[central_va]

Hunting Mastodon with a sharpened stick goes down in my book as a incredible ballsy thing to do. No question about it. Real cojones required.

[PLMerite]

(Real cojones required.)

“If you can keep them.” ~ Ben Franklin

[piasa]

A stick with a fine blade attached to a foreshaft stuck in the socket of a spear, all propelled by an atlatl and backed up with spare hafted foreshafts in case the first ones everyone threw didn’t do the trick.
Still ballsy, but not just a sharp stick.

[DuncanWaring]

It's easy if you know the right spot.

[kitchen]

Here's an old film of Bushmen hunting a giraffe with poisoned arrows about the size of knitting needles. 3,000 pound, give or take, is a lot less than the speculated weight of a mastodon - maybe 12 tons. Nobody knows how long it took to kill a mastodon with spears, but I wouldn't be surprised if some toxic substance that slowed their reflexes or paralyzed muscles near a spear wound was part of the process.

[SunkenCiv]

Sure, but the *real* men didn't even *use* a sharpened stick. ;') I don't think it's an accident that remains are found in sinkholes -- my wild guess is, the same strategy was used as was used later at Heads-Smashed-In in Canada.