From: bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR KR COMAN)
Subject: Re: Story: choose the proper weapon for the job
Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Date: 7 Oct 92 09:43:29 CDT
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu
Keywords: elephant, HE, m203

>Subject: Re: Story: choose the proper weapon for the job
>Keywords: elephant, HE, m203
>Date: 6 Oct 92 13:41:59 GMT

>Second, you would be surprised how small a round can kill an>elephant. One 
>of the most popular calibers used by commercial elephant>hunters in Africa 
>was the 6.5 mm Dutch Manlicher. This round is about>the same as the 6.5 
>Carcano or 6.5x54 Manlicher Schoneauer (sp?). The>round was used for "brain 
>shots" to assure a quick and humane dispatch.>It was true, however, that 
>the hunter would have a double barrel >elepahant gun ready, just in case.
>

Can you be a bit more specific as to your sources?  Whilst the notion of 
using a small calibre round to shoot African elephant is theoretically 
feasible, and was regularly done so by "Karamojo" Bell during the 
very early years of the century in East Africa; the idea that this  
forms part of anything like contemporary African reality is really very 
suspect.  (I base the following on 35 years' residence in Africa, 20 of them 
as an active hunter.) 

Consider:
1.
LEGAL elephant hunting in the last 30+ years in Africa has been essentially
confined to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola and Mocambique.  In the 
1st three of these states, such hunting is *strictly* controlled.  This
involves, inter alia, *legally mandated* minimum calibres for elephant, of 
which the 6.5mm is definitely excluded.  In the latter two, there're civil
wars smouldering on so professional hunting is at a low ebb for any game, 
let alone elephant, most of which have been wiped out as a side effect of 
the conflict. (If poaching's the game, then anything goes -- usually the 
ubiquitous AK47 -- which in the hands of a dozen scumwads facing an elephant 
on full auto rules out the precision brain-shot scenario.)
2.
Even if possible, no professional hunter would try to make a living out
of clients using 6.5mm rifles or taking elephants for his own account with
such a light rifle.  A professional hunter has to rely upon an over 90%
chance of a 1-shot kill, and 100% success rate on 2 shots: almost by 
definition a 6.5mm round simply will not do the job.
3.
The 6.5mm round described is virtually unobtainable in Africa and equates 
to a collector's item.  Those that you will encounter are ancient WW2 vintage
rubbish left over the old Italian colonies and brought back as war 
souveniers.   As for the *Dutch* Mannlicher, they must be scarcer over here 
than Pepsi at an Irish wake!!   The 6.5mm thus makes no logistic sense for
a hunting professional.

In summary, the "6.5mm for elephant" sounds like a garbled piece of early
1900's, pre-WW1 African colonial folklore -- perhaps a loose interpretation 
of Bell's experiences that he wrote up in an excellent book during his 
retirement and which was published back in 1957.   Bell was an 
outstandingly good shot, and was rightly famous for his advocacy of light 
calibres for elephant.  Fortunately, not many hunters or Game 
Depts circa-1910 or subsequently took his advice seriously.  Yes, light 
calibres were tried professionally by perhaps a handful of eccentric  
African hunters for elephant -- of that I have no doubt -- they were 
probably either squashed flat by a charge in short order or recovered their 
wits and switched back to something a tad more authoritative: but all this
at a time beyond living memory. (AK-users excepted, of course.)

Cheers,
Keith Coman
 


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