Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting To shoot or not to shoot?

What would you guys do? I was elk hunting some years ago working my way through the black timber when off to my right maybe 100 yards back in the thick stuff I hear several shots. Then a half minute or so later a cow elk comes hobbling along with her front left leg broken. Broadside at 30 yards, but I only have a bull tag in my pocket. Guys back at camp have cow tags, but I'm by myself right then. Do you shoot the cow and go find the guys who just shot it? Let it go for waste or wolf food? Or shoot it and go find one of your camp guys? I let it go, but it has gnawed on me for a while.

I would shoot... I WILL NOT let an animal suffer, even if it means I get a ticket. After killing the elk, I would go find the original shooter and give him/her the animal that i helped with. If I get a ticket, so be it...

Plus one on this. I wouldn't worry about the ticket but if I didn't shoot I'd worry about the elk for a very long time.

Here where I am, I'd kill it.
It's going to die a horrible death if it's leg is broken because of the wolves and bears, and if it dies quick that's better. I'd go find the shooters and tell them do the right thing. If they don't the bears and wolves still eat it.
I would still think the dead elk is better off dying instantly from my bullet then the alternative. Some wardens are not mindless bullies looking to give citations for any reason just or unjust, and I would just have to hope the one working that area is not stupid and badge heavy.

I wouldn't fault anyone for going in either direction. It's a good thing to put the animal out of it's misery, but it's also not something that was your responsibility and could have put you in a bind. You could have shot the cow and then found out that the other hunters filled their tag(s) and accidentally shot it. Then you'd be in the position of having to dress the animal to save the meat, stop your hunt, and contact the state game agency to avoid being charged with wanton waste. And bear the consequences of killing an animal you didn't have a tag for. All for something that was not your doing or responsibility.

And if you went to fetch your buddies in camp with cow tags, you'd be breaking the law in some states, including CO. Not a position I'd put myself in for someone else's mistake.

No shot here for many reasons.

First of all it breaks the law. In this case, multiple laws. I'm not breaking the law to clean up someone else's missed shot. I think you did the right thing.

Next, my buddies back at camp probably won't appreciate me filling their tag even with a mercy killing. If I had a cow tag, I would kill it and tag it. No question.

Injured game animals survive all the time. I've got a three-legged whitetail doe living behind my house that lost a good part of her right rear leg about three years ago. I started to kill her when it happened since we are allowed multiple doe tags but decided against it. It is difficult to watch her walk but she has fawns now and still avoids the coyotes. Granted, we don't have deep snow in the winters. (Interesting story about the doe. Either coyote bite or fence wound but her lower leg got real swollen and then one day it just fell off about 6" above her hoof.)

Game animals are injured/killed all year round and most people wouldn't ever consider shooting one in the off season.

For elk, I'll always be a non-resident hunter and I plan on following the state's regs to the letter so I can always go back next year.

I consider myself as compassionate as anyone else but this situation is not one where compassion outweighs the law.

As much as it pains me to say, I have to agree 100% with Smokepole. It doesn't pain me to agree with him, it pains me to have to watch a wounded animal walk away, especially when you hate the thought of an animal suffering needlessly. However, he's right about breaking the multiple laws. The wardens in CO don't seem to see things the same way I do when it comes to right and wrong and I wouldn't want to gamble on their kindness for something that I had no part in to begin with.

I'm not shooting it. I would probably try to go over and find the guy who fired the shot if they are close enough and I have an idea where the cow is headed and hopefully stops there. Let them know about what I saw and hopefully they try to follow up and recover the animal

A few years back, I had a similar situation in eastern Colorado....I was hunting antelope and leaving for another piece of property. Enroute, there was a wounded antelope inside the fence along the highway. I don't recall what tag I had that year, but it was for the opposite sex of the injured animal. Being along the highway helped me decide that I would not put down the animal, nor try to gain permission to access the property. I later asked a game warden and he said I was correct to pass it up. This part of Colorado is so rural, it would have probably taken the better part of the day, if then, to get a warden on site, especially on opening day of the season. Still bothers me to have left the animal with a significant wound and pain. If I had come across it on the property I had access to, and it wasn't just a couple hundred yards off the highway, in plain sight, I might have made a different decision.

I let a cow Elk walk once, she had a massive bloodstain on her side and all I had was a Deer tag.
I'll always regret doing that. Sometimes there's what is legal and and what is right.
I should have done the right.

Windfall: Three times in my 58 year long Hunting career I have had to end the suffering of a recently wounded and far fleeing wounded game animal (twice on Antelope and once on a Deer) by carefully shooting it and then TAGGING it myself!
I have not had occasion to end the suffering of an animal I did not have a valid tag for - but I would do it in an instant.
I have MORE RESPECT for the game I Hunt and have Hunted than to watch it pass by suffering from a high powered Rifle bullet irresponsibly placed into its body by a careless "hunter"!
I would gladly plead my case before a magistrate in this regard.
In addition to the three incidents I mentioned above where the wounded creature was wounded by unknown persons I have also put down several game animals including Elk, two types of Deer and again more Antelope that have been wounded by members of my Hunting parties.
Those put down wounded animals are then "tagged" by the original shooter.
LONG ago I learned to only shoot at any game animal when I have a dead rest and a certain shot - NO ultra long range banging away and no fast running shots at game for me!
By the way one of the Antelope I mentioned originally happened on a Hunt in central Wyoming after I had driven 1,300 miles from my home in western Washington - my jaw was tight because I had watched from over a mile away as two "road hunters" stopped on a county gravel road and "unloaded" their already loaded Rifles at a nice Antelope buck. The buck in question ran off humped up (gut shot) and quartered my way.
The "road hunters" in question drove off not even bothering to follow-up on their "shooting"!
It left a bad taste in my mouth but I cleaned up the mess the "road hunters" created and tagged the buck after humanely killing it an hour later. I knew the flesh would be tainted and it was but I also knew that fine game animals suffering was cut as short as I could make it!
Windfall, if I were you in that situation you described I would have put that Elk down, cleaned it, attempted to find the original shooter and if not successful at that I would have marked the location and contacted the game authorities giving them the location of the animals carcass so they could care for it.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Ida killed her. A pard wouldn't a been pissed, cow tag means meat.

Terrible dilemma for someone to be faced with.
Made worse by the fact that the decision must be made right now.
I would not fault anyone for going either way.

If it happened to me I would hope that I would realize how much trouble shooting it could possibly bring but visible suffering could tip the scale for me.

Many years ago I spotted a wounded elk while riding my horse trying to fill a deer tag. My elk tag and all of the elk tags in our hunting party were already filled. I searched for someone still out hunting to tell about it but it was the last day of the season and the area was pretty well cleared out.

While I'd hate to waste meat for sure, if I run across a badly wounded and suffering critter I can't carry out due to lack of a tag, I'm at least going to give it the mercy shot and end the suffering. Something will eat it. Anyone who argues against that, be they a game warden or another hunter, is simply wrong in my book. Sometimes the rules have to bend. I've finished off deer that were wounded and suffering, even out of season, and I'd do it again. I've also pulled over on the side of a 5 lane road to put a .45 in a poor broke-back dog that the car in front of me just ran over and left for dead. There were businesses all around and shooting was totally illegal, so I made it quick, put away my gun, and drove off quickly. I'd do that again too.

I let it walk because of the law and I am not a vet to tell how bad the wound is nor a fortune teller to know whether it lives with a wound or dies horribly from coyotes or wolves. No offense but haven't you ever shot an elk with a broadhead in it or a old bullet hole through the backstraps?

I will amend my previous statement to say that I'd shoot if the animal was in obviously bad shape and acting that way. A limp or bloodstains or such does not require a mercy shot. A missing jaw, visible gangrene, struggling to breathe or function, well that needs some mercy.

You're a better man than I. In Colorado (and other states I suspect) what you describe is called wanton waste of a big game animal and is one of the few wildlife violations that's a felony. So you'd be risking not only your ability to buy a hunting license in the future but also your ability to own firearms.

Not something I'd risk to solve a problem someone else created.

You could plead your case and maybe you wouldn't be charged. But I'm sure game wardens have heard that same reason used by someone who just shot a healthy animal and let it lay.

Thanks for the discussion guys. That cow wasn't just nicked, that leg was broken and dragging half way above its knee. Maybe that wasn't even the one that they had been shooting at and the bullet was a pass through from another one. I'll never know. I saw some of that shooting at elk up on the ridge when I was out there too. Elk in my experience don't just fall over like a bunny rabbit, they take a licking and keep on ticking. Another year I was walking back to camp through deep snow and saw a few drops of blood in the snow. Too bad I thought that some horse must have scraped himself on some brush. Not thinking too much about it I saw a couple more drops in the snow a little farther on. Then I realized that the "horse" track was actually cloven footed! Game on and a few hundred yards down into the black timber I walked up on a bedded 5x6 looking the other way. He had been just creased under the brisket.

Laws don't account for every situation. I can see either option as viable. It would gnaw at me for a long time for not shooting, especially if I thought I could get the original shooters to take it. If I did shoot it and could not reach them, I'd haul it out, contact a game warden and just tell them what happened straight up.

I faced a dilemma that I had a very difficult time walking away from, yet I did. Elk hunting, while driving to my spot, along the side of the road, saw a cow elk with her lower jaw shot off, only thing left was blood and bits of her tongue.

I had a valid cow tag in my pocket.

Several things prevented me from doing what IMHO would've been the right and just thing to do.

First is was private property. Second, property owner is a known hardass - rightfully protects his property and relishes catching violators/trespassers.

Third it was right next to the highway. And even though it made me physically sick to leave her to die that way-- I chose to stay legal and lawful.

I think about that elk and what a miserable way that would be to go. But I think about the fines/citations, potential hunting privileges lost, time, and money that mercy killing would have brought with it. It was a hard decision, and I had to take the emotion out of it.

It was in a later rifle season. Snow on the ground. You could see the blood caked on her whole front chest, and dripping with every step. I will never be able to wipe that visual from my mind. I still think about it almost every time I drive by that spot.

________________________________________

As far as putting down animals that have been wounded by other hunters - I think my personal count is nearing 9 or 10.

Last year I came upon an injured non-typical bull, not shot by anyone in my group. I had a legal tag in my pocket, and I put the bull down. It wasn't too long afterwards that the original hunter found me with the bull.

He came walking (almost running) up and proceeded to tell me that it was his bull. He shot it. I told him that its quite different to shoot an animal in the leg than to actually kill it. I could tell the elk was hit as it was limping before I shot it lethally.

He continued being a total prick, getting more and more agitated- thinking that I was going to challenge him for the bull.

I thought about it for only a second and told him that it was his bull. Then I said enjoy the pack out and started my hike back to the truck.

What an ungrateful azzhole he was. Made me question why I even bothered, imagine if he had been decent and started a conversation instead of trying to start a fight.

As far as I understand the law I could have rightfully claimed that elk. He wounded it. I killed it.

Just wasn't worth getting retaliated against by that azzhole (slashed truck tires- or even worse-- shot)

Also it was 4 miles from the truck. I would have put myself at risk for many of those pack trips out. No need watching my back side because some loony is pissed off and looking for revenge.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone else out there finding more and more wounded or lost game? I attribute it to the "long range" wannabe snipers that seem to be multiplying like cockroaches.

I hunt public ground and I have seen a big increase in the number of lost game animals in recent seasons. Last year during one rifle season I found 3 freshly dead/ lost elk. That doesn't include the wounded cow I saw running around, nor the bull that I finished off for the azzhole.

Wondering what your thoughts on this? You seeing more wounded game as well? or am I hunting too close to the long range practice facility for rednecks?