I'm making up some life size elephant head targets. Can you guys give me some idea of the size of a Gonerezhou area bull elephants head? Dimensions needed are width when his ears are fully flared out and top of head to tip of trunk. These two measurements appear on photos to be about the same.

Scott
I would say that the width of the head is approx 3 feet and the width of each ear when extended is also approx 3 feet making the width 9 feet from ear tip to ear tip when ears extended on a frontal view. I would also say that the height of an average bull at the shoulder is approx 11 feet, so you could assess other dimensions from a full picture of the body.
Good luck with your target.

Wow! Thanks Robert, Ive seen several elephant, mainly in zambia, but nine feet from ear tip to ear tip is something.

I've taken your photos to our local UPS Store and about the best I can get done is 3' tall by unlimited width (the ones they made for me are about 6' long).

These are going to be great practice! thanks again for your help.

Sounds about right to me, although I have never measured.

Here's a photo that might be useful. I am on the right and am six feet tall.

Scott
That's a great picture of a bull (good shot placement too ).
Taking into account mrlexma's photo perhaps you should have them do two half prints across the horizontal and then tape them together on the back, making the finished area 6feet high by 9feet wide.
I am surprised that you can't find a wide format printer though. I thought you guys in the States were more technically advanced than us poor Brits.

An old Volkswagon with both doors open makes a good pattern to use.
Rich Elliott

A Volkswagon! That puts it into perspective.

It's been said that making a brain shot on an elephant is harder than hitting a toaster in the back seat of a Volkswagen.

Seems true enough to me!

Not sure what is the usefulness could be of a life-size target or any other animal target, other than for entertainment purposes.

When the ears are out, wide-stretched it is the relatively easy frontal shot. When the ears are back, it gets a lot more tricky.

Constantly burning up ammo at a stationary elephant target. What am I missing here?

What you're missing is seeing a realistic depiction of an elephant in your sights at close range, practiceing finding the zygomatic arch, shooting up at something 9' in the air, seeing if you can hit your aiming point, reload from the shoulder and do it again, seeing if your second shot is also on target.

With all due respect, I ain't missing nothing!

But if it works for you, it's a good thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
With all due respect, I ain't missing nothing!

Humility??

Whatever it is, it ain't humility!!

If you ain't missing, you must of done this same practice!

quote:

Originally posted by SBT:
What you're missing is seeing a realistic depiction of an elephant in your sights at close range, practiceing finding the zygomatic arch, shooting up at something 9' in the air, seeing if you can hit your aiming point, reload from the shoulder and do it again, seeing if your second shot is also on target.

I'm with Will on this one. A paper target of an elephant is nothing like the real thing. Finding and hitting your aiming point on a paper target is not going to help you in the field.

In the real world the brain shot is problematic because of the changing angles as the elephant moves and the fact that your target is several feet behind the point that your bullet strikes.

If you read up on the shot, you will get to the point that you use the external markers to "see" the brain. You aim for the brain and more or less ignore where the bullet's entrance will be located.

One elephant does not make me an expert, but having been in close on many I can tell you that an elephants head is a very 3 dimensional target. I don't think paper will get you close even if it is life size. It needs to be "life shaped".

I recall that Wally Johnson(The book: "The last Ivory Hunter") preferred to take the heart shot. He used a .375 H &H and a .318.

Wally killed 1300 bulls and hundreds of cows. Maybe he knows something?

That will probably be the case, but I hope to be as prepared as possible for all eventual shots.