Quote:

---

Following Bake's great post, I dare to ask what are the exact measurements of the skull of a bull ele and of a cow.

More specifically
What's the distance a bullet has to plow on into flesh, muscle and bone to reach the brain.
Cow and Bull
1 case of side brain shot
2 case of a frontal brain shot head normally held
3 case of a frontal brain shot head low
4 case of a frontal brain shot head high (trump interfering)

---

Larcher,

Size of elephant heads varies considerably. Below are some photos of me standing beside dead elephants, tuskless cows, a tusked cow and bulls. You can see great variance. I'm maybe 6' or 6' 1" in my boots for reference, my double rifles has 26 1/4" barrels and is about 43" long.

But my estimates, based on "average" elephants @ ~15yds:

1. Side brain (to first contact with brain, not center or passd through) = tuskless or tusked cow, 12", bull 18"

2. Frontal, normal head (not especially high nor low) = any cow 18", bull 2'

3. Frontal, low head (as in way low, charging) = any cow 12", bull 18"

4. Frontal, high head (as in peering down at you) = any cow 2 1/2', bull 3 1/2'

But take a look and give it your best guess. I give some of the extra penetration needed for bulls because of their greater height. There is a tape measure in some photos.















One photo of each elephant, except the bull with the really big head, where there are two, one with Buzz and I sitting on legs in a side on photo and one where we are each sitting one different sides on a front on photo. I chose the photos with the best chance of deducing head size and not those taken from angles which make me or the elephants relatively disproportionally large. Elephants pictured range from huge (for Zim) to on the small side. All from Zimbabwe, from the Zambezi Valley through the Kariba region to the lowveld.

Hope this helps.

JPK

Post Extras