African Elephants with a .22LR

[parson48]

The elephants have obviously heard that I am the owner of at least one .22, therefore they stay away from my property here in Indianapolis!
parson48

[fatnhappy]

the .22 is a stone cold killer. I can't imagine not having one around the house, or teaching my son to shoot without one.

[FN in MT]

I believe I read it in one of the J A Hunter books or possibly one of Robert Ruarks....but I did read the story of a mature African elephant , in the WILD, killed by a .22 rifle.

One of the ways elephants cool themselves is by flapping their large ears. On the backside of their ears they have many, many blood vessels which are fairly close to the skin. This array of small vessels is fed by a single large artery close to the base of the ear.

In the account I read the shooter stalked close to a elephant in a herd and waited for the perfect shot and stuck a .22 into that artery. The noise of the herd feeding masked the report of his rifle and he sneaked away unnoticed.

The high blood pressure at the point of the wound kept the blood flowing and EVENTUALLY the elephant fell over and died. And if I recall it correctly it was quite some time. Certainly painless ......but far from humane.

FN in MT

[snowtigger]

I can tell this story because the principal is deceased.
Karl, the principle in this story , was collecting Christmas trees with some friends when they spotted a moose in a field. They decided to spook the moose out of the field and kill (poach) it. Karl had the only gun, a 22 rimfire.
He decided the best shot would be through the heart. As the moose went over the berm at the edge of the field, he fired one shot. He immediately saw what he thought was his moose running to the left, and fired again. The moose dropped right away.
As he approached the moose, he looked off to his right and observed the first moose, dead just beyond the berm.
Two moose with two shots from a 22!
I don't condone poaching, but he was unemployed at the time and he was feeding his family.
I have been hunting moose for almost 50 years and I still do not think I could reliably hit one in the heart, much less two moose.

[The Double D]

I got a god laugh reading this thread. I was doing some research the other day on the .577 2 3/4 BPE. I picked up my copy of John Taylors African Rifles & Cartridges. Taylor was writing about the deployment of the .577 and .600 to hunt elephants. Tayler said these two cartridges when shot into the head of an elephant will stun the elephant for a period of time and give you chance to get close enough to place a killing shot.

[StarMetal]

I got a god laugh reading this thread. I was doing some research the other day on the .577 2 3/4 BPE. I picked up my copy of John Taylors African Rifles & Cartridges. Taylor was writing about the deployment of the .577 and .600 to hunt elephants. Tayler said these two cartridges when shot into the head of an elephant will stun the elephant for a period of time and give you chance to get close enough to place a killing shot.

You could look at it as what's easier to push into a substance, an ice pick or a round nosed 1/2 steel rod?

Joe

[Jim]

I have always believed in using the right tool for the job, but I just thought it would be fun to post this. Y'all have a good weekend, fellas.

[Echo]

The elephants have obviously heard that I am the owner of at least one .22, therefore they stay away from my property here in Indianapolis!
parson48

Are you SURE? Elephants have been known to hide in orange trees by painting their toenails orange. What? You've never seen one? They hide pretty good, don't they!

[windrider919]

Oh yah, I heard about that.

That is why they have flat feet, from jumping out of trees.

[parson48]

Not any orange trees here in Indy. They'd have to use red toe nail polish and head for the apple trees.

Guess I'd better keep the ol' 22 nearby just in case!
parson48

[Jim]

Elephants have red eyes. That's their natural camouflage for hiding in cherry trees.

[Rocky Raab]

I regret that I have actually killed an elephant or two. Deeply regret it.

The NVA used elephant and water buffalo as pack animals on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. When we discovered one, we'd make a low pass. If the animal spooked at our engine noise, it was probably wild and we left it alone. But if it seemed used to engine noise, we assumed it was a pack animal and would hit it with a flechette rocket. Flechettes are supersonic little finned nails, and they penetrate like nobody's business. But such needle holes make for a lingering and agonizing death for a large animal.

I didn't mind the water buffalo so much, but my heart broke to kill elephants that way.

BTW, the elephants there were pink. Honest. They dusted themselves in that red soil, and were no-foolin' pink.

[TDC]

What dale2242 and watkibe said....

[nicholst55]

I got a god laugh reading this thread. I was doing some research the other day on the .577 2 3/4 BPE. I picked up my copy of John Taylors African Rifles & Cartridges. Taylor was writing about the deployment of the .577 and .600 to hunt elephants. Tayler said these two cartridges when shot into the head of an elephant will stun the elephant for a period of time and give you chance to get close enough to place a killing shot.

One current method of culling elephants is to 'center-punch' them through the forehead with an armor-piercing 7.62 NATO round. This usually kills them outright, but not always. It has become common practice to give them an 'insurance shot' with a 9mm pistol in the ear canal. I'm told that always works.

The insurance shot was decided upon after a supposedly 'dead' elephant revived as it was being winched onto a truck for transport to a local village for butchering. I understand that the elephant became quite disturbed by the entire process.

[Rat-Man]

I understand that the elephant became quite disturbed by the entire process.

I suspect he did! That right there was funny, I don't care who you are.

[fatnhappy]

You could look at it as what's easier to push into a substance, an ice pick or a round nosed 1/2 steel rod?

Joe

which one is being propelled by hurricane force winds?

[ka0tqv]

I've read Capsticks book at least once and he's good at it. Peter was a success on Wall Street, decided to start up his own Safari Outfit, operating out of New York City. He had a lot of well heeled friends, and made a success out of it. His best stories are about other people. Naming one (Wally Johnson the Last Ivory Hunter). Books written about his own safaris, I look at with a jaundiced eye. He almost always had a professional photographer with him, who was always able to take good photos of the slain animal, but unable to come up with a filmed record of the event. Not being there myself, this is only conjecture. With a picture standing over a slain lion, months later when writing about it, you can conjure up all kinds of scenarios. But more power to him, he made money on Wall Street, safaris and finally his books. That's a lot more than I ever did.
************************************************** ***********************8
Did you hear about the cow that got killed by a weasel.? No, not possible, Tell me about it.
The cow was standing on the railroad tracks and didn't hear the weasel.

[Dave Bulla]

I've read Captstick's story about th elephant kill too. I think it was in the book "Death in the Silent Places" which was totally about the past great African hunters and not about Captsitck's own hunts though he did mention his own experiences as reference. As I recall, whoever it was who did it, did it alone the first time as a sort of experiment, got away with it and made the mistake of mentioning it to his peers who immediately called him out as a liar so he went back out with one of them and did it again. I don't know if I believe all of Captsticks stories (sure do enjoy them though...) but I know he did make it a point to talk about how unlikely this was and that supposedly, in both cases, the hunter had the ability (or luck) to place his bullet between the ribs tight in the armpit as the leg was forward. I think he mentioned how much penetration was needed to get to the heart from this angle but it wasn't as much as you would think. Less than a foot if I recall correctly. Without hitting bone, that would be possible but I certainly wouldn't want to try it.

If you consider the medical aspect of heart damage causing death, I believe that a bullet finding it's way even an inch into an elephants heart would likely cause death by symptoms the same as a heart attack where blood flow is interrupted to an area of the heart and it doesn't pump properly.

In reality, who the heck knows?

[markinalpine]

"I once shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajamas I'll never know."
Groucho Marx

I can't believe nobody posted Groucho's quote yet!
Mark

[waksupi]

"I once shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajamas I'll never know."
Groucho Marx

I can't believe nobody posted Groucho's quote yet!
Mark

He shot it in Alabama. Every one knows the Tuscaloosa in Alabama.