JabiliHunter,

I was hunting in Nyakasanga in May and attemped a side brain shot on a bull ele. The bull wasn't all that far into Nyakasanga, close by the Rickomitche (sp?) Photo Safari Conccession boundary. I tried to place my shot just below the bull's left earhole as he faced to our left, just below the ear hole to make up for the eles hieght. At the shot the bull spun toward us. I put my second shot through his trunk and into his chest. This didn't prevent him from completing his spin and heading for the border. PH Richard Tabor fired his 470 twice, shooting for the heart/lung. Appy PH Winston (can't for the life of me recall his last name at the moment) also fired his 458wm as I reloaded and fired one more. Just as was pulling the trigger on my second barrel the second time, Winston, with his second shot, spined the bull and he dropped. He was dead when we approached, as he should be with four big bore slugs in his heart and lungs and spined as well! I put an insurance shot into his earhole, which Rich Tabor religiously insist on.

We found what should have been the entry hole for my first shot and it was just where it was intended to be, just below the ear hole. Rich thought is was well placed to have brained the ele, but it obviously hadn't. Placed where it was, if it had been a tick too low, it should have gotten the spine/skull junction and still have dropped the bull.

The next day we went for recovery and told the head skinner what had happened. He went looking for the bullet and showed us where it seemed to have hit and turned on the zygomatic arch under the ear hole, where the arch flattens out. There was a bit of a nick on the arch, but not much, and then what seemed to be a blood shot trail into the neck. It was the last day of the safari, so, though I am an enthusiastic bullet digger and pay a $20/bullet bounty for recovered bullets, we were very short on time and didn't put in the time to really check to see if this is what really happened. Also, it is possible that the hole the skinner found was the exit hole from the insurance shot I made into the earhole from the opposite side. In my experience digging bullets from elephants, I've found that if there is more than a brain shot and an insurance shot, it can get pretty difficult figguring out whose shot went where and sorting out the chain of events and the holes and bullet tracks.

In any event, I lost confidence in the North Forks for brain shots on bulls. I'll keep using them for second shots and will do some more testing on bull skulls to see if the problem, if it happened, ocurs again. This hunt we were short time too, so did no bullet testing on the dead eles.

JPK