Hoppdoc,

If you are going to do this once and the budget is tight, than any rifle you already own that's 375 or bigger will get you through, imo. Just make sure the rifle is reliable and likewise with your ammo.

If you think you're going to be doing it more than once and/or the budgets not tight and you are looking for an ideal battery then things change.

In my opinion, the 450/400 isn't a great choice for an elephant rifle. No doubt that it will kill the world's biggest elephant. But what has become apparent to me is that you should be carrying a stopping rifle if you are elephant hunting, especially if you are hunting cows. The 450/400 isn't a stopping rifle.

Also, the 450/400 is a less than ideal PG cartridge. IMO, if you could get the weight down to 9 1/2lbs with scope great, but that's on the light side for what a 450/400's weighs without a scope. I sure don't mind carry 10 1/2lbs of stopping rifle when elephant and buffalo hunting but no thanks for chasing impala.

Again imo, you should bring two rifles, and both should be DG legal, in case your primary DG rifle goes tits up or whatever. A mixed bag hunt with DG and PG is really a DG hunt with other stuff shot too - but the focus is on and the money is spent on the DG. So bring a big bore and a medium. Big bores start at .458" and go up. What 500 Grains said is true. And even PH's miss brain shots.

BTW, I nearly had to shoot a cow that came boiling out of the bush - a different one than the one in the serries of photos that I posted which I did shoot. We were on a long scouting hike looking for a trophy bull or his tracks beyond the last road in an area of Chewore in Zim. We'd gotten strung out a bit comming down a hil and then crossing a steep sided dry creek. The PH was leading, with one tracker about five yards behind him and then me, maybe ten yards behind the tracker and then the gamescout right behind me. The PH followed a game trail parrallel to the dry creek bed and went around a corner where a thicket of trees was growing. We heard an elephant trumpet and then the PH came hauling arse back around the bend with a cow on his tail. The tracker flew past me and I raised my rifle ready to shoot the cow, which was maybe ten yards behind the PH and gaining. The gamescout retreated five yards or so and cycled a round into the chamber of his AK47. Just as I was going to flick the safety off the cow pulled up. The PH pulled up next to me. I think it was the loud cycling of the AK action which caught the cows attention, but who knows.

JPK