You are right to the extent that it would not matter to the elephant. Through the lungs at fifty feet or 500 yards is the same to him. It would not be the same to any PH who guided you or any fellow DG hunter to whom you related the expectation or experience. The major difference in hunting DG and simply exterminating it, is in getting close. And that is, in a very real sense, an ethical issue. After all a 30mm chain gun mounted on a land cruiser would be an extremely efficient elephant killer - but not a particularly ethical one. An elephant killed at 50 feet with a .50 BMG would to my mind be an ethical kill - It's just that once one accepts the ethical need to get close, the package necessary for a transportable - stalkable - .50 BMG no longer passes the common sense test.
