The most common shot selection todayon elephant (with a gun) is the head/brain shot due to the quickness of a clean kill and reducing the danger of having to track a mature bull. There's not a bow out there that would penetrate the skull enough to achieve this , nor is there a guide that would allow it.
That leaves the bowhunter with the heart/lung shot. A common misconception is that the kill zone (heart/lungs) area on a elephant is larger due to it's size. It is not. The heart also sits further forward than most animals.


Care to guess the size of the bones protecting that area?

Howard Hill was the first to kill an elephant with a bow. Fred Bear also killed an elephant with a bow. An awesomeaccomplishment for sure , especially considering the equipment they used. Today however there are far fewer single shot bow kills that don't have to be followed up with a high caliber rifle by your guide , and in alot of cases more than one shot by the guide.
There was a very interesting article in one of my bowhunting mags a couple years ago. The author had an unbiased opinion on the subject strictly basing his opinion on his own elephant bow hunt and the stories of other bowhunts told to him by his guides. A very interesting read for sure.

Do I have to "take my foot out of my mouth and kick myself in the nuts" for basing my opinion on statistics?

You can get a good look at a t-bone by sticking your head up a bulls ass but I'd rather take my butchers word for it!
~~Tommy Boy~~