Coyote_Hunter: I may have missed this part of the post, but did you invalidate your cow tag once you realized you had lost the elk?
In my opinion that is the ethical thing to do when one loses an animal. After all, an elk hit hard enough to bleed pools and ribbons is no doubt dead, correct?
I would never pass judgement on the shot or your marksmanship, as it sounds as though you had plenty of practice and a good range finder. We have all lost game animals (or will at some point) and it is a painful experience.
Better luck next year!
You didn't miss it and no, I didn't invalidate the tag. I had a second cow tag as well, with an overlapping season. After losing the cow I focused on helping my son-in-law fill his tag, which he failed to do. Then I spent time filling my buck tag.
I did hunt the second tag a couple days but mostly it consisted of driving around and exploring Unit 3, an area I'm not very familiar with. The migration hadn't really started, which means elk were very scarce in Unit 3, and I only heard reports of a couple elk being taken there.
