Hi Old Sarge,
I found this post while browsing through some of the earlier pages and thought it might be worth bringing back...not that I dont find all the stuff about videocameras, rifle cases and what to do with a CZ interesting, but hunting big things is a whole lot more stimulating to me.

The honeycomb structure of an elephant skull is what results in its reduced weight - it is also the reason why many bullets struggle to penetrate...I am sure there are numerous theories about why they have evolved this way, but one of the reasons that is most commonly accepted is that it is there to reduce the weight of the skull, without compromising too much in strength and resilience. A big bull skull is defnitely going to weigh in at quite a bit more than that of the cow, but it is still possible for a reasonably fit person to pick the skull up alone. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it as when you imagine the elephants of legends, with 100+ lbs a side in ivory, add to that the weight of the skin, meat, tissue and fluids you have an incredible amount of weight in that big head, admittedly all of that might rule out the case of a few extra kilos of bone causing a problem, but as with any engineering issue - everything has its limits. It doesnt even have to be a 100 lb'er actually - even a bull carrying 30lbs a side has a head that is tremendously heavy before it is flayed, the tusks taken out and all the tissue and fluid removed.

In reply to the other question - about softnose/expanding bullet tests on dead elephant - I tried some Trophy Bonded Bear Claws on several elephant cows that were already down. Five out of six performed well and the elephant would have died. The sixth bullet actually bent. It did not expand at all and instead travelled at a really strange angle - not through the scoop in the front of the head and up, but sideways and stopped under the skin on the side of her head just in front of the earhole, but missed the brain completely. 5 out of six is just not good enough.

And in closing - I had the good fortune to join some friends on an elephant hunt some years ago. I was accompanying them just to see what happened and help out if anything went wrong....

Well...

We were going to hunt an elephant that had a heavy wire snare deeply embedded in one of its forelegs and we were offered the chance to put this animal down to prevent further suffering & possibly also eliminate a potential threat. The lower part of the leg had become infected and was not looking good. We found the elephant easily enough as he had been seen at a waterhole earlier that day. All we did was drive to the waterhole where we picked up his tracks and walked in to him.

He was walking along on a pathway when we caught up with him not too far from the waterhole and we walked up right behind him. When we were about 10-12 metres behind him I clapped my hands - hoping that he would turn around and the two guys shooting would be able to test a frontal brain shot. Unfortunately he wasnt on the same frequency and instead he just turned his head sideways and looked back over his shoulder at us before he dropped his head back forward and lumbered away from us. His foot was not in great shape so he didnt go too far and we had a chance to plan a second approach - it was a bit more tricky the second time around as he was a lot more alert and I was concerned that he would get our wind or see/hear us and bolt again. We got in to about 15 metres. He was pretty well obscured by trees & bushes and we couldnt get into a better position because of wind direction & open ground that limited our approach. So we waited. Eventually he moved a step forwards and we had a good view of his chest and head, quartering slightly away from us, but not far from a good broadside. One of the shooters was supposed to attempt a brain shot in this situation and the other was going to back him up with one to the engine.

Hmmm...not quite...I guess in the heat of the moment the back-up shooter felt confident of an easy side brain shot and decided(independently) to shoot for the brain as well. Anyway - the shots went off and the elephant went down, the two shooters breathed sighs of relief and started to shake hands with each other, both very happy to see that the jumbo had gone down in one, and as I watched them shaking hands the bull just up and took off!(Okay maybe it wasnt quite as relaxed as it sounds, but more or less) Anyway - suddenly theres this big gray ass rocking and rolling away from us and I have mental pictures of sixty mile follow-ups and sleeping on the tracks and all sorts of things so I just shout something at these guys and sprint like a motherf#%�%er after that rapidly disappearing ass. I get a chance where the bush is open enough and empty my mag(bolt action) into where the spine should have been...the bulls back legs look like they buckle a bit but he just picks up and keeps on going. By now the two other guys have caught up and they start shooting at the spine and hips as well...not an easy shot to make I can assure you...that ass sways more than any nice looking pair of cheeks I have ever looked at! By now I am running again - yep like a motherf%�&er again, and reaching down to grab fresh ammo and pack it into my mag - the mag is fully loaded now, the elephant is out of sight and we stop...the three of us. Theres no blood, headshots and spinal/hip shots dont leave much bloodspoor, and we cant hear the elephant anymore. Either he has stopped?? or we need to send somebody back to the truck, get lots of water and radio back to camp to say we are going to be gone for a while.

I guess luck was on our side though coz we followed the spoor for about a kilometre, and found the big guy just resting, by now he definitely was not so happy...a few bulletholes in his head and quite a few in his butt as well, but I think it was actually his snared foot that saved us this time. We got a clear shot from about 60 metres at his chest so we all fired as many shots as we could into the chest before he took off again. As he turned to run again, I grabbed a round from my belt, dropped it into the breech and closed the bolt. I took aim at his spine one last time and let rip. He dropped perfectly and I was very happy with my shot - it was 60 metres as I say and I was quite happy with myself for that, lucky or not, it had worked. But f%&# me both ways if the poor guy didnt pick himself up again and barrell off at full tilt again! Anyway - we figure he has been hit in the chest a few times so decide not to try any more long distance spine shots this time for fear of sending him even further away from us and deeper into jesse that we know he is heading towards where recovery is going to be a nightmare.

This as it turns out is probably the first correct decision we have collectively made.

We come to where the bull had been resting, we check for blood - nothing...we follow the tracks to where my attempted spine shot dropped him and HALLELUJAH...we do find our first specks of bright frothy blood! Yeah baby!! Thats what we LIKE! The bull had collapsed about 300 metres further on, luckily for us he had fallen just short of the thick tangle of jesse. We walked up behind him, took a good long look to make sure he was finally history, and then set off back to the vehicle, water, and all the other stuff that feels so good after going through the nightmarish possibilities of losing a wounded elephant bull!(Ice cold beers & biltong!)
Anyway - the point of the story is that I have a great ammo belt - its got 22 loops for bullets on it and I always have them fully packed if I am following DG. Earlier that day I had been checking my ammo and I found a woodleigh soft lying around...I wont say I did it without thinking, because I did think about it and I actually stuck the round into a loop right against the buckle, so effectively it was round towards the back of my belt and theoretically would be one of the last to get scooped up, and yet - if i needed a soft at short notice I would know where to find it!

When we went back in to the carcass, we looked around for all of the different bullet holes, I dont remember where all of them hit, but there were the two holes in the side of his head, both of them a little too far forward to hit the brain from the angle that the shots were taken. There were four or five shots that went into the heart/lung neighbourhood, a few random holes in the general hip region, and a smattering of holes around the spine, all either a little too far left or a little too far right....except for one. We cut through the skin and followed the wound channel and as we got closer to the spine the more baffled we were as to why he had not gone down??? Until we reached the spine. The bullet had hit the angle on the bone at the spine and travelled for about 8-9 inches before coming to a stop. That woodleigh soft was positively screaming at me with hysterical laughter as I dug it out of its snug little groove against the spine!

I will NEVER EVER again, as long as I am hunting, take soft ammo on an elephant hunt. I will do it for buffalo only with extreme caution and taking fully into account WHO ELSE I am hunting with. Soft ammo serves a great purpose - for the right job. In my opinion - this does not apply to elephant. Sure it will work extremely well on a chest shot, and perhaps even a side brain shot. But at the end of the day you dont know that you are going to get the opportunity to take exactly the shot that you have planned, and in my experience, its very uncommon that you ever do get the chance to make the shot as you have imagined it.

Good story. I am not sure I would have had the guts to admit I had used a soft, even by mistake.

From my own very limited experience, even solids leave something to be desired.

There is little if any bone fragmentation the can reach the brain as you have the heavy skull and inside that a huge mass of sponge like material surrounding the brain..Why the sponge like mass? because elephants use the head to feed, they push over huge trees and run through anything they decide to..this thick skull and sponge mass protect the brain from damage..Many an elephant has been shot in the head only to survive...

I personally do not believe a bullet of any kind will knock an elephant out unless it skims the brain or comes extremely close to it, or penitrates into the spine area.

The brain lies between the corner or the eye and the ear
hole so one HAS to figure that angle from wherever he takes his shot from, and sometimes in a hurry...Same as shooting a buffalo, for instance, in the flank, you angle the bullet to the off shoulder if you want a killing shot...

Nothing to it! piece of cake!

Baboonbreader: Great story...thanks for sharing!

Canuck

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Yeah, Alf, the guys missed the brain!