moulded myself and made very hard, while the cartridges I almost filled to the top with fine powder”) to down one bull elephant & six cow elephants. But the recoil was too violent and it badly bruised his shoulder (to the extent that he needed a full day’s worth of recuperation). On the second day, he used a Westley Richards fall block rifle of unmentioned caliber (most likely .450 No. 1 Carbine given the era) to bag two bull elephants and six cow elephants. He also used the same rifle on the following day to shoot a lioness which had stumbled across the carcass of one of the elephants that he had previously shot the day before. He needed three bullets to down the lioness (one to the abdomen and two through both the shoulders). Despite this, the lioness survived long enough to maul one of his native assistants. This lioness would end up being the last dangerous game animal which William Finaughty ever shot, since he completely retired from professional hunting after that.

Now, having read the entire book … my conclusion is that the author did sometimes score one shot kills on elephant and other dangerous game. But this was more of an exception rather than the rule. In many of his accounts, he hardly goes into any of the details at all. He simply states that on a particular trip, he bagged a certain number of bull elephants and a certain number of cow elephants. If the details of his last elephant hunt in 1875 are any indication, then it’s that Mr. Finaughty’s secret to successfully hunting elephants was by firing at a large number of elephants in a herd and then finishing off the ones which were too slow (i.e too badly wounded) to get away. In other words, he wounded several elephants just to be able to bag a few of them on each particular hunting trip.

Today, that technique is (obviously) not going to be adapted by any ethical sportsman (to say nothing of the legal repercussions).

He also typically shot more cow elephants on an elephant hunting trip, than be did bulls. He would also frequently shoot an elephant and wait for it to go several miles away and slowly succumb to the gunshot wound, before he followed the spoor and recovered the ivory from the dead animal.