Elephants being the largest of all huntable mammals are extremely exciting to hunt... sadly these days the trophies are not nearly of the same standard as we read of in the 50's and 60's, however, I feel the actual hunting of the elephant has changed little.

There are very few moments in hunting that will ever compare to a close approach on an elephant ending in a brain shot at 10 yards!

Elephants are highly intelligent animals and with their well developped sense of smell and hearing can be very hard to approach closely. Elephant hunting is done entirely on foot and usually involves a large amount of walking and a good dose of patience if good trophy is to be secured. Also a good length of time must be assigned to the hunt in order to make good use of areas potential to produce a trophy elephant.

Ideal shot placement for elephant hunting.

In this day and age, elephants over 50 pounds are considered very good with 40 to 45 pounds being more of the norm, thus many bulls will be looked at before selecting a desirable pair of ivory.

Elephants require heavy calibre rifles and sold bullets in order to penetrate to the vital organs, beit the brain or the heart/lung area. The bullet must travel at least a foot or more through heavy bone and muscle. The pricing of elephant hunting across the continent isextremely varied and this is usually due to the trophy expectations and averages from that particular area over recent years.