C J is correct.

According to what is printed, Adams feels that at best a person would only be successful on getting by the flat two inch thick ribs one out of every three times. Plus the vitals on African game are farther forward making the target harder to get to. The shot apparently was under twenty yards. He hit right where he was aiming and still hit to far back. He says shooting an elephant with a bow is a "stunt" and shouldn't be allowed.

Here is a quote from his book 'Life At Fulldraw' page 144, "....a strong two-thirds of the chest cavity is covered by ribs so thick, you couldn't shoot any arrow through those ribs...."

"...I can tell you that no matter what you read or what you hear, most of the elephants supposedly taken with a bow are not taken cleanly... Most them are finished off with a rifle."

Sidebar

Other than the two bladed Zwicky broadhead, the bow and the gear he was shooting has been mentioned above. To show you how technology has advanced, with that hundred pound setup, although close, he didn't get 90 ft. lbs of kinetic energy. Today we are pushing that number with a much lighter drawing bow. I am also surprised at how light his arrow was.