I think an open sighted double rifle is by far the best choice for elephants so I beleive that your double rifle ought to be first an elephant rifle. That means 450+ to me.

Nothing wrong with using that elephant rifle on buff either, though here a scoped rifle will proove more versitile. I use my elephant rifle for buff, but if I were purely out to shoot the biggest set of horns I would be carrying a scoped rifle with a reasonably flat trajectory and the tracker would be carrying my big double - or vice versa.

If my preference were reversed and instead of elephants being my prefered target and buff a fun to hunt distant second it were the other way around, I might drop the 450+ and settle on a 450/400 weighing no more than 9 1/2lbs shooting North Fork flat nose solids and cup points, equiped with a good scope in claw mounts.

My second rifle will always have to be a legal and wise choice for elephants. For me right now its a bolt 375H&H.

JPK