Gary Reeder
people (including me) often say that African animals are
Thursday, January 31, 2019, 12:22

harder to kill than animals here in the states. Having watched them I really believe that and it is due to Adrenalin. We can drive up within 100 yards of a large group of animals in a large dry lake bed called a Pan. The animals perk up and watch us but as long as the Land Cruiser is running they don't spook. I have reached down and slapped the side of the Land Cruiser, making a gun shot sound and 300 animals jump straight up in the air and haul ass. They are constantly on alert to any danger and unless you put them down with the first shot, it can be an all day effort, requiring several shots.

I have had guys tell me they dropped the animal with one shot proving that their cartridge was better than others. That is pretty much BS. It is all in where you put the bullet and whether the animal knows you are there and is wary and prepared to run. I have taken quite a few 1500 lb animals with my 41 GNR with one shot. That doesn't mean the 41 GNR is more powerful than all the others. Far from it. It has to do with bullet placement and the fact that in most instants the animal didn't even know I was there. Scotty Boggs has posted a couple of videos on here showing a Scottish Highland bull and a big bull elk both taken with one shot each with the 41 GNR. Again it wasn't because the 41 GNR was so powerful. It was because I was hidden behind a tree about 65 yards away and the animals didn't know I was there plus bullet placement.

This all boils down to shot placement and the animal not knowing you are there and not being on the verge of running and the Adrenalin being released into his system. The adrenalin rush can do strange things to a body, like allowing someone to lift a car off a kid or moving objects that normally they wouldn't even be able to budge. I don't know why it lets us do these things but it is there.