Pardon me for asking, but I was wondering…If I was ever in the position to hunt a VERY large animal, say, a Tyranosaurus Rex, what type of weapon would be the best to use? I’m assuming a K-Mart hunting rifle wouldn’t be sufficient, and I even have my doubts about the usefulness of current “Big game” rifle. Is there even any “off the shelf” man-portable weapon that could do the job?
Well, thanks for your patience,
Ranchoth
An RPG should do quite nicely.
Well, I believe that an Elephant gun was ~ 50 caliber. So I’d go for either a modern sniper rifle or a heavy caliber SAW/light machine gun.
This page has some nice pictures of 10mm/50 cal weapons. I like the idea of the Thunder CAR-10, although the 50 cal SLAP rounds that it mentions for the sniper rifle would drill right through the toughest creature imaginable.
casdave. How are you gouing to eat your kill if it’s in pieces all over the place 
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Y’know, with every thread you start, I want a little more to see this story you’re working on, Ranchoth.
[sub]This is for that story, right?[/sub]
I’ve gotta go with casdave. All the penetration in the world isn’t going to do you much good if it takes 300 rounds to bring that sucker down.
Granted, a SAW can chuck out an awful lot of lead in a hurry, but I’m thinking here that you wanna bring this bugger down with one quick shot. The controlled bursts you’d lay down with a machine gun (man portable) would seem to take longer, for accuracy’s sake, than I’d be comfortable with. If I’m lookin’ to make T-Rex steaks, I don’t want give him the chance trade nibbles with me.
Although it’s already been shown that you can’t really carry it with just one man, the old 6-barrelled helicopter mini-gun should do the trick.
Other than that, I would guess a Weatherby .460 Magnum, and going for the eyes, or in the mouth to hit the palate as it roars - just before the jaws snap shut on you…
[Bugs Bunny] "For shame, doc. Hunting rabbits with an elephant gun… [/Bugs Bunny]
I wonder if the old-style elephant gun would have enough power to penetrate into a live tyrannosaur’s skull. Those are bigass thick bones (bigthick?) and they don’t show the true size and power of the predator.
Elephant guns didn’t kill in one shot - ever read “Shooting an Elephant?” (actually, I think he was aiming in the wrong spot)… hmm. OK, I retract my statement. In any case, metallurgy has gotten better since the days guns like that were called elephant guns, so barrels and actions can withstand the force of larger explosions.
Side - why do people keep suggestomg rexes were scavengers? Look at those front teeth! What good are they except snapping shut on something moving and tearing it apart?
Anywhoo, a modern - MODERN - sniper rifle would do it. A large piece of metal at high velocity, not meant to richocet around inside a human body like hundgun slugs, but go straight through at an appropriate spot, would be needed.
Come to think of it, if you didn’t care about the head, you could take an explosive round to its noggin and it would do the trick.
But, say you want to kil it but keep it pristine. A whole skull and skeleton, for instance. You could go like the poision used in the lastest Jurassic Park. Hmm… I wonder if you could eat it then. Or even touch it without dying. Perhaps it would degrade quickly in contact wit hoygen and organic checmicals.
US Army Vietnam-era 40mm Grenage Launcher.
The infamous “Bloop Gun”.
A harpoon gun?
I’d think that a “gun” of any kind wouldn’t do much good. I’d go for one of those thingies you rest on your shoulder and use to fire missiles, what are those called?
And I’d think that the best strategy would be to blast its legs out from under it, instead of wasting time with peppering that enormous head with bits of lead. The drumstick meat probably wouldn’t be any good anyway–too tough.
The M-79 Blooper would not penetrate at any safe range. I say use one of these. Or this one, if we are keeping in the realm of the possible.
I’d say Browning machine gun from a fast moving retreating jeep. I’m not sure I’d aim for a head shot. Reptiles are not notoriously deep thinkers and it may take it several minutes to decide that it’s dead. These could prove to be very exciting minutes for you if you’re expecting it to just fall over. The heart might be a good target – it probably takes a lot of blood flow to keep something that size moving. For that, I’d go with the sniper rifle, but I’d retain the fast-moving jeep option.
Nowadays the best weapon for capturing a T-rex is a shovel and a small, stiff broom. Maybe some dental picks.
Gas? The thing’s gotta breathe, and a creature of that size is gonna be breathing like Darth Vader, albeit with a much stronger diaphragm and a much larger respiratory tract. Chunk a few gas grenades (filled with something fast-acting, please!) in its general area and watch it fall. Would this work? We obviously can’t use experimental data on this, but would a large dose of nerve gas bring down a five-ton predator before it brings us down?
I agree with Finagle. A head shot probably wouldn’t do it because not only did they have huge, thick skulls and tiny brains, but they had an “extra” brain located in the hips that probably controlled movement, similar to modern birds (the reason a chicken with it’s head cut off can still run around). Aiming for the chest is probably best, you’ll hit the heart and major arteries there. I think a modern assault rifle may have enough penetrating power for the job, but for accuracy, a military sniper rifle would be better.
I have to say use something explosive. A RPG is going to be your best bet. You will want to do as much damage as fast as possible. Lets remember a T-Rex is a HUGE lizard. hitting it with a nice sniper rifle will bring it down, just not quickly.
This kind of reminds me of an old saying from the honky tonk bars of my youth. “Shooting a man with a .22 will give you a distint advantage in the fist fight that follows”
Meaning HUGE critter or hillybilly. You need Huge impact damage.
Anything that can hit, penetrate and cause massive damage relative to size of the critter is important.
Yes, a Rocket propelled Grenade launcher would be good or anything designed to take down a tank.
They give up a bit of range (some anyway I think) to a sniper rifle but are much lighter in weight than a nice handy .50 rifle.
Happy hunting!
.50 Calibre Browning machine gun, the kind the Navy Seals use.
An elephant gun (or, at least the “elephant gun” owned by my grandfather) is a 10 gauge shotgun firing bigmother slugs. I think that’s what the hunter guy in the second Jurassic Park was also using. That might do it, but it would be far too close range for my tastes. I would prefer something that gave some standoff range, like a .50 cal sniper rifle. Something like this:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m82.htm
Or, possibly, the grenade launcher attachment on the OICW, which has fuse settings that let it penetrate soft targets before detonating:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/oicw.htm
You’d need to hit the heart, though, otherwise you’re just going to piss it off. Do we even know where the heart is on a T-rex?
Cecil Adams on Did dinosaurs have a separate brain in their behinds?