I heard from Kirsty at Charlton McCallum that Alan Shearing (my PH last year) stopped an ele charge at 3 feet on video. His client was hunting tuskless in Chewore South. The PHs at CM like to get close but that's too close.

Thanks for the story. That is indeed a close call, and not the first for the folks at CM Safaris!

I was the client. I had my 458 Lott with 450gr Barnes banded solids at about 2200fps, Alan had his 458WM with 500gr Trophy banded solids.

It was my first day ever ele hunting. We found some fresh droppings, and followed them into some deep gullies in very heavy cover. We were soon in the middle of a herd, all feeding quietly. We snuck around, trying to find a tuskless.

After a few minutes, we came to an open area with a small, bare hill about 8 feet high with a single large tree at it's top, off to the left. I stood about 4 feet from the tree at the top, Alan was on my right. Our video man, Shaun Buffee was immediately behind us and filming. Two trails converged at it's base and led away from us as we stood on top. A huge cow was slowly feeding away from us on the trail. The wind was in our face.

From our right, about 10 yards away, a calf with nubs for tusks came out of the bush and peered at us, trying to figure out what we were. The calf then slowly moved to join the cow on the trail. She was followed by an average size cow with tusks that was very agitated.

As the cow moved to join the calf she turned slightly and gave us a head feint. We were able to shout her down. She followed the calf with her head up, still agitated. She was definitely thinking about sorting us out. When she reached the calf at the trail junction,at about 25 yards, she suddenly turned and flung herself at us with a shrill scream. No hesitation, she comes.

Do not make the mistake of thinking because elephant are large they are slow. She covered the distance to the foot of the hill in the blink of an eye. Alan and I took 1 or 2 steps back from the crown of the hill.I really thought she would stop at the base of the hill;
instead she flung herself up the hill at us.

Alan and I both shot as one when she was right on top of us. We both missed her brain. The impact of our shots stopped her like she hit a wall and she fell backwards down the hill on her right side. As she fell backwards her trunk flicked up and just missed me. She was struggling to regain her feet at the foot of the hill. As I had a bad angle and could not shoot Alan brained her and bought the affair to a conclusion. The whole thing took about 4 seconds.

The tuskless I shot the next day was really uneventful and almost anti-climactic.

I am forever indebted to Al for seeing to it that I did not get stepped on. A finer, more professional PH you will have great difficulty finding. Shaun Buffee had great courage, and perhaps some poor judgement, to trust us with his safety as he filmed a stellar video of the entire charge, as well as the rest of the hunt. I highly recommend him.

The raw footage is on it's way back to the USA. When it gets edited I will post the charge.When I am less jet-lagged I will post some pics.

quote:

We both missed her brain

quote:

Shaun Buffee had great courage

I just love Shaun. He has big ones for sure.

That'll get the bowels moving! Great read & glad everyone was ok. Look forward to seeing the video.

Holy Sh*t! That'd wake you up in the morning!!!

The video is likely to be spectacular. Could take a little while for the attending principles to be comfortable watching it.

Glad everyone is OK.

Head Trauma:

Sounds like now you really have "seen the elephant".

Congrats, can't wait to see the video.

I'm glad everyone came out unscathed! One would be hard pressed to find a better PH than Alan.

Alan had one go south last year on him too. He's going to end up with some gray hair...what's left anyway! I agree...he's a great PH.

Can't wait to see the video. Like watching, don't want to have to stop one at three feet, yards or inches...

Jeff

holly crap!
I got to see the video on this
glad all came through without injury--or worse!

Glad to hear that everyone (except the elephant) came though without a scratch. It is that kind of experience that makes you gravitate to the heavy rifles.

Exactly Charles! That's why I moved up to the 500 Jeffery this year.

It seems that Taylor's Knock out value , kinda sorta worked .....Thats good .
Very glad every one came out well ...
Haveing to dodge an elephants trunk would be about as much excitement as I would care to have .....

Pics of the cow

Thanks for the photos. That's a tricky angle...coming up hill to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Head Trauma:
I was the client. I had my 458 Lott with 450gr Barnes banded solids at about 2200fps, Alan had his 458WM with 500gr Trophy banded solids.

It was my first day ever ele hunting.

That's a hell of an introduction!

Incredible.

Head Trauma, since that was a self preservation shot in defense of life and limb, where is the pic of your tuskless cow???

Now another one of us understands how fast and why we carry big guns and big bullets...

Quoting a fellow member...
" There is no such thing as to much gun..."

Here are pics of the tuskless. Had her all lined up for a perfect brain shot at 20 yards, facing right. Just as I fired she turned towards me and lifted her head. Later Al said if she had not turned it would have been a perfect brain shot The shot went thru the zygoma in front of the ear, shattered the nearside TMJ and clipped the bottom of the skull. She went down like a rock and then struggled to get up. 2nd shot was poor, behind the up shoulder in the body. 3rd shot brained her. She had her head down, away from me, the 3rd shot went in the back of her head, ended up halfway down the trunk, where it was recovered.

Not to sidetrack the thread, but as a fan of the 375H&H and the 416 Rigby, this has given me considerable pause!
Peter.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:
Not to sidetrack the thread, but as a fan of the 375H&H and the 416 Rigby, this has given me considerable pause!
Peter.

Charging elephant tend to do that to you. It did me and several others on here.

465H&H

Myles McCallum of this same company is seriously looking at the 500 Jeffery instead of his 416 Rigby. I know Buzz bought a double to use instead of his 416 Rigby but not sure how much he is using it? I know the Rigbys have served both PHs well but it just doesn't seem like enough gun to cover clients in close proximity to ele...not the way that these guys like to hunt. I think they have the right idea by looking at bigger calibers. For me (this is my opinion only), the 458's are my personal minimum for hunting cow ele.

1) I wonder whether all CMS employees are now contracturally required to wear dorky hats.

2) The 416 will get it done.

Glad to hear Shaun is back with CMS... always liked that kid. Now if Buzz could just get Royal to drive again!


BTW, HeadTrauma, helluva exciting intro to elephant hunting... and a 2 fer 1 to boot! Some guys have all the luck.

I thought the same thing when I saw Alan's hat in these photos. He needs to put his ball cap back on.

Who was Alan's #1 tracker now that Taka is gone?

I bought 470 nitro (searcy) about a year ago. I have yet to hunt with it. I am looking forward to ele and buff in the future (I have hunted buff before, but not with the 470)

do you guys feel 470 nitro is enough or is the 500 now the favorite for charging ele?
I know a brain shot with any cal. is fine but in a similar charge as above, do feel the 470 would be adequate?

Head Trauma,

Can you post a description of the 4 bullet holes in your elephant with tusks?

Which shots were which?

(Two are still spouting blood).

Congratulations! I also hunted with CMS and a tuskless elephant was the first African animal I ever shot.

I was surprised how close Myles got me, just 9 paces.

I shot mine from the top of a termite mound with cow looking at me over the mound. Her dam ran me off the mound.

I am not surprised that Myles is looking for a .500 double.

He was a great PH for me.

Andy

Of course, the 470 is adequate. I just like the fifty calibers personally.

To clarify, Myles is looking at the CZ Jeffery. There were only a handful of Jeffery doubles ever made as it's a semi-rebated rim which is not conducive to double rifles. It's tough enough to get working in a bolt gun.

I have been trying to visualize the angle on an ele coming up a hill like that. That's a tough shot and not very common to be shooting down into the brain from above.

quote:

Now if Buzz could just get Royal to drive again!

Hey -- he drove me!



Around Harare.

Andy

The two shots on the front (lowest and middle) were when she was right on us. She fell back and landed on her right side, facing left. As she lifted her head, Al brained her (the one on the zygomatic arch in front of the eye with the pink stuff).

The topmost hole with the blood spurting out of it was the insurance shot.

Al's trackers are now Naison, Nyati and Kefasi. I believe, although not sure, that Naison is the lead guy. They did a brillant job on the tuskless under very difficult conditions.

Thanks. Naison was the #2 last year and it was his first year. He showed signs of brilliance when he was interested. His eyesight is fantastic.

Naison's dad taught Alan to hunt when Alan was a kid as Naison's family was employed on the Shearing farm.

I didn't know Nyati but that's an interesting name for a tracker. Wonder if he's any good on buffalo?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Will:
1) I wonder whether all CMS employees are now contracturally required to wear dorky hats.

Maybe they are working toward pith helmets, be right in style for how they hunt.

Yukon,

Me bad. I see that I assumed all .500's must be a .500 Nitro double. Been hanging out with 500 grains too much!

Headtrauma,

thanks for details and congrats again. Im surprised the one in line w her eye did not hit brain shooting down on her.

My 450 Dakota really rocked my cow as did your two shots. I missed the brain as she was startled to see me on top of that temite mound and turned away suddenly.

I guess the .458 caliber is adequate up close!

PS Please post pics of your bullet if you have one. Did you measure how far it went?

Andy

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
1) I wonder whether all CMS employees are now contracturally required to wear dorky hats.

2) The 416 will get it done.

only those employees desiring to prevent skin cancer on their ears( a very common place to get it) are required to wear the dorky hats. the rest are allowed to wear baseball caps and sign a release waver agreeing that they KNOW it is a bad idea and don't mind donating an ear to the pathology department at the local hospital.

Andy

We were not shooting down. Her head was level with us coming up the hill while at the same time she was bringing her head down to hit us. It was not really that hard for me, for I simply, as some one said ,just "aimed for the middle of things". There was little, if any, skill involved. In this case, it worked out OK.

Al's side brain shot bullet was in the skull.They recovered it chopping out the tusks. His frontal shot bullet was in the neck/body junction. My bullet was not found. The recovery was long and difficult. All the meat had to be carried a long distance to the trucks. The light was failing fast and no one had any time to go muck around looking for my bullet. We walked out in the dark as it was.

Aside from the very faint rifling marks from Al's well worn barrel, his bullets were unmarked or deformed.

The bullet I recovered from the tuskless went thru about 2 feet of skull and 4 feet of trunk. Aside from the rifling marks, it was unmarked or deformed

HEAD TRAUMA!

I have to chuckle at your description of making a frontal brain shot on a charging elephant as "being not all that difficult" and "There was little if any skill involved". Two hunters, one a very experienced professional hunter using very addwquate cartridges both miss the brain (which is at least the size of a salad plate from that angle) at what?, less than 10 feet and it is easy? From what I have read and experienced frontal shots are successful less than 50% of the time even for very experienced hunters. Stopping the charge is much easier than stopping the charge and killing the elephant at the same time. Your experience is why most hunters with much elephant hunting experience want their rifles to use at least a 500 grain bullet of .458 diam. or larger traveling along at least 2,050 and preferably more fps.

465H&H

465 H&H,

I think you are reading more into it than was said. I think Head Trauma was just stating he took a quick shot and just hoped for the best, not really knowing for sure whether it was in the right place. Maybe I'm wrong.

Wow!!!
These guys must eat nails for breakfast. Really of interest since I am slated to hunt with CM Safaris in Chewore south with Buzz in 09. If he gets me that close to ele, I may have an heart attack. Need a bigger rifle as now the 500 seems puny,

Dak

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
465 H&H,

I think you are reading more into it than was said. I think Head Trauma was just stating he took a quick shot and just hoped for the best, not really knowing for sure whether it was in the right place. Maybe I'm wrong.

Will!

You may well be right but my point is still very valid.

465H&H

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
465 H&H,

I think you are reading more into it than was said. I think Head Trauma was just stating he took a quick shot and just hoped for the best, not really knowing for sure whether it was in the right place. Maybe I'm wrong.

Will!

You may well be right but my point is still very valid.

465H&H

Valid indeed. The percentage of charging elephant that actually get brained is very, very small. Talk is so, so cheap.

That's why they call the big guns stoppers and not brainers.