I’m surprised and I guess dissapointed in your question: Why would anyone want to hunt an elephant?
Sounds like the questions I get from anti-hunters when I travel…why would anyone hunt any animal?
The basic answer from me is simple: I love it and it’s challenging. An elephant with a bow brings back memories of Fred Bear and Howard Hill. Danger, excitement and a personal challenge.
And I want to do this the really hard way, not with a rifle, not with a compound bow but with a genuine longbow. Just getting in shape to pull an 85 lb bow is challenging in itself! And then stalking on foot and getting within 20 yards of an elephant with only a longbow would be a mega adrenaline rush! I’m intersted in the feat itself, for myself.
Would I eat it? Absolutely. The meat would be used to feed an entire village. I once hooked and fought a Great White Shark on a fly rod (The first in the world, by the way) at Pitt Island, 500 miles off the coast of New Zealand. Did I eat it? You bet! The best fish I’ve ever eaten and we fed the towns people, all 50 of ’em, on Pitt Island. I wrote an article of my trip in Fish and Fly Adventure Magazine.
So why would I want to hunt an elephant? The same reason you and I want to hunt deer or elk, or shoot fish with a bow or an alligator, or just some ole raccoon. It’s traditional archery, Man.