This is true, if you are a modern person with ethics.
If you are a not so modern person who needs to kill that elk or starve, wounding the animal then pursuing it until it drops from exhaustion is called “strategy.” It is specifically a strategy called “persistence hunting” which is practiced still to this day in regions where people hunt for subsistence without modern weapons.
As you say, it take extraordinary skill to hunt game to modern ethical standards with an atlatl. Or a non-compound bow for that matter.
I don’t think you will be successful. I never thought the atlatl could ever have been very useful until I saw* Quest for Fire*. It depicted a group of people hurling small spears in a high arc over distance. So if you got a dozen friends to join you, hunting in open space, you might be successful. With enough practice, you might be able to bring down a deer if you can get close enough in open space and hit one standing still, and injure it enough that you can track it down and finish it.
By the way, you’re killing a dumb animal using a weapon. What’s the difference if you use a pointy stick or a gun?
Og: (after examining atlatl) Funny stick never work!
I think many of the naysayers in here have never hunted. Stalking is a skill that isn’t that hard to learn. I’ve been within 50 yards of game in hunting season many times. (tho many, many more times I’ve been a bit too noisy and scared them off before I even saw them.) You can do it, it will just take practice. Practice hunting with a camera in the off season.
Agreeing with other posters tho, to do it ethically, you need to have a lot of practice. You need to be able to hit that paper plate from any random range from 10-100 yards every time. And be able to do it when out of breath from tracking the herd up and down mountains for a few hours. Even when in the grip of “buck fever”.
Based on my fairly minimal experience (built one and a few darts, played around with it in an open field a few times), an atatl is much more difficult to be accurate with than a bow. You will need to practice thousands of shots before it would be ethical to go hunting.
As for ethically killing an elk, that would not be a problem, as long as you hit it right (lungs and/or heart). The sectional density of an atlatl dart is better than an arrow. There are reports of aztec atlatl’s penetrating conquistador iron armor. If you hit in the kill zone, you can take it down. If you miss, you will be in for a long, hard track.
I say, go for it. Check your state regs, make sure it is a legal weapon where you live (I believe it is not in Utah). Then practice, practice, practice.
I don’t think you’ll be very successful. You are more likely to end up either with an injured but not incapacitated elk, or with a very angry one, or both. Maybe it’s enough to kill a bunny, but good luck hitting one with an atlatl. If you do, though, that should totally give you some kind of dating advantage evolutionarily speaking.
I think you should consider bow hunting instead. Increased precision and the force of the arrow will be more merciful to the animal, and you’ll still have to get a lot closer than the high-powered rifle and use a great deal more skill.
I don’t believe its currently legal in PA but I know a few folks who do it anyway and at least one dude who has used one on preserves for everything from pheasant to boar. Practice like you never practiced anything else; its a tough weapon to get good with.
Here is the link to a primitive skills forum I frequent. Arguably, it is the best such forum on the Net. You’ll find many skilled atlatalists on the site. Scroll about halfway down the page and you will find where the WAA discussion forum is hosted. Check out the rest of the site while you are at it.
I haven’t caught mention of it (so forgive me if anyone has), but it’s my understanding that the spear you throw with an atlatl is supposed to be flexible enough to curve during the overhead release and straighten out as it begins to fly. This permits you to store more energy or some such nonsense. Are your projectiles flexible?