Ladies and Gentlemen,

While we were in Zimbabwe last month, I noticed an elephant skull that was cut in pieces. I asked Alan about it, and this is what he said.

Apparently he was guiding a hunter, who made a perfect earhole shot on an elephant.

The bullet, apparently, changed direction inside the elephants head, and passed over the top of the brain.

Here are some photos to show the path of the bullet.

Alan pointing to the bullet hole.

This is the angle the bullet came out at.

Top of the skull where the bullet came out.

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saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

I have always been suspicious of wounding theories based on gelatin targets. This goes to show what real world hunting involves- bone, sinew, gut, maybe some muscle and tendon and not a uniform medium.

What do you think happened and what bullet/speed was used if you know.

RJ

RJ,

I am not sure what caliber was used, I think it was a 416 of some sort, but I will try to get the details from Alan.

In my own penetration tests here, at least one bullet from all the solids types I have tried have changed direction! We tried the Barnes Super Solids, the Trophy Bonded solids, and the Speer African Grand Slam with the tungsten core.

We shot them into a wooden box a few feet long, with 1/2 ply wood mixed with phone books and catalogues.

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saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

Solids 101 class: Slow'em down to 2400 or less as round nosed solids when pushed will turn, sometimes; Solid will come apart if pushed to fast or beyond 2600 FPS; Have a proper twist to quickly stablize the bullet as yaw is the killer (pun);

Gerard (GS bullets) solved the solid problem of the round nose with his wonderfull monometal FN solid.

there is a good article in the latest Man Magnum on solid failure and its spot on IMHO..

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Bullets can do the most peculiar things. Don�t trust them!
Bjorn

[This message has been edited by Bjorn Klappe (edited 11-04-2001).]

it was a .375 H&H 300 grain solid fired from 25 +/-5 yrds.

Saeed:

Have you tried the present-day Hornady 300 grain .375 full metal jacket? How did it perform?

/

Eric,

Welcome to the forum. We're glad to see you join us.

Can you fill in the details of this hunt please?

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saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

Saeed,

sorry that is all i know of this hunt, except that the client was an experienced elephant hunter and allen (his PH) had to finish off the elephant because it didnt react to the first shot. it started just started to walk away because of the report from the shot, i believe it was his 3rd elephant hunt with allen. i saw the skull in the butchery and allen showed me what had happened as you described, i just remembered the caliber and bullet, because it is what i was useing on elephant also.