"the hippopotamus is the world's deadliest large land mammal, killing an estimated 500 people per year
ah yes, the humble hippopotamus, my favorite LLM (sorry llamas!) :)
1. This[1] page suggests:
> The minimum suggested caliber for hunting hippo is a 375 and up, using solid bullets.
I assume that means .375 H&H magnum.
If you're actually going to try to kill Hippos, you're going to want to study their anatomy carefully. From what I understand, most hunters take headshots because Hippos are typically mostly submerged. But for most large game, a heart shot is seen as less risky since the brain is surprisingly small and well protected, which is an option unless your yard is deeply submurged.
2. 30-50 is almost certainly impossible in 3-5 minutes. Even with extensive practice.
Almost all rifles that shoot such high powered ammunition have an integral magazine, which means you'd have to load each bullet individually. And shooting that many targets at speed virtually guarantees that you'll miss their vitals somewhat regularly.
Also, 40-80 rounds of .375 H&H magnum would be extremely physically punishing to shoot.
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1. https://somerbysafaris.com/species/hunting-hippo-in-south-af...
A lot of caliber recommendations out there are significant overkill, based on limited data. In cases where we do have data, calibers signicantly less powerful than recommendations often prove surprisingly effective.
For example, in a survey of 104 grizzly and polar bear attacks with handgun calibers, there were only 3 failures, all of which involved firing after the bear had already caused damage (an automatic failure) or completely missing[1]. You'll often see guys carrying 44 magnums in grizzly country, but the evidence seems to suggest that common 9mm rounds are effective enough. Even the lowly 22 rimfire is represented in the data with success against black bears (but not polar bears). I don't know anyone who would recommend 22 rimfire for deer let alone bears.
Given this, I think it's reasonable to select the venerable 7.62x39. This is a common chambering for semi-automatic and even automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, which would obviate the need to load each bullet individually. It also is easy to obtain armor-piercing rounds in this caliber if penetration is your concern. This is still a punishing round to fire a lot of, but with a modern recoil management system it's manageable.
Additionally, the heart is a small target as well, but luckily most hunters' experience is that larger target including the lung and liver can provide reasonably ethical kills (i.e. the animal dies quickly without a prolonged tracking during which the animal suffers). For most animals striking the scapula proves disabling, allowing for an easier follow-up. So just aiming slightly forward of center of mass should be sufficient--no detailed knowledge of anatomy or high-speed, high-precision shooting needed.
All this is to say that with a different approach, killing what can only be described as a stampede of 30-50 hippos in 3-5 minutes isn't as implausible as a more conservative approach might make it seem.
[1] https://www.ammoland.com/2021/06/handgun-or-pistol-against-b...
> Given this, I think it's reasonable to select the venerable 7.62x39. This is a common chambering for semi-automatic and even automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, which would obviate the need to load each bullet individually. It also is easy to obtain armor-piercing rounds in this caliber if penetration is your concern. This is still a punishing round to fire a lot of, but with a modern recoil management system it's manageable.
So, the .308 is extremely common in the US and is somewhat similar to the 7.62x39. A .308 fires a typical round with, oh about 2500 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. Meanwhile a 44mag has maybe 1000 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. An Ak-47 is also 7.62x39 and has ~ 1500 ft-lbs of energy. That's a hell of a lot more grunt than a 44 magnum, any way you dice it.
At that point, skip the armor-piercing or FMJ and go hollow point. There's more than enough power in that round and the larger wound channel is probably a plus.
Reference that Tokyo Joe article posted here a few days ago where the dude took some number of .22 shells direct to the skull and lived.
I have read that too high powered a rifle can also be an issue, as the bullet just punches through the animal leaving a small entry wound and a relatively small exit wound, allowing the animal some significant time before it bleeds out.
It's not.
"Solid bullet" typically means hard cast lead; it's a non-deforming bullet. The name of the game when it comes to the "big 5" is penetration. If you hit the brain or heart, it's dead quickly. If not, it'll probably shrug off the wound.
These are animals that fight lions and crocodiles, not to mention other hippos. Their bodies can take pretty massive damage (compared to humans anyhow) and just keep trucking.
At that angle, the other vital organs are also well-shielded, by bulk if not by skull.
1) https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/hippopotamus-running-in-th...
There are also other animals that share an environment with the hippo that are very well-armoured and hard to kill with one shot, like elephants, Cape buffalo, etc.
This does not apply to hippos since they have never been domesticated at all, and those commenters suggesting that "just domesticate the hippos" would be a feasible task are IMHO very much underestimating something that they know nothing about.
If it's active defence against a Hippo charging at you, "running into your yard" then the Hippo is not mostly submerged.
If you need to clear the swamp of those pesky Hippos before they kill again, then sure.
.30 caliber is a little light for this job, but it will work if you aim well. Generally you would want a more powerful gun.
1) very small calibre
2) high stress situation where quick reaction is needed, very precise placement such as the eye is nigh impossible. "head" is a good as you'll realistically get.
3) very large animal with a thick skull.
"charging Hippo" is 2 & 3.
If your kids are in the way, it would be very hard to get there in time.
https://www.quora.com/What-should-I-use-to-take-down-a-hippo...
https://www.discountafricanhunts.com/africananimals/hippo.ht...
My understanding (and you'll have to check your local laws) is that there is no "hunting season" for wild pigs because they are considered a pest species and thus they can be culled at anytime, with no restriction on type of weapon.
So basically, this is one case where an AR-15 would actually be a decent weapon for civilian use. Most places won't let you use a high-capacity, auto-loading rifle for hunting, but wild-pig-pest-control isn't hunting.
On the other hand, AR-15s are kinda 'spensive, so an AK-47 pattern rifle in 7.62x39mm might be a better choice (and surplus ammo is plentiful). The AK-74 pattern rifles in 5.45x39mm that I've seen have tended to be almost as expensive as a "cheap" AR-15, so at that point I don't know why you wouldn't just get an AR-15 for the more common ammo type.
If price is especially a problem, then a Hi Point carbine in 40S&W or 45ACP won't break the bank and should have enough stopping power. Plus, they usually come with some cheap optics that are more than adequate for the effective range of the rifle, which basically makes the thing almost as easy to shoot as a video game. But they are quite, erhm, ugly (mushy trigger pull, bad ergonomics), so if you can swing a more expensive rifle, that'd be preferable.
I'm pretty sure that excessive consumption of beef and pork kills a lot more than 500 people per year.
1. https://stluciasouthafrica.com/hippo-facts/hippo-digestive-s...
2. https://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/hippopotamus/diet....
If you want to be large and strong, the science is irrefutable... eating meat is essential. Nothing substitutes.
This guy weighs 263 pounds, squats > 650, and eats vegan. https://www.openpowerlifting.org/u/ryanjstills
Well, when you're not a 1-in-a-million athlete. That's how it's possible.
More importantly, what's the science backing your claim that eating meat is essential to becoming big and strong?
For what one anecdote is worth, I'm friends with a former professional athlete who tried a vegan diet after after retiring - and years on he is still as freakishly strong and agile as ever. Many well-known pro athletes have gone vegan during their careers as well: Chris Paul, Venus Williams, Carl Lewis, among others.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/yes-can-vegetarian-athlet...
Nobody would have succeeded at this endeavor, so the idea that this “almost” happened is ludicrous.
You might as well say that Star Trek almost invented warp drive.
It’s a wonder how few truly domesticated animals there are which may lead one to believe that it’s not so easy or natural. I guess we could give each hippo a lobotomy but that really wouldn’t go over well with the PETA crowd and I’m not shy to say I’d probably side with them on this matter.
Eeeeeeasy! For someone else to do.
According to the CDC, it's closer to 25/year[0] (108 over 4 years). And that's just raw totals, not accounting for populations size or the relative likelihood of encounters.
People underestimate how dangerous cows are, but hippos are way more aggressive and dangerous.
Comparing hippo deaths in captive populations, like in zoos, ate more comparable to domesticated farm animals.
Yes, but nowhere near as dangerous or as aggressive as hippos are.
Cows are domesticated. There's a reason that all attempts to domesticate hippos have failed.
Jesus Christ, they should find that hippo and take the fucker out before it kills us all.