Howard hill (the facts)

[adam]

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.
How many elephants did you bag? 3
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.

[adam]

"WHY I SHOOT THE LONGBOW"
by Howard Hill

......It must be remembered that the modern glass laminated bows used today are faster than the bow of past years. I have always said and still maintain that no person shoot a bow he cannot draw with ease. Being first of all a hunter, I wanted a bow that would throw a heavy hunting arrow with as little arc as possible. To achieve this end I knew I would have to increase the pounds pull of my bow, and I worked toward this result. I started with a bow that I could pull easily. By practicing constantly and gradually increasing the pull of my bows, I developed, over a period of years, the muscles to pull very heavy bows with no undue strain. For many years I could handle perfectly bows pulling up to 100 pounds at 28 inches, though my favorite weight for hunting was between 80-90 pounds. Few men have ever spent enough time to develop sufficient strength for handling easily such heavy bows as these.

P.S. Even at the age of 62 years he could draw and shoot a 75 lb. hunting bow with ease and comfort. Infact, two or three times each week he would shoot a bow of that weight for 30 to 90 minutes, shooting from 110 to 150 arrows. Howard never liked the use of sights or other paraphernalia on his bows. He considered these to be crutches and felt they took away from the challenge of the bow. Also, he liked his bow clean and free of any encumbrances that would hinder the maneuverability of the bow for moving shots. He considered cable and pulley bows something that detracted from the romance of the ancient sport of archery.

[brian]

one more question i'd like to ask is: were any of the elephants chained to a tree or restridted in any way.

i've heard plenty of debate on this but no-one seems to know for sure (me neither).

[adam]

Not sure mate, a few of us reckon we can see the ground move like theres a chain.
If there was it wasn't his finest hour.

Adam

[adam]

Keeping in mind that tembo was made for hollywood and not as a hunters video.

[brian]

true hey adam - guess it woulda been made at leaste30-40 years ago maybe more. stil - i'd love to find out for sure.
he certainly used some beefy gear anyways.

[adam]

From a book Howard Wrote.

[humphrey]

everything ive read states that the elephant and lion in tembo were chained up.
if he was such a 'romantic' and 'true hunter' then why would he shoot at a chained animal for any reason? :shock:
i respect him as an archer because he was a bloody fantastic shot, but for heros, i look up to people like fred bear and byron ferguson.

[adam]

if he was such a 'romantic' and 'true hunter' then why would he shoot at a chained animal for any reason
Not going to argue that Humprey, but there done worst for a Hollywood movie.

Hell offer me some big brass and Id do the same for a movie, not hunting just business :wink:

Adam

[humphrey]

yeah, i suppose you have a valid point. id do it for a fat pay check too. the only thing that annoys me is that he got all this credit because he was 'the first man to kill an elephant with a bow and arrow' and was made out to be a hero when that wasn't the case.

[brian]

i heard that in the making of the movie "milo and otis" (a story about a puppy and a kitten in the wild) the director went through over 60 pug puppies because they kept on dying in certain scenes. the kittens did a fair bit better i guess because maybe they were more sure footed. one scene has the puppy going down a fast river on a small raft - and i've been told this was the scene where the most puppies died - because they kept on drowning!!!!! spose you could draw similar parallels with the whole howard thing - maybe?

[adam]

Not sure about that Brian bit rough in my books, It would have to be humane for a fat pay check all the same.

I didn't know that the tembo Tusker was howards first.

Adam

[brian]

yeh - i aint too sure myself adam - just what i heard from a mate. it is pretty off-topic too (bigtime) :lol: but just thought it may be of interest and slightly comparable to tembo.
re tembo - i've seen the footage of the shot/shots at the elephant and it didnt really move at all from the spot where it was first hit. i reckon most elephants would run somewhere after the hit - maybe at the shooter if he made his presence known (and hill was shooting from the top of a termite mound). anyways - i guess for the time it was pretty amaizing/groundbraking stuff all the same since the "times are a changin"

[outback preditor]

i thought the first elephant was a rouge and was shot fairly with 112 lb long bow.
once you sign a contract with somone like hollywood studio's your bound and have to do what they think is a money maker.
they did the same thing with elvis. he made a couple good movies but when a crappy sing song beach movie pulled the buck they made him make dozens more the same even though he didnt want too.
ped.

[humphrey]

that could be right ped, and then the one for the movie was chained for saftey reaons.