Elastic impact between a truncated finite conical rod and a long cylindrical rod is studied (i) experimentally, (ii) analytically, by using one-dimensional wave theory to obtain a closed-form solution, and (iii) numerically, by using a three-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model. The results are compared for cones of different lengths but with the same end diameters. The agreement between the results from studies (i) and (iii) is very good in general. As expected, the deviation of the results of study (ii) from those of studies (i) and (iii) becomes increasingly apparent as the slenderness of the cones decreases.