BELL killed 100's of elephants with 7x57 mauser (rifle, 308, bullet)

[giney12]

which is a hair less powerful than the 308. If I had a 308 AUTOloader rifle and Barnes "solids" (bronze, deep penetration) ammo for it, I'd happily take on a charging herd of elephants! :-) It would be a blast, literally. Bell had 2 of his "boys" use a 2 man crosscut saw to remove the head of a dead tusker. The head was then dragged a few yds away from the body, and sawn in half again, from the front. The 2 halves were then dragged apart, and Bell studied where he would have to aim to hit the brain, from any angle. He made notes and aimedaccordingly later. Bell had to keep a big double rifle as a backup, only because his Mauser was a bolt action.

Given a 20 rd box mag in an autorifle, the double rifle is not needed. The elephant's head is up to 3 feet in diameter, the brain is just the size of a football. Shooters want the 458 and more power because they want to be able to stun the tusker with any hit to the skull, whether or not the bullet actually strikes the brain. Elephants can't run all that fast. Native poachers take them with Ak's, you know. They simply stalk to within 10 m, fire a full auto burst into one lung, wait 24 hours, look for circling buzzards. the lung is a target 2 ft in diameter. Some of those rds slip between the ribs, the multiple wound channels make the animal cough up blood, inhale it into its other lung. Death follows, from drowning.