Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Reaction after shot.

Every so often a story gets going about someone having an animal go down, get back up, shoot it again and ending up with 2 or more dead animals. I've never known of a VERIFIED case of it happening but it still pays to make sure you're always shooting at the same animal.

Last year, while hunting with my son on a RFW property here in Colorado, a hunter did just that- shot at a cow elk, thought he had missed, shot at another cow, and ended up with two dead ones and a mess to sort out with the local DOW officer.

My own experience with elk reactions, after shooting a couple dozen or so with various weapons, calibers, etc. is that the usual reaction after the shot is little or no reaction at all- animal just stands there and falls down after a few seconds, or walks slowly away before collapsing.

The few instantaneous DRT's have occurred while using good ol' cup and core bullets out of a 7mm Rem. Mag., of Sierra and Speer persuasion. The most delayed reactions have occurred with 50 cal. muzzleloader, and with 200 gr. Swift A-Frames out of my .300 Wby. I no longer use those bullets for elk, choosing instead to go with 165 gr. Barnes TTSXes, with much quicker results. The Swifts were bought to use in Africa, and used on several elk as a 'warm-up' for Africa- IMO, way too tough a bullet to use on elk-sized game here in the US.

I have a friend who got lost and spent the night in the woods. When he woke up he stood up to take a leak. When he did a bull stood up about fifty yards away. He dropped it with one .30-06 cup and core through the front of the chest. It got up and presented the same angle as before so he shot again. With the second shot about a dozen got up and ran off.

To his chagrin he discovered he killed two. A four by five and a five by five. He found a near by camp and after a few minutes found out the guy was delighted to tag one. He took my friend's around the mountain to his camp. He was so distraught he never hunted again.

A local friend, who's now gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds, once hiked up his favorite elk mountain and found a 5-point bull standing on little rise in a sagebrush park above him. He shot at it, and the bull turned and disappeared over the rise. He hiked up to the rise, and saw the bull standing maybe 50 yards away, so he shot again and dropped it. He found the first bull dead in the sage while walking toward the second one.

A friend tagged the second bull, and both were packed off the mountain without incident.

Last bull I shot went 4 steps and down. No other indication of a hit.

Not uncommon for the only indication of a hit to be the sound of the bullet impact.

I like to describe it as the difference between elk and whitetail reactions like the difference between a black lab and a house cat getting sprayed with a garden hose.

All the kills I have made that fell at the shot were hits with spine shots, neck shots and a handful I killed with raking shots from a 375H&H with 300 grain bullets.

With most shots however you will see elk stagger or run a short distance. If the bullet holds together and you hit them forward of the diaphragm it's not likely for elk to go more then about 30 yards.

All the long runs I have seen in my 42 years of hunting and guiding hunts for them were from clients who hit them in the wrong place, or hit them with a bullet that broke up and didn't penetrate well, or both.

I my experience, you are better off with a 257 Roberts with a partition or Barnes X bullet then you are with a 3oo Weatherby shooting a Burger or Sierra.

A poor bullet in the right place is still better then a good bullet in the wrong place though.

John. Unfortunatly i did almost the same thing in Montana 4 seasons ago. I was slowly working my way off the point of a ridge when I spotted two bulls moving through the green timber about 200yds away. the second bull seemed to be the bigger one and I fired a shot as he moved between the tree's & lost him for a few seconds and then spotted him looking at me and quickly shot him again. Jumped and went out of sight. when I got over there I found him dead about 20 yards from where I shot him. I was sure I had hit him so I back trailed him about 75 yards only to find another dead elk! Both nice 6X6's. Tagged the bigger one field dressed them both. Called a warden and he accompanied me to the kill site & ended up fining me the minimum fine (135.00) and confiscated the head and antlers. Said he had so much meat that he couldn't take anymore. Gave me a tag for the meat. Both elk were shot with a 7mag and 175 NP.

Lefty C

Luckily you ran into a sensible game warden!

A friend ran into another one many years ago, after he'd shot a spike mule deer by mistake, thinking it was a doe. The antlers were about 6" long, above the 4" limit for an "antlerless" tag, so he turned himself in. The warden fined him minimally and confiscated the deer. Back then, however, they could auction off confiscated game animals in the field, and "sold" the deer back to my friend for $10!

I'm sure that's happened to many people. My elk hunting partner's old partner was known for doing this. There's also the story of the guy that shoots a bull and the one behind it falls down too. . Moral of the story, know your target and what's behind it...