Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Lost my elk

Nothing I write is intended to please any particular person, including you.

I write about what interests me or I don't write anything at all. In this case the hunt went pretty much as expected right up until we failed to find the cow in short order after finding what started out as - by far - the most massive blood trail I've ever seen. What interested me, and still does, is what went wrong with the shot so I can correct it in the future. Deal with it.



Before I left the house I told my wife and daughter my primary goal was to help my son-in-law get his elk. " Risking a long shot at first the sighting? " No. He was unprepared to taking the shot, said as much and suggested I do so. This was some 3 hours after first sighting, 3 hours of trying to figure a way get closer without spooking the herd and miles from the truck. The range was well within where I practice and we were both in agreement on taking the shot. My thought was to get mine down and to the truck and return my focus on helping my son-in-law. If you want to judge with 20-20 hind sight go right ahead but as I said earlier, you weren't there.



For me it is all about the hunt. The best ones are where everyone has fun and returns home safely with good memories, regardless of whether or not any animals are taken. That said, my family enjoys the meat and if antlers were the only reward I wouldn't bother with the hunt. I generally have two elk tags, one for either sex but two cows this year, and one or two hunting buddies that also have tags they want to fill with limited time to do so. As a result I generally take the first healthy adult that I can get back to the truck with my bad hip - and I do so with no apologies.

Perhaps you missed it - or more likely just chose to ignore it as it doesn't support your rant, no surprise there - but I wrote pretty plainly that I was more distressed about losing a wounded animal and causing it needless suffering than not getting an animal at all.



Watching and waiting 3 hours to take a shot is hardly "throwing it away on buck fever". You do it your way, I'll do it mine.



What elk would that be? Once again you read into what I wrote just what you want to so you can continue your rant, not what was actually written. All we know is that we couldn't find the cow down anywhere near the end of the blood trail and that a fence was fairly close to the west and another was much further to the north. What we didn't know was which way the elk went. For all we know it went south and didn't approach a fence at all. Depending on which way it went the elk could have been on one of two other ranches, more if it made it a little further, or none of them. Just which ranch were we supposed to notify?




You hunt your way, I'll hunt mine. I make no apologies for making the decision to shoot.

How could you wait three hours to shoot and not notice the wind?
Why you shooting such a low b.c. bullet in the wind?
Why do you take such "long" shots at elk but you have a bad hip?
If your primary deal was to get your relative an elk, why you shooting after "three hours"?
I am sorry for your loss, but whoa I think this confessional should have gone to the priest. just braying John

I guess what I am trying to relate I will use the following analogy of a baseball pitcher.

When he/she throws meat over the plate and gets hammered over the wall for a homerun... he/she HAS to get over it RIGHT NOW...end of story. Otherwise he/she will NOT be pitching. As hunters we are dealing with the suffering of animals.....not homeruns.

I would suggest reflection on a hunting failure; if not to learn or help others learn from the mistake; is detrimental to the future success of the person that had the failure.....and most certainly detrimental to hunting as a whole ....especially using such a public domain medium. JOHN

Good questions.

1. B.C of .387.
This is an approximation (guess) based on bullet shape and weight and comparisons with the 160 grain Speer Grand Slam I used successfully in the 7mm RM for 20+ years. Since 1982 when I got started I've only taken 4 shots of 350 yards or longer, including this year. Off the top of my head, I think all the rest have been 300 yards or under. The North Fork SS bullets have proved to be excellent bullets, providing exactly what I want from a hunting bullet, including reliable but controlled expansion with high weight retention over a broad range of impact velocities and excellent accuracy, with animals dropping at the shot or quickly thereafter. Launched at 3028fps and 2.6" high at 100 yards provides a Maximum Point Blank for 6" target of 297 yards with about a calculated 253 yard zero (more numbers that I'm sure will raise Alamosa's blood pressure). For the vast majority of my shooting this means I don't need to make more than a 3" range adjustment, up or down, when choosing my aim point. It also means that inside 300 yards, which is the norm, I often don't make any adjustment at all.

As to the wind, we hadn't detected any significant wind on the way to our position or while we were there - just the expected air movement that rarely stops, maybe 2-3mph. We knew there was some wind along the south facing slopes but it wasn't reaching us at our position, which was more sheltered. We only noticed some gusts when we headed toward the saddle, which also took us to the top edge of the southern slopes.

2. "Long" shots with a bad hip.
Lots of reasons, starting with it was the shot opportunity that was provided and probably the closest I was going to get under the circumstances. Alamosa thinks I should have tried to get closer, which I've done many times when hunting by myself. In this case I had my son-in-law with me and, much as I love him, he doesn't do slow or quiet, let alone both.

Another is that, although I once felt anything over 200 yards was long, that time was years and hundreds of shots at much longer ranges ago. For this particular shot I was shooting a grazing elk broadside from a solid sitting position, off a tripod. It doesn't get much better except off the rock-solid steel benches at the range.

As to the hip, an extra 100-200 yards for a shot just didn't make a difference. Although the truck was about 1-1/2 miles away, the nearest 4x4 track was only about 1/2 a mile away and mostly downhill or level for a relatively easy pack-out. That was a much bigger consideration.

3. Shooting after 3 hours
The opportunity was there, the elk weren't getting any closer and we didn't think we could close the range without spooking them, it was mid-afternoon and chances of finding elk elsewhere on the part of the ranch we were hunting were slim at best, it was already too late to check-in at the other part of the ranch (which was over an hour's drive away) and my son-in-law didn't want to take the shot. One thing I've learned about elk hunting over the years is not to waste a good opportunity. Taking the shot was the logical thing to do.

4. Confessional
This thread was never intended to be that, just an honest summary of the hunt. It still bothers me that the animal was lost but I'm not asking anyone's forgiveness.

Hopefully some people that read this thread will learn something useful to them but one thing is certain - people can't read and learn from words that are never written.

I'd suggest that reflecting on one's failures is healthy and helps one avoid repeating them. And as you said above in your other post, failure equates to an animal suffering so I'd also suggest that the analogy of the pitcher is totally off-base because personally, I would not want to hunt with someone who didn't take time to reflect and ask himself a few hard questions when he wounds and loses an animal as valuable as an elk. But I would want a pitcher on my team who can "shake it off" without another thought.

As far as being detrimental to hunting as a whole, I think it's the opposite; it shows that hunters don't generally take this kind of thing lightly.

At least that's how I see it. And yes, the part about the pitcher being off-base was a pun, intended.

This^^^. Nothing was wasted, coyotes and ravens gotta eat too. It's hunting, not killing and getting.

Bad shots happen. Continuing to hunt just because a second tag is in the pocket is where the ethics get sketchy to me.

Why? I've filled two elk tags more than once.

But....but....what about the BC?!

Can't figure that out. In Colorado, you can buy an "A" tag and a "B". I killed an antlerless elk in muzzle loader season and a 5x5 bull in rifle season. Why is that unethical. Colorado sells them so they must want you to kill them. I can't help it of some can't even find one elk to kill.

Apparently aknome thinks hunters are supposed to quit hunting at all for a while if they lose an animal. I wonder what "mourning period" he considers appropriate?

One must shuffle on knees for three miles uphill in the snow over rocks and gravel to prostrate to a set of elk antlers on an alter. Then beg forgiveness from the secret squirrel residing behind the alter.

It's not a specific period. The length of furlough is related to how long it takes to go back for a faster snow machine and whether or not one needs to save up to acquire it.

(Seriously though, Alaska has some pretty tough laws when it comes to punching tags or harvest tickets. "Attempting to take" qualifies as a tag puncher in many instances. That might be defined as taking a shot, but certainly a knowing hit fits the criteria. A wad of back hair and a few flecks of blood and 'done' - even if it becomes quite evident that nothing lethal or serious transpired.)

Yeah, I know about those laws--but do they mean the hunter can't try to fill other tags?

My "mourning period" would last as long as it took to hop that fence and recover that dead cow. We can shoot five caribou a day up here and I have done that when the freezer was empty. But I have never shot a sixth because the first one got away .

Nope, and I would have absolutely no problem with doing the same. What CH's post points out in very stark clarity is the vastness of the differences that are found in various parts of the country - and which aknome seems not to be cluing in on. (That is my inclination as well, to jump the fence, but I know there are the other realities in other places. And 'don't' means don't.)

It's pretty hard to preach tag use ethics to someone who can take two (or maybe only one) per year while folks in some parts of Alaska, as aknome alluded to, can take over 1800 (caribou) per year.

Just which fence would you hop when there are multiple possibilities leading to different ranches, end of light is rapidly approaching and you've lost the trail and don't know which fence the cow jumped or even if it jumped any of them?

On one hand you're preaching your own form of ethics and suggesting I ignore others, such as respecting the rights of landowners, while willfully and blatantly breaking laws Colorado's big game and trespass laws? Glad You're not my lawyer.

aknome,

Apparently I was wrong. You don't "think" anything about this subject, and your reading comprehension is lacking as well., Where did CH say he was going to try to continue hunting to fill BOTH his elk tags?

He had another elk tag, and was going to continuing hunting to try to fill the other tag. This is the same thing you say you'd do when trying to kill five legal caribou per day: You wouldn't quit because you wounded and lost the first, but you wouldn't shoot five more.

For the record, taking two elk was never in the cards - my goal was always one down and done. Meat that doesn't fit in the two refrigerator-freezers and chest freezer I already have typically goes to Denver Rescue Mission, who requires professionally processing of neat donation. Given that a single elk would have overflowed the freezer space we had available, the best case with a second elk is I would have had to pay processing fees for meat that would all be given away. To keep it I would have had the additional expense of yet another freezer. Neither scenario was attractive.

The purpose of having two tags for different areas and overlapping seasons was to allow me to hunt longer if necessary, not to take two elk.

Let me get this straight - you hunt caribou with five tags in your pocket and would continue to hunt caribou, taking up to four, even if you lost the first one? At the same time you preach it is unethical for someone with two elk tags in their pocket to continue to hunt elk if they lose the first one?

No, you misunderstood me as I misunderstood you. We hunt to eat, and knock on wood, have never lost a big game animal. A normal hunt would be one to three caribou. (Fall ATV hunts are 65 miles off the road system and a week or so in duration) Winter hunts with snow machine are usually 4 to 6 caribou because of easier meat care.
My partner hunts with a bow and has three growing boys, so there are times that the freezers get low. I'm not saying we don't enjoy the sport aspect of it ,but the number one goal is meat.
Our situations are different, and I haven't hunted in the lower 48 in 30 some years.
I apologize if I offended you; I have watched thousands of caribou file by while I made sure a previous caribou was indeed on the ground and dead.
Bye the way, if you look back, I did no preaching. I misunderstood you; hence my comment of sketchy. Beef T bone steaks are $16.00 a pound here, burger $7.00 a pound. Game meat we bring home costs us $6.15 a gallon for gas, and thousands more in equipment to access the country. So we're pretty serious about the game.
Those of us living north of the Yukon river could legally shoot 1825 caribou a year; no tags, just a harvest ticket we fill out each year.