John Hunter said the charging elephant is the animal most likely to turn away when shot (and not hit in CNS). Lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino were more likely to press home a charge.

So elephant stoppers such as the double .500 John Hunter favored or the .577 many other el hunters used were chosen for a reason.

But the .375HH was used by many very succesfull ivory hunters who spend decades in the bush. And the .416R is considered an excelent elephant gun, used by Samaki Salmon who shot over 4000 elephants.

So my take is: the .400 is probably the best elephant (and buffalo) gun for our day and age, particularly because of low recoil and full penetration. The weight of the gun is also important as today we walk far more and shoot far less. Finaly, in our days, nobody hunts alone and there will be another gun on your side.

However, to hunt very thick Jesse, a PAC elephant that knows a lot about humans it may make sense to step up.

Dante