An elephant gun is a large caliber gun, rifled or otherwise, so named because they were originally developed for use by big-game hunters for elephants and other large dangerous game. They used black powder cartridges at first but later started using smokeless powder. They were sometimes used in wars.
Read more about Elephant Gun: Early Use, Features, Use in War
Famous quotes containing the words elephant and/or gun:
“Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“We got our new rifled muskets this morning. They are mostly old muskets, many of them used, altered from flint-lock to percussion ... but the power of the gun was fully as great as represented. The ball at one-fourth mile passed through the largest rails; at one-half mile almost the same.... I think it an excellent arm.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)