[quote=Andy3] As I understand the term "stopping rifle" for African game, it goes like this... When taking on a charging elephant or buffalo, you aim for a brain shot, and kill them instantly with a CNS hit. If you miss the brain, with a "stopping rifle", it will either knock out or daze the animal...stopping it long enough for a precise follow up shot to the brain. Most stopping rifle calibers start with a "5" and are used with solids with a flat nose. This is the way it was explained to me, by my PH, in Zimbabwe. Pretty much follows what mule deer stated, above.
A missed brain shot may or may not turn the animal so you can get a second shot in. One would hope it turns, but as you know, there are no guarantees. African hunting memoirs are replete with accounts wherein a hunter thought he had brained an elephant and the elephant went down. The hunter (as is the custom) cut the tail off to prove ownership and then posed for photos. The elephant, merely stunned, got up after a few minutes and then departed, never to be seen again. BTW, in such a situation, you must pay the trophy fee anyway.
The moral of the story is that no matter how dead your elephant (or buff) appears, "pay the insurance" by shooting it a few times more. As someone once said, 'it's the dead ones that kill you".
