Longbow Hippo Success

Categories: Success stories , Elephant & Hippo

Brett Valette shared a couple pictures with us of a large adult hippo he took from 20 feet, on the ground, on foot with a 86# Ferguson longbow and GrizzlyStik Ashby broadheads. (Adult hippos run about 6,000 pounds! That's a big, mean animal!) He told us to get his story from a post he made on Tradbow.com. Here is his story..."A while ago, I posted that I was going to shoot an elephant with my bow. I had great responses...instead, I shot a huge hippo bull with my Ferguson long bow and 315 grain Ashby broad head two weeks ago. Briefly, on the second to last day of the hunt in Zambia with Pro-hunt Zambia (Richard Bell-Cross), Richard radio'd Gavin, my PH, that a hippo was feeding on land! We found the hippo, stalked to within 20 feet of that monster hippo. My first shot was right in the heart with my 86 lb Ferguson long bow. I shot 950 grain arrows and the Ashby head sliced right thru the 2 inch thick skin,up to the fletchings and right into the heart. ( I do have film of the broken arrow actually in the heart). I continued to shoot the hippo and it dropped in about 1 1/2 minutes! My son Dalton, filmed the entire hunt. Being that close to this huge animal with only my bow and arrow was exciting and scary but fully gratifying with awe and amazement when that animal dropped from my arrow! Everyone in camp was truly amazed that this "little stick" took down such a huge animal. It's kinda amazing to me that so many people have forgotten that Ben Pearson, Bill Negley, Fred Bear, all shot dangerous game with traditional bows. I just wanted to do what they did. It's truly an experience I'll never forget! My elephant hunt is next month in Zimbabwe." - Brett Valette

Share this post:

Previous Western Extreme Elephant Hunting

Next Down in 5

Comment(s)

Biggest Buck to Date!

It was a calm morning with no wind. Very cold 15 degrees. I went early in the morning into the timber to climb up my treestand. He came by my treestand 20 minutes into legal light. I shot him at 20 yards broadside. I watched him for about 10 minutes before I shot him. Couldn’t have been a better way[...]

North Central Montana Public Land Elk

My first elk ever. I’m from Southern Illinois and got the elk in North Central Montana on a public land unit. It was an all day stalk in 30+ mph winds which helped me close the distance to 30 yards. The shot blew THROUGH his right scapula, hit both lungs and stopped as it split a rib on the left side.[...]

Slow Start, Strong Finish

Overall, it was a slow start to the pre-rut, but with temps dipping down into the low 30s, what a difference a front can make in the deer woods. Sitting in the dark I could hear grunting, chasing and snort wheezing in the woods in front of me. After daylight broke things quieted down. An hour later a[...]