I suppose you are aware of the military axiom that the Combat Infantryman's Badge is the only marksmanship award that really means anything....
The only way to do that in a caliber of that era that wasn't a 500 nitro express or a 375 H&H Magnum (IIRC those have both been around since Bell went hunting) is a shot thru the eye. Right. How big a target is the eye of an elephant? I doubt, too, that said eyeball would be holding perfectly still for that killing shot, huh? My point is that when the shot placement is perfect, so are the results. A lesson to be learned in the gentle art of personal combat in self defense.
Hardly. Hunters took elephant for years with the .577 and .600 cartridges of the black powder era, with both preferred frontal and sometimes necessary flank shots. Usually double rifles were preferred, as recoil was brutal, and reloading could be problematic with several tons of very mad animal coming your way at full speed. And even as nitrocellouse powder came into use and improved nitro-powder loads for the big doubles challenged the smaller calibers that became viable for the same purpose, there were adherents of either approach- and those who happily tried both.
But hunters of that era rarely worked alone, and you gauged the character of your friends as if your life depended on them, because it very well could.
There were even those as late as the 1960s and '70s who found the big double rifles just the ticket, such as those of the Rhodesian .577 Society and the Terre Haute Torque and Recoil Society. But they hurt my ears. And shoulder.
I suppose you are aware of the military axiom that the Combat Infantryman's Badge is the only marksmanship award that really means anything....