A elephant gun is a large caliber rifle, used for (among other things) elephant hunting.

Traditionally, these were very large caliber black powder double rifles, often as big as 4-gauge giving projectiles starting at 4oz (113g). The development of cordite removed the need for such massive calibers and relatively smaller calibers became the norm, but most guns were still had bores larger than half an inch, using cartridges such as Holland and Holland's .577 Nitro Express.

More recently, the very expensive and unwieldy double rifles have fallen out of favor with most hunters, and have been superceeded by modern bolt action rifles with large rounds such as the .416 Rigby or .458 Winchester Magnum.