On the subject of shoulder meat loss I've seen all kinds of strange things. Usually if you go middle high double lung you will get one or both shoulders through some meat, cut out the jellied part and move on.
My dad and his friend had cow tags, dad and I went out in the morning and he shot his cow in the neck with my 338 DRT. I took Wayne out that evening and he shot a cow with my 338, double lunged through shoulder meat at 40 yds, she walked off and died in sight. Weird thing was there was cud in the jellied bloodshot meat, a bunch of it.
Another cow hunt with a friend also using my 338. He shot a cow at about 180 in the junipers. She ran off, we found her about 80 yds away, low double lunged not hitting the shoulders. When I skinned her both shoulders were pink from crazed bruising, like spider webs. I don't butcher other people's elk anymore so when we dropped it of to a processor I know, he asked, what the hell happened to those shoulders. All I can figure is she hit the ground hard on her shoulders a couple times in her death run.
Meat loss in most any case is not as bad as a picture shows once cleaned up.
Kent
