Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What caliber/rig was used to take out the Gorilla?

I know at one time the NC Zoo in Asheboro had Model 70 Winchesters in .375 H & H on hand (some scoped, some open sighted) and practiced with them at least semi-regularly.

Busy here this time of year, and I left this hanging,....maybe giving the impression that the idea is to SQUASH Gorillas, with heavy trucks.


The way this actually works is that one hangs a nice 30 ton Crosby snatch block of of his headache rack's little jib crane,....and basically does a "Drive by head shot",.....

No muss, fuss, or bother,....paint scratched, blood, guts or brains on your "rig".

As noted,...anywhere's from 55 to 65 MPH will let the block swing out tangentally in an arc, handsomely, and effectively, "Bonking" the offending Simian.

We put over ripe watermelons on posts, by way of practice targets....
Good practice drill, for the REAL thing.

Just be careful that none of these, "10 ton blocks at 80 MPH" types delude you,....slow and heavier WORKS.

GTC

Are you a parent?




Dave

Times have changed since the early to mid 60's when I worked at our zoo. I was in highschool and stayed for my first summer after HS.

The Portland Zoo's rifle for putting down creatures in need of such was a .30-40 Krag. A carbine with receiver sights. This may not be fancy enough for today. It leaned in the corner of the foreman's office.

The Zoo's foreman over the animal keepers was a guy named Bill Scott. One of the finest to ever walk the earth.

The two occasions I remember most was a polar bear and a bull elk.

In the case of the polar bear a gardener had slipped and fallen into the cage while maintaining a flower bed. A bear was dragging him around by the head.

As to the elk, it was in rut and tried to spear several people through a chain link fence, myself included.

The Krag put both animals down handily.

Yeah, a 42 million grain projectile at about 88 fps usually does the trick!

Saw some video of the "barriers" today; they weren't impressive at all. Looked like there was a 3' tube bar/rail that the kid could have just walked right under, then a hedge that was just under 3'. Now I've read there was a 3rd barrier, perhaps another 3' fence past the hedge, but if there was, you couldn't see it over the hedge.

If the kid went under the 3'bar, crawled on top of the hedge, which wouldn't be tough for a 4yo since he's light enough to get up and stay on top of the hedge, and then jump; he would be through the "barriers" in seconds.

The story that the kid was out of sight for a few seconds would appear to hold up after seeing that view of the barriers. What's more, if the kid went under the bar and into the hedge rather than climbed on top of the hedge, he would be lost in the hedge, the only time anyone would have seen him is when he went over the 3rd barrier which (if it really is there at all), is only 3' tall, with lots of things for the kid to climb on to scale...

Given what I saw, I'd say the mom's story is very plausible.