I've heard a story where an elephant snuck up to a sleeping man, touched it, and snuck away snickering, without waking him up either.

He was a 'stunt elephant' and much admired by his comrades.

(I need a 'farside' cartoon for that 'story')

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Actually a true personal story. We had elephants walk into our camp in Ambroselli almost every night. At least a couple walked past me sleeping. Their footprints would have been within a couple feet of my head. We were in tents though. The tents were only two or three feet from each other and the tensioning cords criss-crossed the gaps. So the elephants would have had to step over the cords. They came into the camp to look for food after everyone was asleep, hiding and peering into the camp from the darkness until this happened.

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I think using less than adequate methods of dispatching game, such as muzzle loaders, BP, low powered lever rifles, bowhunting etc all make it harder to dispatch the game. It certainly MAY make the hunt harder to accomplish. For me the 'stunt' part is being backed up by an adequate rifle, not doing it solo.

It is possible to do 'solo' hunts, unguided, etc even today.