I beg to differ on the potency of a 375 solid. Ive only shot seven but if you shoot it well its the only gun you need. If you don't shoot well then you have to live or die by your mistake. The average big bore hunter doesn't practice enough and can't reload fast enough to deal with elephants. Christ only five one shot head kills out of thirty is just shameful.

Gunny,

Five one shot kills out of thirty tries is weak for sure, but no one, absolutely no one, is perfect.

The modern day legends with hundreds or thousands of elephants each tell of many less than perfect brain shots. They also tell of knock downs and turned charges and the like, One or two used 375's, the rest found the 375 wanting.

JPK

Reading the stories by Ian Nyschens and Richard Harland leads one to believe that the .375 is a bit light for frontal brain shot elephants in a charge. Both gentlemen went to larger rifles later.

No experience with the .375 as all my tuskless were shot with a 500. Only 40 % were one shot kills, even when all were shot in deep Jesse at close range. So not a great marksman here. The problem is you could not see the complete head with all the foliage so you rely on knockdown power to get the second final shot once the elephant drops. Actually, my best shots have been charges because here the elephant does break out of the cover.
Just reading "Month of the Sun" last evening and it is understood by many that W.D.M. Bell, as great a ele hunter that he was, had a much easier time of it in the open country that he hunted in. Longer open shots where he could take advantage of his excellent marksman skills, not thrashing through the jesse at 10-15 yds.

Dak

Graeme,

Can you give us any details on the 416 Rigby encounter that took 9 shots or more?

Were these reloads or factory ammo? What bullet and velocity?

I am curious as I am sure the rest of us are about the details.

Sometimes everything goes wrong and you just cant kill an animal. Was it a case like this or were there some bullet failures involved?

At least no one was hurt.

I took three shots to kill my elephant but each shot really rocked her. Did you feel well protected on each shot?

Andy