Yup ... if they're still standing ... " I'm still shootin ".
There's too many options available for a wounded elk to escape into deep reprod cover (or be shot by another hunter), to allow an elk that is hit, but still standing and still in-sight to get a free pass. Even snow on the ground isn't a guarantee of an easy tracking job. Picking the right tracks out of the thirty or fourty sets of tracks where a herd may have fed and meandered around, is waaaay different than shooting/following one up in desert sage brush or solo on an open hillside.
If ya only hunt petting-zoo's, gathering-up your Elk may be easier, but I've spent a lifetime Elk hunting the steep, wet, slickery, timbered, snowy, foggy confusing canyons of N.E Oregon and once the decision was made to harvest this Spike, y'all did the right thing(s).
Now, as for the comical story about the capstan winch/line ... vs boning-out and packing the elk out on packboards .... I completely agree with Muley Stalker. On the previous weeks exploit with "Spike" (John), he could just look at a skinned-out elk quarter laying out on a log, visualize the bone(s) inside and with a few deft knife-cuts, we were soon launching completely trimmed elk leg-bones, over our shoulders, down into the canyon bottom <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />... like the best kilt-wearing Scotsman at a Highland Games ... tossing the camber.
... S.B.
He shoulders the leg bone .... approaches the line ... Nice toss ! ... 42 feet ..
