Hunting
This caliber is generally used for thick-skinned dangerous game such as elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo. Even among professional ivory hunters of old it is typically treated as an emergency weapon carried by the hunter's gun bearer, reserved for stopping the charge of an enraged, wounded elephant in thick bushes rather than as a day-to-day hunting weapon. Legendary elephant hunter James Sutherland carried a .577. Count Alfred Józef Potocki, Ernest Hemingway, and Stewart Granger also carried .577's.
It is unnecessarily powerful, harsh recoiling, and unwieldy for use against lesser game. For this purpose the old black powder version can be used. It throws a 560-grain bullet at around 1700 ft/s.
Read more about this topic: .577 Nitro Express
Famous quotes containing the word hunting:
“They take unbelievable pleasure in the hideous blast of the hunting horn and baying of the hounds. Dogs’ dung smells sweet as cinnamon to them.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“Escape
from the power of the hunting pack,
and to know that wisdom is best
and beauty
sheer holiness.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“The man that once did sell the lion’s skin
While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)