Shame you did not find him. Sounds like you put in a heck of an effort though thanks to your year round training. ( A good reminder again how important it is) Tough losing animals. I still remember a really nice whitetail buck I wounded with an arrow I never recovered over 30 years ago in Kansas.
Anyway, Hopefully hit was non lethal and sounds maybe hit a bit too far forward or high which is good for survivals a hit too far back . As you know elk are really tough animals. I think it is a good policy to share info like this on here. Good reminder to really concentrate when shooting and not give up when tracking.
You would think you would see crows, ravens in the area if he was down after a few days if was a lethal hit.
thanks for sharing
Originally Posted by mtwarden
Well bad news on the elk hunting front; yesterday left the house before 4, I hiked up to a high meadow where I was seeing some activity and made it to the very end of the meadow with about 15 minutes before shooting light
Just at shooting light I saw an elk walking and then a couple of more, one was a bull for sure (but you can kill a cow or bull here and I'm not picky); got down on my knee, rifle ready- about 8 cows/calves jogged through the opening (most of been a little updraft- had they stopped I would have drilled a cow), a lone bull was behind them about 75 yards or so, I willed him to stop and he did- roughly 250 yds, put the cross hairs on the center of the elk just behind the shoulder an touched the trigger. I could hear the bullet hit and he jumped a bit too; he was out of sight quickly due to a small rise, so no opportunity for a follow up shot.
I was elated and expected to see him piled up as I walked over the rise, he wasn't, but was convinced he wasn't far. I found his tracks but no blood- wtf? Followed them about 200 yds and then saw a few pin pricks of blood, not good. He started downhill and broke off from the cows. I gave him 20-25 minutes to settle down and started slowly tracking, a little blood here and there, but not much. He was angling downhill through some really thick stuff, I just kept a turtle's pace- stopping often to look/listen. Blood was very sporadic, but I had good tracking snow and was confident I'd get another shot at him. This continued for a mile or so; every so often there would be a bigger spot of blood, but he never bedded.
He stopped descending and starting side-hilling and then eventually started angling uphill. I figured he might want to get back with the cows. We hit a little creek, but didn't cross, turned parallel to the creek and headed up. At this juncture there was about a 100 yds of no blood whatsoever. I thought maybe he bumped me into another bull and I was possibly following the wrong one. I backtracked until a found a spot blood and then made sure there wasn't another bull that had broken off. At this point it started snowing, hard- straight down, no wind, more like a downpour. Tracks started to quickly fill in with snow. I was carefully brushing snow out looking for blood, but never saw another drop. There were now tracks going every which way and they all looked the same. I followed a couple of different sets, came back to the same spot and followed another set. The snow wasn't letting up and now there was no telling a fresh track from one two weeks old.
I made a pretty big circle in the general direction he was headed and then a couple of big figure 8's, hoping (just hope at that point) I'd bump him, but no such luck. There was a trail above me and I decided to walk it out a mile or so and then back to see if if anything had crossed. No luck and still the snow came down hard. I made a bigger circle yet, but was starting to run out of light and started the long haul back to my truck. I wept, not for me, but for the bull. It was one of the longest 3 mile walks of my life.
I was out early again this morning, hoping beyond hope that maybe he would be back in the meadow again. It had snowed more that night and appeared no elk had used the meadow, but was really impossible to say with certainty due to the snow. I went back to the last spot I knew he had been. Again I made a couple of loops, each bigger. I knew in my heart it was a lost cause.
I pray he ends up like other deer and elk that I've harvested, discovering an arrow or bullet from some time past.
I took this week off to hunt, but my tag is in now the trash.
I'll continue to pray for that elk.
Sorry for the long winded post, but felt like I had to get this off my chest- thanks.
