African Elephants with a .22LR

[Jim]

I was reading a book by Peter Hathaway Capstick the other night and he mentioned an event where a fellow PH told him of accidentally killing an elephant with a .22LR. The friend took Pete out into the bush and proved it by doing it again. With a broadside shot, the shooter waited 'till the elephant stepped forward and then shot into the chest immediately behind the front leg. The skin is thin and soft at this point and the bullet pierced the heart and the elephant collapsed within a minute.
Placement and penetration.

[Rocky Raab]

Back in the 20s or 30s, the largest circus elephant in history went amok. It was put down with one shot of a 22 Short! Don't ask me how. But that event does not make the .22 Short an elephant gun!

The .22 has possibly killed every animal on this planet at some time or other - and gotten uncounted people stomped, gored or eaten as well. Then too, it is hardly rare to find a .22 slug in the meat of a deer that was more or less healthy until killed by a more substantial gun.

[leftiye]

I was gonna say "yeah right!" BTW, Capstick is big time cool! Love his books.

[MtGun44]

I enjoyed Capsticks books. However, I have since heard that they are other
people's adventures, sometimes heavily embelished, rather than first hand
truths. So, until I have some definitive info on these stories, I treat them as
fiction rather than fact.

Regardless, they are well written and enjoyable to read. They started me
thinking about hunting in Africa, although I always thought it would be far
beyond my financial ability. I was surprised to find out that an ordinary
person could afford to hunt in Africa. So - Capstick gets credit for helping
me towards one of my biggest hunting adventures, truth or fiction.

As to the elephant -- sounds pretty iffy and I would imagine that it would
require at least 18" of flesh penetration. Anyone know how deep the solid
pt .22 LR penetrates in gelatin?

Bill

[Russ in WY]

Seems that I read the elephant kill story myself way back when. Won't swear to any of it but ,did read that once. My 2¢ Russ.

[softpoint]

Raised on a farm here in Texas, the .22 was used for everything. Sick cattle , or even mean Brahma bulls were dispatched with one shot to the brain. Hogs were dropped in the hog pen the same way, with whatever .22 round happened to be handy at the moment, sometimes it was shorts. Occasionaly a short would fail to penetrate to the brain if the angle it hit was too acute. I never recall a LR failing to kill. Deer were killed with .22's with a shot either between the eyes, or in or right behind the ear.
Reading the writings of others, the grizzly bear was brought to near extinction in the US by the .30/30 Winchester. I have no doubt that a griz could be killed by a .22 to brain. However, a miss or a bad angle could bring on adverse consequences. (bear open a can of you-know-what)
I can't comment on how much penetration, or where an elephant would have to be shot with a .22 to kill it. They've been killed with bows and arrows, though.
go here:

http://www.bowhunting.net/artman/pub..._printer.shtml

[Rocky Raab]

Just to satisfy myself, I did a half-hour search. I can't find any DOCUMENTED incident where an elephant was killed with any rimfire. There are a gazillion references to threads like this one, the Capstick story and other "I heard that..." tales, but nothing DOCUMENTED.

In particular, I checked the story of Jumbo the circus elephant. That elephant died when crushed by a locomotive. Being that is is very hard to confuse a locomotive with a .22 Short even by the most gun-illiterate scribe, I have to call that myth busted.

It's probably an urban myth.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I remember a story that took place back in the early `50`s. Two boys were argueing about a .22 short would kill an elephant. They smuggled a .22 pistol of their fathers into a traveling circus that was in town. As the jumbo`s were parading around center ring the shot was done from front row bleacher seats at the nearest jumbo and behind the shoulder. Next day jumbo was dead from internal hemorraging by the little .22 short.Robert

[thenaaks]

here are a couple pages with some interesting 22lr penetration info:

http://www.goldenloki.com/ammo/gel/22lr/gel22lr.htm

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubb...=782785&page=1

the latter talks about shooting a (butterball) turkey from 250 yards...i would have never thought about shooting a 22lr that far away!

[runfiverun]

once a month we have 22lr silhouette matches here the rams are at 200 meters.
and open sights are used.
the silhouettes are scaled down to 1/8th size.
i suk but it's fun...

[DLCTEX]

I had the sad occasion to help put down about 70 or more cattle that had been badly burned in a fire at an auction sale in La. in 1978. A friend and I used 22 LR and first tried brain shots from the front, but quickly found that a shot behind the ear, angling to the front was 100% sure to drop the animal in its tracks. A frontal shot centered and 2 inches above the eyeline worked, but if the chin was lifted any the bullet would ride up the skull and not penetrate the skull. Total loss was about 200 head. The cattle were turned out, but stampeded and ran back into the fire.

[troy_mclure]

i have eaten elk that was killed by a .22lr, and a hunting guide in canada told us about a moose that tried to climb into his boat that he killed with a .22 pistol.

[softpoint]

On a large animal a shot directly into the eye towards the center of the brain(from the side, usually) will also kill.

[splattersmith]

I was told by a guy that he got a chipmunk with a tactical hydrogen bomb. Little left to clean, he said.

[troy_mclure]

been there done that! cooked to perfection!

[watkibe]

There is such a big difference between what is possible and what is a good idea.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

I have never been disappointed with the performance of a 22lr. It is amazing what a 22 can do when it has to, but a chest shot on elephants, I find that a little hard to believe.

Of course 50 or 60 years ago (before evolution kicked in) a 22lr might have been plenty for an elephant. However nowadays you need at least a 300 Win Mag to "humanely" kill the highly evolved squirrels, and I am not sure if there is a big enough gun to take out a modern day elephant.

[carpetman]

Yeah I kill elephants that get into my yard all time and I never used anything bigger than a .22. They are pretty good eating and will feed a lot of people. A 4000 pound elephant will make enough stew to feed about 2500 people. If you are having a bigger tailgate party than that you can supplement it some rabbit if you are very careful. You have to sneak it in. Most people get upset if they find a hare in their stew.

[windrider919]

I actually have two stories for here.

I don't condone this and never participated but:
My East Texas uncles (all 3 dead now) used to hunt year round on their own property. Usually after dark with a spotlight. They both used 22LR and killed several dear each year for over 40 years. One shot = one deer and usually at 50 to 75 yards. I can say that I ate a lot of venison growing up.

And when I was a kid in Cub Scouts on a camping trip in Louisiana a black bear tried to break into the station wagon where the food was one night. The scout masters wife was sleeping in the car and when it broke the window and stuck its head inside she shot it with an old H&R 6" barreled 9 shot 22LR revolver. She was one cool lady and shot once straight into the mouth, right into the spine. It died instantly, head and front legs still inside the car. It was all over before we boys could even get out of our tents. No cell phones those days and the adults just butchered out the bear. We cooked some and I remember it was the greasiest meat I ever ate. One of the dads went into the closest town and got the parish sheriff and ice and later they they took it home. She insisted the hide was hers and had it tanned.

[dale2242]

I remember my father killing an adult black bear with one shot to the side of the head with a 22 rf pistol. I was bothered by the idea, I still am, of shooting anything other than small game with a 22 rf. We have all heard the stories of what was killed with them. In my opinion, shooting large animals with a 22rf is just inhumane and unsportsmanlike. Use the proper gun for the job at hand.....dale