User blog comment:GSFB/Night of the Living Dead Survivors vs Mughal War Elephants/@comment-4661256-20121212220630/@comment-5232784-20121214002305

Hey El Alamein,

One arrow wont spook a war elephant; unlike in that sim on Ghengis Khan vs Hannibal lecter, a few arrows would't spook it (unless hitting the eyes. Also hit and wound or kill the mahout). In a 1885 battle between French colonial troops and the Vietamese, they used such elephants without armor, and their rifles fired salvos at them and they just kept coming. The rifle used in that battle by the French was not the Winchester, however, but the Gras M80 Model 1874 rifle. Still, it was no musket, and even musketballs had their limits when fired upon these animals (see "War Elephants" by Konstantin Nossov (Illustrated by Peter Dennis) page 40.

And of course, as Spartan noted, winchesters were designed to kill deer and similar sized animals (Bears, I think as well, would fall to a winchester, if not larger game like Buffalo. Correct me if im wrong in that estimation, but I believe you can kill such animals with a Winchester), not 5 ton behemoths like elephants.

However, since a musketball could be used lethally on an elephant when aimed at the forehead, just above the eyes ( as noted in that source I mention above, same page), and if the Winchester can pierce such armor (likely), then it is possible for an elephant to fall from one well aimed winchester shot. However, back in 1968, this was not common knowledge, nor well easily sought information (no internet back then, just libraries and home owned books, and I doubt that most, if not nearly all, Americans knew how to kill elephants by a well placed shot in the forehead just above the eyes (too high, too low probably wouldn't work. Might spook it, maybe, but wouldn't kill).

Due to the winchester's great power and more deadly bullet, I think perhaps that it would take two emptying of the winchester's bullets (I think it holds 7 rounds) at the very, very least to cause it to turn away or panic. In the meantime, just one of the buggers can do a severe amount of damage to a 2 story civilian house; and remember, there are two of them...