Well you should be assured they are protected, and heavily game managed on strict licencing.A lot of fees for shooting one(around $10,000-20,000) goes to the park to fight poachers, and pay for more wardens.
As funny as it sounds while hunters did originally almost wipe out elephants 100 years ago, it is now hunters saving them from illegal poachers.
A lot of the countries who refused to make strict hunting legal, lost their elephants to poachers, starvation and even minefields(left overs from all the african wars which kill millions of african animals each year)
The reason is the only a park with a lot of money can fix these problems.The average african country is literally too poor to do it themselves.
As to which guns first I'll address some of the other replies.
The 50BMG will kill an elephant but is not the best to use, in fact is is pretty useless. To shoot elephant you may need to be waist deep in long grass, or even standing in a stream, or on a steep slope.A gun like the 50 BMG that you need to lie down to fire is obviously no good. Even if you can shoulder fire it, it is very heavy, and very long in the barrel, and not something you want to carry for 10 miles following elephant.
The 405 winchester is no good for elephant. Bullets to short and stubby. Its okay for most big game except african dangerous game.
The most commonly used rifle for elephant, and the legal minimum is the 375H%26amp;H. It fires a .375 calibre 300gn(about 3/4 ounce) bullet at around 2500fps.
There are many other calibres used such as the 458 winchester magnum, 416 remington, the 378, 416 and 460 weatherby magnums, the olden day 450, 500 and 600 nitro and many others.
They all have some common requirements.
1.Bullets that have a lot of weight for their calibre, in other words they are quite long.
2. Bullets that are either totally solid or have a full metal jacket so they do not deform or break up upon impact.
3.Bullets that have round or blunt noses, since pointed solids will tend to destablise in flesh and veer off course badly(another reason the 50BMG is not a good choice since 90% of its ammunition is pointed).
4.Velocities of at least 1950fps and up to around 3000fps, though generally 2200-2450fps is considered all you need.
For elephant the toughest shot is the frontal brain shot, for which the above bullets are needed to get through the 18+'; of cellular bone structure. This is also the only shot that will kill them during a charge so it is the most important shot for your own safety.
Side brain shots are a lot easier and can be handled with many other rifles. It is also possible to kill elephant successful with lung and heart shots, though the elephant will not die straight away. It may take from a few seconds to a miniute or more to bleed out and you will have to follow it while it does.
So once again while a lot of guns will kill an elephant some of the time, the elephant guns mentioned above are the ones that will kill it every time, and can be used quickly from most hunting angles.
hope this helped.What's the best rifle to use for hunting an elephant?
In order to realistically have a shot at killing an elephant, you need a large caliber rifle loaded with solid jacket bullets. Elephant skulls are incredibly thick and strong. It is not unheard of for a frontal brain shot to ricochet off an elephant's skull.
Any of the following rounds will kill an elephant with a proper shot:
.416 Rigby
.458 WinMag
.458 Lott
.450 3 1/4
.577 Tyrannosaur
.600 Nitro Express
.700 Nitro Express
The occasions are very rare now, but they still need to be killed once in a while.
The best for general purposes was worked out long ago: the large-bore double rifle custom fit to your frame. Whether it's chambered for 470 Nitro Express or something a bit bigger or smaller isn't so important. The 450 NE was felt to be more than satisfactory before the 45 caliber was banned in the British colonies, and if you could find one of those old shooters, it would be just as good now.
WOW, 1 elephant hunter!
Make a fist then look at it.Thats the size of its brain.%26gt;30 cals were killing elephant once the sweet-spot was located even the 6.5 was used.
Everything else was for penetration w/ knock down force where the side shot could be taken after Dumbo was knocked down.
I watched a massive Ivory Bull take a double tap from a 500NE in the top at full charge.He stayed down for about 4 seconds and started to stand up. It was real-time slow motion cause he was so massive and once he got one leg extended everybody started to blast him.(Security?/Porters?)
Pick one of these.*..%26lt;%26gt; 405 Winchester, 375 H%26amp;H, 416 Remington Magnum, 416 Rigby, 458 Winchester Magnum.*...According to the Winchester Product Service Ballistics Manuel for 2008.*
If you would take the time to learn about elephant hunting as it is currently being managed, you might find that hunting is why the elephant has not been exterminated. Wise up.
The .50 cal BMG would get the job done but i suspect any of the big bore rifles - 416 Rigby, 475 H%26amp;H etc. have and will kill elephants.
Kind of a silly question from an environmental type.
Walter Bell killed over 1000 elephants in his time and his favorite rifle was a 7x57 Mauser. Takes pretty big brass ones to shoot elephant with a 7mm Mauser.
375 H %26amp; H
416 RIGBY
500 NITRO
All of these will do the job as far as elephant hunting goes
.500 Nitro Single Shot
Really amazing All post . i like your all post Keep it Up. this contact form
ReplyDelete