Is Howard Hill a cheat?

[humphrey]

I was reading on an american archery site and it said that howard hill shot his elephant in the knee with a large calibre rifle before taking to it with his bow. anyone know if theres any truth in that?
It was kinda funny that in the footage he keeps putting arrows into it and the elephant just stands there and roars.
heres a link to the footage for those that haven't seen it;

http://www.bowhuntershalloffame.com/videos.html

(its the video at the very bottom of the page)

[adam]

This movie was made for Hollywood not bowhunters, the sound of the arrows and the sounds of the animals are fake. I don't think Howard was a fake, but a bowhunting legend that has done more good for our sport then most. This movie doesn't go down well with most bowhunters these days but I believe times have changed, IÌm sure when it was first brought out it was very excepted.

[HOOD]

yeah after watching the clip I have to wonder what was he doing!!!!!!!!!

Hood 8)

[humphrey]

adam, i know the movie was made for hollywood, but he did shoot the elephant with his bow, that wasn't a lie. if he did shoot it with a gun first, or it was tied up, he's not a bowhunting legend in my eyes. its no different to shooting a caged animal. its cheating.

[interceptor]

I think that when this film was made the whole world looked at animals differently, zoos were still concrete cells. there is another HH film where two lads chase down a small brown bear and rope it, do that today and see how far you get.

from what I have heard/read Howard was and is a true legend of archery (I don't beleive he was ever beaten in competion) and also of Bowhunting taking more game before most even knew it could be done.

Noel

[Glenn]

I had a book "The Horn of Africa" I think, and in it it talks about an American bowhunter in the fifties who was making a movie who wanted to shoot an elephant with his bow but the authorities at that time were not convinced about the killing power of an arrow and were worried about a wounded elephant going on a rampage and killing people and destroying property so a deal was struck to have a professional hunter first shoot it in the knees so it couldn't run away wounded.
The movie Tembo is pertty awfull, I bought it and watched it once and sold it, the elephant and leopard are tied up as was the lion which just sat there growling as Howard walked up to it and shot it.
Howard was a great archer and hunter in his own right but he was on a tight contract with the movie studios and unde a lot of pressure for footage of animals being shot with the bow which they didn't have a lot of luck with and Tembo was the unfortunate result. When you look at the lion being shot it looked to me to be on a stage, there is something not right about it and when it is shot with the first arrow it rolls around and growls but hardly moves from the spot.
It was good in it days for what it was but times have changed. The first time I saw it was in the early 70's on a movie reel and I thought most of it was fantastic but when I bought the video in 1994 I thought it was terrible...Glenn...

[humphrey]

well glenn, after reading that i now look at him in a different way. he may have been under pressure from the studios and game authorities, but he and others fooled people into believing that he took those animals by fair chase, which he obviously didn't. i cant see how that did any favours for our sport.

[Glenn]

I take everything I read with a grain of salt these days, I have been to the USA several times and met a number of so called legedns of Bowhunting and there is only a couple I would consider genuine, some people will stop at nothing to make a name for themselves.
I do think that the Tembo movie was not a good under taking for Howard Hill, but leaving the African experience out of it I think Howard was a true bowhunting legend, he was considered the greatest bowhunter ever but by whos standard. There was a black African bowhunter who use to make his own bows out of aciaia and he had shot 500 rino's and he could call them into bow shooting range, he rekons they weren't a challange because of their bad eyesight, makes all of the western legends of bowhunting look a bit sick.
Back in Egyptian times a Pharoh and his son shot over 100 elephants just on one hunting trip between them...Glenn...

[brian]

yep i'm with you on that glenn. i reckon the real hunting legends out there lived and died in the bush - we'll never here many stories about them. - they also hunted for different reasons than what we do. people like the bushmen and others had a far more intiment knowledge of their environment than any of us do, and they never hunted for trophies or reckognition either. just comparing those two stories of the pharoa and the african hunter - i would say the african was the greater legend - probably hunted alone - with real skill. out of interest glenn - do you know if the pharoa was on a vehicle or had his army with him on this hunt?

[Glenn]

I'm not sure mate, I will have to dig that story up again, I know their bows were very powerful becuase some of the better ones could be shot through a target of copper that was a mans hand width thick. A lot of lions were shot on the same trip also.
The African hunter calling the rhinos in get my vote also...Glenn...