User blog comment:GSFB/Night of the Living Dead Survivors vs Mughal War Elephants/@comment-5465602-20121215035727/@comment-5232784-20121215040652

Good vote man. Thants now 5 to 3, which is still in the Mughal elephant's favor.

War elephants were trained to be used to loud noises: while they were jabbed with bladed weapons, drums beat all around them. And with the Mughals, they kept them in place and fired cannons nearby, so that they would not spook. Both Mughal and Southeastern Asian war elephants were at times mounted with small cannons on their backs, which would probably be far, far louder than the winchester ( a bit longer, but much thicker than the Winchester rifle). So loud noises wont scare them here; yet you are correct that if a Mahout is shot, the elephant will prove useless for further attack, unless of course it takes its subsequent rage out on the survivors...!