Bowhunting Elephant

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NEED SOME BACKSTORY INFO PLEASE.
Howard Hill 1950

  1. Could this headshot in the first picture be the [only?] killing shot?
  2. What type of arrowhead and bow poundage would he be using for this hunt?
  3. How close does he need to be to achieve that arrow angle in the skull?

  1. The two arrows on the two photos does not look to be the same length?[tusks also seems then to be of 2 different elephants hunted with a traditional bow?]
Thanks
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No way that arrow made it through the skull of an elephant. I will go out on a short limb here and assume that the blood between the eyes was the kill shot from the rifle as the follow-up...
 
On the top picture, it is my understanding that Mr. Hill made the head shot (after the elephant was dead, of course) to test whether the skull could be penetrated with his longbow.
 
On the top picture, it is my understanding that Mr. Hill made the head shot (after the elephant was dead, of course) to test whether the skull could be penetrated with his longbow.
That is correct, he wrote that it penetrated 7 inches of skull but failed to reach the brain.
 
He's even wearing different clothes in the two fotos...also one with binos and other without.
ByBy means an expert on now hunting but I would doubt that THAT longbow had enough power and at that time whether the arrow heads were of sufficient caliber to penetrate the skull.
 
He may or may not have been a bit shady with one of his elephants, but did indeed state that the headshot was just a test after the animal was dead.
 
I found the following info on the net...

'He killed over 2,000 animals with his long bow, including an elephant, becoming the first white man to kill an elephant with a bow and arrow.
He used four-foot arrows, while pulling a 115 pound bow to take the mighty beast.'

howard-1962.jpg
m-8249.jpg
 
It looks like an Indian Elephant. (?)
 
Are they any book / magazines / articles about:
- his live
- his hunts (e. g. Africa)
- his bows (and methods)

???
:)

Thank you, gentleman.
The Bull.
 
“Hunting the Hard Way” comes to mind, and another that I can’t think of.

Bill Negley’s book “Archer in Africa” is magnificent and deals a little with some of Howard’s adventures and controversies in Africa (aside from the main theme of Negley’s adventures there).

To understand Howard more you also need to read Bob Swinehart’s books. One is called “Sagittarius” and I can’t recall the other off the top of my head.

Traditional Bowhunter Magazine has dealt with all the above subjects and more over the years, but I’m not clever enough to pinpoint the exact back issues. The team at TBM would be happy to help.

Online traditional bowhunting forums have had informative and robust discussions concerning Howard’s incredible talent as well as his follies or mistakes, and a whole range of opinions are expressed there, including some from folks who knew him.

Craig Ekin from Howard Hill Archery in Montana had a direct connection with Howard. Craig is an excellent bowyer and will happily send a free brochure that includes lots of good information about Howard. My six year old son has a beautiful little juniper longbow made by Craig, and I’ve killed a few boars and billy goats with mine. Fun bows.

Howard Hill and Fred Bear had some interesting disagreements.

Hope this helps.
 
Howard Hill hung-out with Errol Flynn quite a bit. Every Australian buffalo hunter ought to read Tom Cole’s books, especially “Hell West and Crooked” but the others also. After reading Cole’s personal views on Flynn, based on their interactions in Papua New Guinea, I realised Flynn was quite a rogue.
 
THE ELEPHANT STORY
Howard Hill has been asked many times to tell the facts on bagging an elephant with a bow and arrow.
Following is a list of questions and answers.

  1. How many elephants did you bag? 3

  2. How many arrows did it take for all three? 4
  • How heavy a bow did you use? 115 lbs.
  • Was this a hand drawn bow? Yes
  • Did you use an explosive tip or poison on the tip of the arrow? No
  • How long an arrow did you use? 41" with a special designed broadhead
  • How much did the broadhead weigh? 1700 grains
  • How much penetration did you get? 31.5"
  • Where is the best place to hit an elephant? Between the ribs into the heart or lungs
  • How much did the elephant weigh? 10,000 lbs.
http://howardhillarchery.com/the-legends-story.html

 
"Bowhunting elephant would be a dream"

I'm not so sure about that.
The elephant is just too big for an arrow.They can't be compared to buffalo and moose when you go stalking with a bow, they have just too much mass.
When I once hunted buffalo on the Gwayi River, an area with a large bow hunting scene, the Matabele tracker told me that elephants with good shots often take three hours to die.
At the table and in the forum no bowhunter tells anything about this long death.
Or do you want to bleed to death painfully for three hours until your end ?
I am not sentimental about the death of an animal that serves as food and can also provide a good hunt.When I kill an animal , it must be short and painless, just as I want to resign one day.
Only my 2 cents.
Foxi
 
Last edited:
From a friend...

' I'm not going to get into a long discussion on it.
But do your research on elephant anatomy.
They do not have a visceral and parietal pleura around the lungs.
Ie the lung cannot collapse.
Ie no tension/ pneumo/ haemothorax.
A lung shot that will kill any other animal will take days to kill an elephant.

Not with one shot. Never. Not in this life an world.
It is possible to kill an elephant with a long bow and arrow but not with 1 shot.
I have seen it done and it is a looong death!

I have seen it done with compound bows, but there is a BIG difference between the kinetic energy of them vs an old longbow.'

Arrows do not kill via kinetic energy, but via hemorrhage brought about by the broadhead with which it has been tipped.
Kinetic energy assists in penetration

Interesting, but this becomes too technical for me.....
-any medical and practical knowledgeable bowhunter to help out please?
 
I’m a longbow / recurve hunter... three buffalo with a longbow, one with a recurve.

My tradbows are indeed slower than a compound, but they sure can move a heavy arrow!

Of course, I’ve never seen an elephant get hunted except on the screen. And while I understand there is the potential for a bad shot with a longbow, there is also potential for a single arrow to do the job in seconds or minutes.
 

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