Hi
isn't better to shoot them at the neck instead of head? the effect could be nearly the same ! why not neck-shot instead of headshot? the neck is not protected by a massiv sheild like elephnts brain.
regards
yes

The neck of an elephant is huge with little exterior refrence to help ensure that your solid strikes the spine, especially considering that the elephant may be up hill or down hill from you, that its head may be held low or high.

With a side or frontal brain shot you have some combination of the earsholes, the zygomatic arches, the temporal glands and the eyes to help you visualize where the brain is within the skull.

The brain is also the more fogiving target in terms of dimensions.

You shouldn't count on it but if you use a powerful enough rifle and a heavy enough solid bullet and you miss close to the brain you have a chance of stunning the elephant, allowing a second killing shot. If you miss the spine you will see no reaction.

There is no other shot but a frontal brain shot to stop or turn an elephant when an elephant is coming. This being the case you should always use a rifle, cartridge and bullet combination capable of penetrating to the brain from the front when you hunt elephants anyway.

I have no experience shooting rhinos, but from what I have read their horns make an effective frontal brain shot difficult if not impossible. The one black rhino that I have seen in the wild would have been easy to brain from the side. But when we caught his attention, he turned to face us and as we moved he turned to keep facing us, never offering more than a hard quartering on shot, if we had been shooting. I have read that to stop a rhino you try the on coming hard quartering shoulder shot and then the spine between his shoulders when he is very close and as he lowers his head to gore you.

JPK

Have known really experienced elephant cullers who have tried the neck shot. Occasionally it has worked. Best plan though is to shoot a thousand or so with conventional brain and body shots, and try the neck shots when no other option is provided. Then you will understand

The neck shots are easy, as long as you use a 9.3x62.

Will,

Either your just stirring the pot or you actually think neck shots are easy. I can't tell which. How 'bout explaining?

JPK

Just trying to stir Ganyana's pot. He is a big fan of the 9.3x62, which is a nice deer round but I wouldn't try to shoot any big with it!

Neck shooting is a time honored mistake in my opinion, whether deer or anything else. Too many chances for missing the neck vertebrae and wounding. It gives me the creeps just thinking about that shot on an ele. But if you are a tad too far back on a side brain shot, that is what you wind up doing, and have done so by mistake.

It looked like a perfect brain shot. I just kept quiet!

On DG thtey are the wrong choice. However on deer sized animals they work great. You just have to hit where you are aimimg.

I believe in GUN CONTROL, that means hitting where you aim.

Well,

I'll take the best of the two last post and say that a 9.3x62 might be great for neck shots on deer!

JPK