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Slow mo is all the rage in YouTube land. As it should be. But I don’t think Fate of Destinee’s seriously suggesting she’d take on a T-Rex with a Winchester .30-30. That would be like poking a grizzly bear with a stick. FoD’s followers are busy helping her choose something with a bit more oomph. .500 Nitro Express? .460 Weatherby Magnum? Wrong answer. I reckon nothing short of a 25mm chain gun would be sufficient. OK, it might be a little unwieldy in the field. But if we’re talking a T-Rex – or even one of those clever-girl velociraptors – going out to hunt one is plain silly. Lay out a freshly killed whattaburgersaurus, assume a defensive position and let the Thales Goalkeeper do the rest. Your thoughts? 

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142 COMMENTS

    • Do not be silly? The only two possible smart choices are the 12 Gage Remington Model 1100-1187 combat Master Blaster, or the Mag-10 Road blocker, or whatever it goes by now. Bird and buck shot takes care of anything up to velociraptor, (SP?), or donkey-small horse size! A high quality slug kills anything up to Rhino size and one of the better HE-Frag rounds with multi-option fuse kills anything that roams the planet walking on land.
      No other weapon gives you that kind of versatility, or guaranteed level of effect.

  3. A MK 19 fully automatic 40mm grenade launcher, from a chopper. Or, if I have to be on foot, a Javelin rocket launcher. If, for some reason, I can’t have a massive, 50lb, sophisticated system, an RPG-7 with a few HEAT warheads.

    If I’m going after a T-Rex, fuck bullets. Explosive are the way to go.

    • That was pretty much my line of thought. If it is man portable it’s gonna be fucking explosive. I’d be game for an RPG-7. I figure it would be perfect for just about everything out there made of flesh, scales in this case, and blood.

      • The RPG-7 is not known for it’s accuracy and the explosive charge, regardless of what you have seen in the movies is less than half a pound! Hardly able to kill a common pig if you miss by more than a foot or two. Really truly! And with a less than 50% chance to hit a full sized tank at 2-300 meters range, do you actually think it will save you life from a charging flesh muncher?
        On the other hand a quarter of an ounce of TNT/RDX loaded into a 12 Gage shell in the neck will ruin the terrible king’s entire day.

  4. I think a 25 mm Bushmaster is the smallest weapon to use paired with an M240 coaxial machine gun for the smaller pests.

    • FFV M-42 20 mm Recoilless Rifle Is certainly the ultimate Dino sniper gun. Very high Muzzle Velocity, powerful HE Shell and awesome accuracy for such a light weapon!
      Other contenders for most outlandish toy is the American M-18, 57 mm Recoilless Rifle, with about 40% of the M-42’s MV, but a little known, 2.25 pound, HE shell with MO Fuse and the FFV, NIVA, XM-1970, with a lighter shell at lower MV from a smooth bore for less accuracy might be a viable choice if you consider it’s very light weight, but none of these will let you carry as many kills as a Remington 1187 and a Keltec P-30.

  5. Marlin 1895 SBL in 45/70 Gov’mt?

    Nah… If you could actually get one, it would probably fall apart after a couple racks of the lever. Darn Freedom Group ruined Marlin.

    • I have a Marlin 45-70 with the 24/6″ BBL, five shot mag and big loop lever from Freedom Group and it has worked great for the last couple of years hunting, cowboy shoots and just plan plinking with friends who all want to try the big nasty lever gun.

  7. I would like to pilot an A10 warthog for dinosaur hunting. I sure as hell do not want to be on the ground and nothing would be more satisfying that having that buzzsaw mow down some giant lizards.

    • I would like to pilot an A10 warthog for dinosaur hunting.

      But the question was “What Gun Would You Bring on A Dinosaur Hunt?”

      So the correct form of your answer would be “GAU-8, with an A-10 mounted to it”.

      • The only flaw in the original design for the GAU-8 is that it was stationary. Fortunately, the team working on the housing was able to remedy this shortcoming.

        😀

  8. You don’t have to outrun the T-Rex, you just have to outrun the guy next to you. In short, bring a friend to a T-Rex fight.

    Gun wise, maybe something in 7.62x54r with a penetrator or 8mm Mauser.

      • Well, yes! Almost any modern rifle made after 1888 shooting jacketed round nosed bullets would work for heart shots, if you knew where to aim and were cool enough under stress to make the shot. Even the lowly 6 mm Lee Navy would be perfectly adequate. Brain shots on the other hand require something much stouter, but also shooting round, or flat nosed FMJ bullets and the brain is so very much smaller and well protected than the much larger heart with good entrance channels from nearly all directions! You just have to be able to make the shot and stand firm until it bleeds out.

    • Now, that’s my kind of answer. If given that as a choice, that would be my choice for sure. I would want the protection as well as the firepower.

    • No, a chopper would be the way to go. MBT’s aren’t exactly known for their incredible speed or maneuverability, and if the T-Rex slammed into the tank and threw it, you’d be thrown all around the metal interior.

      • A Tyrannosaur, according to our fossil findings, was roughly 40 feet long from snout to tailtip, and nearly 13 feet tall at the top of the hip. They are thought to weigh in at about 7.5 tons..

        Given that an M1A2 Abrams weighs in a whopping 67.6 tons on its own. The M1 would outweigh the Tyrannosaur by nearly 9 times its body weight.. From what I know of biology, there isn’t many creatures in the world that could actually pull that off, even with a running start. Even assuming the Tyrannosaur can physically get low enough to knock the tank off its center of gravity, the impact would be more akin to a car hitting a brick wall than anything for the Tyrannosaur.

        They’re actually not all that large in the end 😛 And the noise a tank makes would likely scare them off more than anything.

        • Being a former M1A1 crew member. I can tell you that the “Cadillac of battle field” is Abrams MBT. The Abrams is more maneuverable than you would think. I remember getting up to 40MPH before we told the driver to slow down, the tank is actuality faster than that but, maintenance afterwards on the track would NOT FUN. Being to turn in place is also a great ability, if you don’t fill like taking the 8 seconds to traverse the the turret the full 360. The gun tube is a weapon in it’s self we would use it to drive posts in the ground(Don’t tell my CO) so you could easily crush a skull with it.

      • That would make things so much easier! A four tonne T-Rex runs head long at full speed into a 64 tonne tank with depleted Uranium armor two feet thick and the crew dozing inside asks did you hear that? Then they wake up to neatly piled dinner for the next two years. Now all they have to do is butcher and jerk it. Right!

  10. Something (relatively) lightweight, like a .50 BMG/Russian (or 14.5x114mm) bolt action. Does anybody even make all copper rounds for .50?

  14. Give me a .50bmg. Matter of fact, just make it a Ma Deuce, in case it doesn’t drop from the first shot. Vehicle mounted, in case it doesn’t drop from the rest. 🙂

  15. Couldn’t help but remember a line from one of those 50s dino movies–before they figure out that they’ve landed in the Jurassic era, and they’re wondering where they are, the hero shakes his rifle and says “this is a 30.06, it’ll take care of anything around.” LOL! I’m thinking someone made a wildcat cartridge using a 20mm cannon shell casing as the base–maybe that would do the trick.

  19. 25mm is easy to tote… in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle! Although I don’t even know how much those are used any more. The thought process is that the BFV is essentially a crew served weapon.

  20. Q. What gun would you bring to hunt mammals?
    A. It depends on the which mammal you are going to hunt (rabbit, deer, grizzly, lions, tigers, elephant, ducks) and the environment (hot, cold, wet, dry, grasslands, forest, desert, jungle).

    Same with dinosaurs many of which btw were smaller animals.

  22. Aww geeze, everyone thinks dinosaurs are what we saw in Jurassic park or countless other movies and shows. A Trex may be big but its no cinematic monster and most raptors were dog sized at best.

    The ideal gun for a Trex would probably be what ever you would use on very large mammals like elephants.

    • Actually I think you are on to something there. They were after all just really big lizards. I would think anything that would down a rhino would stand a pretty good chance

    • You forget these big boys are related to birds. Their skull cavity is not nearly as strong as that of an elephant. a good .308 or higher has sufficient punch to make it in, though if you want to be comfortable about it, a .300 win mag or .338 lapua may be more your style.

      Think about what you would take to hunt other large african game, like lions.

      Shot placement becomes critical however, with the shape of their head. a shot placed head on into its snout isnt going to be a take down. entering from the side, or the much smaller, top of the cranium, if you have to face it.

      pretty much just pray he hasn’t seen ya yet.

    • Exactly. But of course if you’re hunting dinosaurs you’ve gotta have some flair! And if you can afford the licences for that, then surely a Holland and Holland will be fine.

  30. Baiting? That is what you are recommending? You think TR would be out there baiting? You think Fred Flintstone would put down his club and climb up into the Dino Stand with Barney? I watched One Million Years BC with Ms. Welch enough times to know that real men don’t do baiting.

  32. 30-30 against a T-Rex probably not.

    That said I have hunted whitetail for over 20 years using my Marlin 336 30-30. If I do my part, the heart of any whitetail I have shot with my Marlin using a 150 grain Winchester Powerpoint round is pink foam, and if they don’t drop on the spot they may get 2-5 steps before the do. I love me some Lever gun action.

  33. I feel people really understimate guns and overstimate dinosaurs. A .338 Lapua can easily kill a man at 2000 meters. At 300 meters it would make such a huge cavity inside a thick target where it can transfer most of its energy that will surely incapacitate most dinosaurs except those giant herbivorous ones. So I would feel pretty confident with a .408 Cheytac or .416 Barrett.

    Remember, a 9mm out of a 5″ barrel can kill a man at 500 yards if it hits on the right spot.

    • Reptiles, crocodiles anyway, are said to be less susceptible to central nervous system shock than mammals. Therefore, a hit to or near the brain or spinal cord is generally required for a quick stop. Of course, there is evidence that dinosaurs were warm-blooded so the crocodile comparison may not apply.

    • Did you know that ordinary .22 Long Rifle Rim Fire ammo kills more people in the US each year than any other type?

  37. Why it’s all about shot placement don’t ‘ya know?LOL. Isn’t the current theory that dinosaurs are just unevolved birds? Just take your turkey gun.

    • Exactly; the “shot placement” crowd can use their trusty .380s and 9mms and tell us more about how there’s “no such thing as stopping power”>

      • I know for an absolute fact that placement is many times more important than caliber! Every major Army on the planet has made the same studies and reached the same conclusion; It only takes 56-60 FPE to kill the average man. Most hand guns have several times that much power. A poorly placed shot from a hand cannon is a crap shoot depending entirely on the shoottee’s mental state, but a CNS hit wins every time.

  39. Me? Id run an FN FAL LSW with 30 round mags and Armor Piercing rounds. Take out the knees first then shred the SOB

  41. For a safari style hunt against say a T-Rex: Barrett M-107 firing SLAP or RAUFOSS rounds.
    Herd Control (ala hog sized…or bigger): PKM shooting some surplus Russian AP.
    Then there’s always the flying lizards (whatever they’re called): Tie some fish to your belt and wait for them to swoop down and unload with your Cobray 37mm “flare launcher” loaded with some tungsten flechette’s.
    I hear it tastes just like chicken…

  43. Why all the talk of air assault from planes and helicopters? Just hang ”No Dinosaurs Allowed” signs around your camp and blind. That should make you feel safer. Dino free zones work right?

  44. I can’t be the only one laughing at whataburgersaurus…can I?
    That said….I’ll take the noob combo: tranq gun followed up by a .44 (for raptors) and a 12 gauge slug gun for the rex.

  47. >.577 Tyrannosaur rifle (for medium-sized dinos)
    >Browning Gold with 28″ barrel, loaded with 3.5″ slugs
    >M107A1 (for the actual Tyrannosaurs)
    >10.5″ Smith & Wesson .500

  48. My vot goes to the Swedish NIVA XM1970. A 45mm rocket for the big ones and 5.56 for the small ones.

  49. A .600 nitro express double like the professional hunter guy had in the lost world. I got a little sad when Vince Vaughn switched his rifles ammo out for empties. What a beautiful trophy that would have made.

    As a side, the t-Rex would be like any other large dangerous game. Take a crappy shot, and you may be what’s for dinner. Make a shot in the kill zone or otherwise you can play it safe and break it’s hip with one shot and finish it off with the next couple when it’s on the ground.

    • Yup. I threw a fit for most of the movie because of the sabotage. I felt very sorry for the PH who then had to shoot the beast with a pneumatic dart gun. No style.

  50. Those Velociraptors were pure Hollywood. The real ones were about 4 feet tall. But in a pack, very scary. For a pack of stubby Velociraptors, a flamethrower.

    For a T. Rex? Any gun big enough to take one down is too big for me. I would choose an RPG-7, or some sort of shoulder-fired missile.

  51. Ok, gotta leave my 2¢.

    Different types of dinosaurs, different guns. Medium sized therapod (2-legged toothy carnivours), like Alosaurus or the “Velociraptors” in Jurrasic Park, normal full-size hunting cartridge like 30-06 or even 30-30 should be fine. Lightly built creatures, more like birds than anything else. Large therapods, like T-Rex, get something a bit bigger than 30-06 like 300 Win Mag or other magnum hunting round would be best, or just use careful shot placement with a normal round.

    The big herbivours are a different challenge altogether. Triceratops? Elephant-grade magnum rifle at least. Thing weighs at least as much as an elephant, has bone horns all over its face, and that frill will make its head seem bigger probably making a good head shot harder to line up. Ankylosaurus? Nearly as big as Triceratops and covered from its spiky head to the tip of its clubbed tail in bony armor plates. Get an armor-piercing magnum round.

    Sauropods like Brachiosaurus or Diplodocus? Things weigh in at over 30 tons. The head isn’t much bigger than a football and is on the end of a long flexible neck that can reach several stories into the air. Use a round that can penetrate several feet and expand dramatically and aim for the body. Should have a very big heart.

    Compsagnathus? Bird shot.

  52. Never mind the dinosaurs, they’re just a distraction. The simple fact is that there’s nothing finer than a woman firing a lever-action .30-30.

    • You did it dude! Best post of the day! I wish I had thought of something snappy like that! Well played!!!

  55. If we are able to dream then hook me up with a M65 Atomic Cannon. Technicality still a gun… That shoots nuclear bullets..

  58. A full auto elephant gun. Yes I know they don’t exist, however, neither do dinosaur’s. 🙂

  59. MANPADS:

    Man-portable anti-dinosaur system.

    As a bonus, it works on teradactyls as well as ground-pounders.

  60. .700 Nitro Express, delivered from a Holland and Holland double barrel. That should do quite nicely.
    Stalk around for a bit, in your comfy Marauder until you find a big T-Rex. Then you get out, brace yourself on the bonnet, aim and fire. Your mate gets out and praises your shot. Then, you reach back in and get your field dressing tool of choice and say to your pal; “How the hell are we gonna get that thing into the back?”
    What would the field dressing tool of choice be? I say kukri machete!

    • I forgot to add, Smith and Wesson M29 in .44 Magnum with hollowpoints as back-up. And a 1911 in .45 as back-up to your back-up. If all three fail, well, you’re going to be out of the dinosaur at the end of the digestive cycle at least.

  61. I guess I’d have to stick with my 444. If 300 grains at over 3000 ft lbs isn’t getting me anywhere, then just call me dino-snacks.

    • Read a true story about a guy leaning over to look out the Bombay of a 24 or 17 in a raid over the oilfields. An 88 caught him in the mid section. went right through him of course. You could have put your arm through there.

  63. M107A1. Pair that some Barnes TSX or other milled solids, and you’ve got yourself a mean dinosaur gun.

  64. Velociraptors are not the man sized dino that were featured in Jurassic Park. They are chicken to turkey sized little critters which can be dealt with standard bird or turkey shot. The man sized creatures are call Deinonychus or terrible clawed lizard. You can easily deal with those with any standard hunting cartridge. But if you are going after big game like Brontosaurus or defending yourself against T-Rex nothing short of an AT-4 is going to cut it.

  65. First for larger dinosaurs , Barrett .50 caliber semi-auto , for smaller dinosaurs a .500 s&w revolver , backup firearm .44 magnum Ruger Red Hawk . Be prepared and ready . Keep your powder dry .

    • I’d be more comfortable in dinosaurland with an AR-10, a bunch of mags and an MSGL40 slung on the shoulder for the bigger critters. Maybe some claymores if packing a lunch.

  66. Since we’re obviously in the realm of science fiction, Star Trek phasor rifle with extra power supplies should suffice…..

  69. Dillon Mini gun with Blummy’s wallet for ammo.

    That way you can cut them in half. Easier to fit on the BBQ.

    • Interesting reading. It says the crater is 12 mi. deep, which would make it close to double the depth in the Mariana trench.

  71. Same as any other unknown situation…12 guage Shotgun with a variety of slugs, shot, and flares.

    There is nothing on this planet today (or yesterday) that a slug wouldn’t take down. Shot for little critters.

  72. A single shot .22 pistol and a road flair, go hard or go home but if we’re going to be serious, a red rider range model air rifle withe the thing in the stock that tells time

    Ill shoot their eyes out

  73. A Barrett .50 shooting black tip a/p for the big boys and a BAR again shooting black tips for their smaller cousins. And a Super Redhawk with some nice 300 gr solids as a backup. Next question?

  74. .375 H&H, with 350 gr. bullets.

    One rifle, one planet. Doesn’t matter which era.

    (I’m talking HUNTING, not STOPPING. Lots of folks don’t know the difference…)

  76. I’m game, going with… same as the execution thread… the Gustoff, in a boxed canyon….with Lawarence Welk music (you know to get them within range) but do have to worry about muck up ton their kneecaps, evolution haven’t made a cow yet – sooooo, that’s out, servo driven nut junker kicker, not practical cause vertical impact height variability. Good to go.

    Note to self. Ms. D has bigger guns than k smooth….no sudden movement unless instructed to do so.

  77. A lot of comments here show lots of people obsess about guns, and don’t hunt much.

    For dangerous game, there are two things that count:

    1. Mass.
    2. Penetration.

    These have to be delivered together. This is why, even after all these years and years of American hunting bullet development for large, non-dangerous game, so many African hunters still use Kynoch ammo or Woodleigh solids they load themselves.

    As for calibers: The suggestions of vehicle mounted or absurdly heavy rifles would leave a hunter about as useful as a wet sofa, and about as mobile as well. Remember, we’re talking about animals here that can move much faster in tight spaces than you could hope to in a vehicle. If you really want to take down dangerous game that can turn on a dime, you need to make the first shot count – and that means mass with penetration. It also means that you’re stalking the game, dismounted. Current theories about dinosaurs are that they had pretty good eyesight where detection of motion is concerned, so spot-n-stalk might be the rule of the day.

    If you wanted to go old-school, think about a 4 bore or 8 bore in a double gun – if you bungle the first shot, you can escape behind the smokescreen you’ve just laid down. If you want to use this new-fangled smokeless powder stuff, think about a .505 Gibbs, .404 Jeffery, or .375 H&H, with solids. If they can put down a Cape Buff in one shot (with placement), then they should settle a dino.

  79. The key word many are missing to this hypothetical would be the word “hunt”. Although 40mm is fun and makes things go boom, it’s not conducive to hunting. Rather many of you are picking ordinance to just go around willy nilly killing stuff. If you’re truly going to hunt one must factor in hide preservation or if it tastes like gator (yum), damage to the meat. After all if you’re going to shoot a friggin Dimetrodon, what good is it if you can’t stuff it to show your friends? That being said depending on your quarry, any of the cartridges used on the dark continent would be more than adequate.

  80. Me I don’t really care about preserving the hide unless it is very warm or useful for some other reason, in which case it is going to get cut up anyway. With that, hunting a dino, would of course depend on what dino.

    The 500 express for the raptors, should do just fine since it will bring down an elephant size animal. Anything bigger than that, you don’t need to be “Hunting”. At which point all you are really interested in is preserving your life, and if you get the chance, try to feed people that may still need food so that what meat is left after the explosion, isn’t wasted. Trying to hunt a T Rex or bigger, I wouldn’t do with anything less than that 40mm gun LOL

  83. Something man-portable? Nothing less than a 50BMG– a Barrett M107.

    Even then, that might not be enough gun to kill a dinosaur depending on the size. A 40mm grenade laucher might be better, but lacks the range of the rifle.

  84. with respect to some of the other posts on here, it is true the Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of the largest and fiercest land predators to ever walk the earth. It is phenomenally dangerous, much more dangerous than anything you will find a live… Apart from your fellow man. if it were my life on the line and cost were no expense, the NATO 50 caliber or 12.7 mm by 99 mm would more than suffice. Hypothetically speaking if one were to charge you from a short distance away coming suddenly out of thick foliage and you didn’t have sufficient time to aim to hit the brain or heart it could actually possibly still get you even with this round, which I think would actually be overpowered. There is actually a book dedicated to this topic called Rex gun, And serious dinosaur hunters might want to look there. All of this having been said, a T-Rex has a similar mass to an African elephant. It is true that it is constructed differently, there’s more skull in front of the brain and such, and I could be wrong, but in all honesty I’d say there is a good chance from the right angle a .338 or even a 308 cartridge would suffice. I have heard of one elephant Hunter reliably killing elephants with a .303 caliber round. I was very surprised to find this out, with a romance of elephant guns and the idea of biggest game animals ever attached to these Critters , we don’t want to believe our beloved Dumbo and Rexy could be dispatched so easily. the film Jurassic Park was intended to thematically present dinosaurs as forces of nature which man had no right to resurrect. The thematic purpose of the dinosaurs is as a force of nature, like Evolution, gravity etc. For this reason and for cinematic purposes Spielberg presented the dinosaurs as invulnerable when in fact they are not. I have even heard of poachers killing elephants with AK-47s, which fire the 7.62 mm by 39 millimeter round, which is quite small. It’s probably a fully automatic weapon which has a big impact and I know no one wants to believe this, but hypothetically even an AK could do the trick. It would depend on the angle, and I could be wrong, but really high-end things like M2 50 caliber machine guns, mark 19 grenade launchers, and 25 mm Cannons are vast overkill for this animal. now, from the front end, while it is charging? That’s a different story. The 338 might not do it, and even if it did, it might not do it enough. Based on what I know about the 50, which has an obscene amount of muzzle energy, a heart shot would blow its heart clear out the back of it. all this having been said, the amount of fight in a wild animal is different than the fight in a human. I once heard of a leopard, which weighs less than a hundred pounds, charging a hunter. He hit it directly in the side with a shotgun slug, which can kill an elephant and would definitely drop me. The leopard kept coming and didn’t even slow down. I’ve heard of grizzly bears having to be shot in the head five times with .338 rounds to kill them. A charging Tyrannosaurus would be a truly formidable thing.

    • That’s why the most reasoned gun would be a semi-automatic 12 Gage like the Remington 1100/1187 with an assortment of different types of ammo. The Mini-frag and other types of 12 gage shells loaded with high explosive would offer almost certain instant incapacitation with down the thought, or neck shot. The Remington points quickly at very speedy birds and ordinary Sabot Slugs do the job on anything smaller.

  85. Probably my 458 Lott with 500 grain Swift A-frames, but if I was staying with a vehicle (so I didn’t have to carry it), my Barrett M82a1 with either 750 Amax or 650 Lehigh solids

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