i don't know! what I'm thinking about are those darn African elephants that destroy villages and so on, if anyone on this site could hit a elephant in the eye and kill it with a .45, i would highly doubt it, point is don't post something on this site as crazy as saying" a .45 will knock a elephant down in its tracks", i liked to have laughed when i read that, i have a Berreta 8000 .45 Acp and i would be scared to even aim it at a elephant, get a rifle to take a elephant down for gods sake!
i.e. "german mauser k98k man" and his Berreta 8000 .45 Acp? The original discussion was between the "Tommy" and the MP-40 as I recall. That said, and entirely as a "whozzee whatsit", each 100 round drum of the original Thompson would deliver about 3.285713 POUNDS of Copper jacketed lead at about 900 fps, with the capability of penetrating 4.5 inches (11.43 cm) of ¾ in yellow pine out to 100 yards. Don't really know how elephant skull bone compares to yellow pine, but I know it is only slightly stonger than soft woods (pine), while being more brittle. That delivery weight of bullets (unless my math is really faulty) is because each 230 grain .45 ACP, FMJ projectile weights .5257142 oz.. It may be a bit difficult to "focus" as an elephant is charging, but in "theory" (at least); the little ole .45 ACP might be actually able drop an elephant if shot through the Thompson length barrel using the Thompson action. The later Thompson M1A1 firing at only about 700 rounds per, and with only a 30 round stick magazine even it could/would still deliver about a POUND of FMJ lead in a couple of seconds. The bullet weight, speed and penetration power remains the same out of the 10.5 inch barrel, only the number of rounds in the supply is different. So instead of about 3 pounds of projectiles in 4 seconds, one could only deliver 6900 grains, slightly under a pound in two seconds. That is a "thump on the noggin" at 900 feet per second no matter how you slice it. Here is some interesting information frome a site devoted to African elephant hunts (they aren't illegal everywhere); "When facing the Elephant a frontal brain shot is aimed at the third or fourth wrinkle below the center of the eyes. With a side shot, aim for the area between the eye and the ear hole or directly in front of the ear hole where the hairy knob juts out." From: african Elephant hunting with safaribwana Oddly enough the "spot" between the eye and ear canal was where I always put the .22 bullet, didn't know that would work on an elephant as well! Would a Thompson drop and elephant? Maybe it could in theory, but I wouldn’t want to be the guy that tried to prove or disprove it in the test! And besides doing so would be illegal even in the nations which still allow elephant hunting (using the Thompson I mean).
Why should I aim at the Erie Canal? Anyway, we're digressing into the field of totally improbable speculation. We should send this to the Mythbusters for experimentation (not on a live oliphant, I hope!)
too true, just wanted to "shoot" at mauser man a bit more, and defend the Thompson gun a bit. I agree, sending it to "Mythbusters" might be fun. They come up with all kinds of ways to prove or disprove an idea without actually "killing anything"!