Spomer Stops Rogue Bull Elephant!

Rogue elephant charge

Spomer Stops Rogue Elephant at 20 Yards!There are places in Africa where elephants still run rampant, destroying crops, huts and people. Countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique permit elephant hunting in order to control herds and bring in revenue to offset elephant depredation. Sport hunters pay tens of thousands of dollars to take a single elephant, the money going to placate villagers and maintain reasonable elephant numbers. In places such as Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, pachyderms swarm in numbers far beyond the carrying capacity of habitats. In many cases control officers are forced to shoot hundreds of cows and bulls to prevent destruction of vital trees and grasslands – habitat needed by other African species. To my surprise, I had to stop a charging bull today. It jumped in front of my PH and me as we were tiptoeing down a trail in the forest of Texas, of all places. As the accompanying photo shows, this was a two-dimensional elephant, about as close to the real thing as I'll likely get. But it sprang from the woods and I stopped it. Put a 168-grain Hornady A-Max bullet through its brain while using a Ruger American .30-06 rifle. This isn't a recommended elephant gun, but it's a great way to have some fun while training to shoot quickly under pressure. Shooting and training like this goes on weekly at the FTW ranch where former Navy Seal sniper instructors and African hunters teach novices all the ropes for shooting effectively. My experiences here have enlightened me to a real need among my fellow hunters – the need to practice. We American hunters tend to labor under the delusion we are natural game shots. Hey, it's our heritage. Dan'l Boone and all that. But no one is a natural shot. And unless one practices shooting – seriously and repeatedly with proper technique – no one becomes an accomplished shot. Can you hit a deer that jumps up 20 yards in front of you? Can you put two rounds into a buffalo's chest, reload your rifle, run 20 yards and put a third shot into the brain pan of another charging bull? Or even a coyote? Can you adjust your scope or hold over a target 430-yards away and compensate for a 5 mph quartering wind just the right amount to drop a bullet onto that 9-inch target? If not, perhaps you should consider a shooting class. Today friends and I hit targets as far as 700 yards away, consistently and repeatedly, thanks to class work, study and instruction. I know this might rub you the wrong way. It did me. I grew up a typical country kid unwilling to “waste” perfectly good hunting ammunition shooting targets. The result was I wasted more ammo while simultaneously wasting big game tags and wonderful opportunities to put venison in the freezer. I now realize that skimping on practice time and ammo is a great way to miss the buck of a lifetime. Far better to spend several hundred, even several thousands of dollars learning how to shoot correctly the first time. Then you don't waste those rare, golden opportunities to take real game while slowly learning how to shoot. Were I a new shooter today, I'd invest big money learning to shoot before I invested bigger money on rare tags, hunting trips and fancy rifles. The Ruger American Rifles we were shooting today sell for less than $400, the Zeiss Conquest scopes for about $500. And they performed beautifully. Whether you pay to attend a shooting class such as those taught at the FTW Ranch (http://www.ftwoutfitters.com) or teach yourself in the back pasture, you owe it to yourself, the game you hunt and your hunting heritage to practice and learn to shoot well BEFORE you hunt. Shoot near and far and then really far. Shoot quickly and slowly. Shoot precisely. Shoot until you know your rifle and ammo and trajectories like the path from your bedroom to bathroom. Then go hunting confident that you can make shots when you need to and skip those you know you can't make. You'll be the envy of your friends and the curse of deer and bunnies everywhere. Hunt well, shoot better and enjoy dinner. # # #