Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting The bull you could not recover....

In hindsight, what went wrong and what would you have done differently if you can do it all over again?

How did the track end?

I hope I never have to find out.

I’m batting 1000 but I’ll bet shot placement.

Shot a nice 5 point with only one horn just north of Yellowstone with my bow. Hit him a little too far back but lethal. He didn't know what was going on and the cows weren't spooked so I just watched him stand there confused. My buddy draws back and whistles one by his nose. Off to the races. Tracked him 400 yards or so and he snapped the arrow off on a rock and the blood stopped immediately. Looked and looked but never found him. I coulda killed my buddy. I think that bull would have just laid down and died. Sucks...

That’s justifiable homicide right there

Not mine, but I helped my brother track a bull probably for about 3 miles down to the tiniest speck of blood before we couldn't find anything else. He said his arrow didn't hit where it was aiming, or he misjudged the distance on a ~40yd shot. Turns out that between departure to the hunt and that morning his sights had somehow shifted (he confirmed back at camp after I left the next morning). So I guess the lesson is to check your sights at camp when you first arrive, if you can.

As a teen. Large bull elk, 25-06, extreme close range and it stood and allowed to give excellent shot presentation. Still it was a terrible affair with lots of blood lots of excitement. Yes it escaped us after looking that evening and the next day. Makes me sick and don't want to repeat it.

To me there is no difference in losing a cow or bull, you have still lost a big game animal and each one is a gift. This has been a hard one for my as I have been at this game for 60 years now, and a lot of elk has made it into the freezer. My first loss was a bull 4 or five years ago. An easy shot 200 yards and I was in a solid position using my pack as a rest. He was standing looking a me, when I hit him in the chest he immediately fell down. Than as about 40 other elk came out of the timber running by, he gained his legs and ran with them. I searched for him until dark, then again the next morning, to no avail. Last year I shot a cow elk twice, broadside with a muzzleloader ( 50 cal) at about 40 yards, while she stood there looking at the ground. While maneuvering for a third shot, I could see the blood on her side from the first two shots, she composed herself and once again ran over a ridge. The ground vegetation was so heavy that no blood was visible. I gridded for well over and hour as well as the next morning. As a group there have been a couple of more, one late in the evening that went the opposite way the shooter had thought and was found the next morning. Probably a couple more but they escape my recollection.We all practice several months a year and are very good, calm shooters.

I have never lost an elk that was shot by me or by any of the friends or clients I was hunting with or guiding.
BUT I have had about a dozen horror stories of elk I have tracked down that I was afraid I was going to loose after they were shot. My longest tracking job was in Idaho and my client shot a bull at about 8:AM and I caught up to it and we finished killing it at last light. We gutted it by flashlight.

So I have been lucky and I have not ever lost one.

If the readers here have read a lot of my posts it's obvious that I am very fanatical about bullet construction, especially for elk hunting. I have over 1/2 a century of elk hunts behind me and I base my opinions on a LOT of experience. Having hunting and guided for them in 7 different states and been involved with many more kills than I have done myself because I have been a guide in my years of hunting as well as hunting for myself and my family. I have killed enough myself that I can't count them accurately now and I have seen about 7X more kills than I have killed personally. I have seen and done long tacking jobs many times. Admittedly the 1st cause of long tracking jobs is bad shot placement, but the 2nd factor that has led me and my hunters and other guides into the kind of hunts we don't want to be involved with is bullets that don't hold together or pernitrate well and straight.

I would rather have a hunter show up with a 243 or 25-06 loaded with very good bullets (Partitions, expanding solids or bonded bullets ) then one show up with a 7MM Mag or 300 mag with ANY bullet that will break up badly. In fact it's noteworthy to me how many of the hunters I have taken out that have an older gun shooting older types of bullets that are simply 'slow' by todays standards, and how well they have done. Men and a few women that came to elk camps with 45-70s, 348 Winchesters 8X57 Mausers and 300 Savages never seem to shoot any elk and have them run off. Many shoot old fashioned bullets that are on the heavier side for the caliber, but are just old cup-and-core types and do fine, because those old guns don't shoot fast enough to break up the bullets. One such example is the 30-06 firing 220 grain bullets. Another is a 45-70 firing cast lead bullets.

Fast velocity can be is a good thing because it flattens the trajectory and minimizes wind deflections, but for elk hunting I have never seen those 2 factors become very important in about 99.5% of the shots taken in the real world. They don't hurt anything, but in reality for elk hunting they are not really a lot of help either. Some hunters fire at ranges that make those 2 factors important, but in 54 years of elk hunts I have never, ever, even one time seen a reason to shoot that far at an unwounded elk. Not even once. What does cause problems is a bullet that works perfectly at impact speeds around 1900 FPS but hits the elk at 2900 FPS. A hot magnum shoots plenty flat enough with a flat based Partition (or even some of the older RN bullets) to kill any elk at any realistic range and going to some "VLD" because you "might" have to shoot at 700+ yards is not realistic. Your "might" have to----- but in 399 out of 400 kills you WILL shoot at 350 or under. (unless you are just trying to shoot long range to brag about it or prove to yourself you can) SO WHY SET UP FOR THE 1/4 OF 1 PERCENT POSSIBILITY, AND IGNOR THE 99.5% PROBABALITY?

I have never had to track any elk I have shot more then about 40 yards.

In so many kills I am un sure of the exact total, but it's close to 100. The longest kill I ever made myself in over 1/2 a century of elk killing was just a bit over 400 yards. That's my LONGEST shot! In fact, if I were to place a number of 100 kills (just as an illustration) on my personal tally I can count the kills I have made over 250 yards on my fingers and come up with a few spare fingers.

Others may disagree.
Yet I have never talked to a single man who disagrees with me that has as much experience as I do. Once the kill count seems to get into the hundreds every one I know that has such experience has come up with the same conclusions.

It you shoot carefully, shoot a good tough expanding bullet that holds together, and keep a cool head you will not have many (and probably not ANY) lost elk.

sorry to hear this but not all hunts end in success,

I pick my shots and have passed on some iffy ones. I've never shot at an elk that I didn't bring home. I really hate the idea of wounding an animal. I did it twice on deer when I was younger and decided that I'd only take sure shots from then on.

The only elk I failed to recover was a young bull. He was moving around behind some trees and finally gave me a shot with just his front shoulders exposed. I was trying to stay off the trees so held center of the shoulder. He was within my comfortable range and I was prone and calm. I had killed a lot of game with that rifle at ranges that far and farther and was confident I could put one right through the shoulders and put him on the ground. 300 Win Mag with a 180 TTSX. At the shot he stumbled, hit the ground and then got up and took off with about 15-20 others.

The ground was dry but we marked the spot, did a search all over where he was last seen and down the mountain where the herd ran. We ran out of daylight with no blood, hair, single track leaving the group, etc. Came back the next day with more guys and OnX and laid out of grid pattern. It snowed overnight so any chance of blood from the previous day was nill. Swept the whole side of the mountain with no elk found.

Still makes me sick.

Too high? Too far forward? Dunno...but I do know it sucks to lose one especially when you know they were hit hard enough to come off their feet. The cows he was with were antsy but not real jittery. I should have waited for the vitals to be fully exposed. Woulda-coulda-shoulda. My only comfort is that I have dug enough old hardware (bullets and broadheads) out of elk that there is a chance he made it.

Never lost one, but I did have to track one five miles over the damndest country you can imagine. Finished him after 8 hours tracking in what hollywood calls a box canyon. 3 days, 11 people, two pickups, and two horses later, we got him out....

Slightly off topic, but a couple of guys that I know in PENN helped an out of state hunter try to find a wounded black bear in some of the most miserable PENN weather you can imagine. Snow that turned to rain, and everything turned to slush. They never found it and the hunter felt horrible over the whole ordeal.

John, you won’t have this problem this October

Thanks Hank. Trying to learn from mistakes!

I have read that the failure to recover wounded elk in Colorado may be as high as 25% on public land. Very few tag holders have a clue about how to track a wounded animal, at least that's my experience.

I’ve had some rodeo’s, not mine, but others.

Nuff, said…

🦫

I wish I could say every elk I’ve ever tracked ended in a recovery. Had a hunter hit a muzzleloader bull last year at 150ish broadside standing. I thought the shot was good. Bull humped up and was carrying the off side leg as he limped uphill. He was trying to reload and couldn’t get another shot off before he hit the trees. I decided to give him 30 minutes before we headed over. I thought we’d be looking for a dead bull. Getting to where he was standing there was blood but not buckets. Pretty easy to follow. Until we hit his first maybe 150 yards from the hit. There was very little blood in the bed and tuft of grass seemed to soak up what there was. I crawled around for an hour trying to pick his trail out from his bed. Could not find a speck. We were close to my house so I decided to hike out and go grab my dogs. They’ve recovered coyotes but I had never had them on game. I made it very clear to the hunter to sit his butt down and not try to do anything on his own. I got back with my blue Lacy and my Decker terrier. I put them on the trail at the hit and they followed it to the bed. From the bed they were running head up and I just did not trust that they were on the right track. I had also called in more help. I kept calling them back to the bed and would hunt them up and they seemed to be following the same track. I told my help we had to find something to confirm the track. We finally found a speck and isolated his track. I let the dogs do their thing and we went up and over a ridge. As we got close to the bottom the dogs started acting birdy. It was pretty thick and at about ten yards they started baying the bull. I grabbed the hunter and was telling him to shoot. The dogs were baying and the bull was getting nervous. He wouldn’t shoot. As soon as the bull made eye contact with us he ran over the top of the dogs and we never got a shot. The hunter was an ex LEO and said he just couldn’t force himself to shoot with the dogs there. Not much I could say. It was his bull and I wouldn’t want a dead dog but we had him. The dogs didn’t follow him very far. The bull got in behind his herd from earlier and I could never get the dogs to start it again or find any blood even in his last bed. The only thing I can think of is the shot wasnt in the chest cavity. It must have been low or a brisket shot and just broke the off side leg. It’s sucks, just have to do everything you can to finish it.

If you draw blood and don’t recover do you notch your tag?

Probly depends if its archery or not

We have a wound policy. If it was deemed a non lethal hit they can keep hunting. If it was a likely lethal they have to hunt for that animal for for at least a full day of hunting. After that day they can continue hunting for that animal for the remainder of the hunt as part of the original hunt cost. After the full day of trying to recover the animal the hunter can take another animal for a hefty trophy fee. We still pay the ranches for every animal recovered or not. The trophy fee is elevated to discourage taking another animal. Most guys agree they’re done when an animal is lost.

" If you draw blood and don’t recover do you notch your tag?"

YUP every time .

I lost a buck once, shot him low in the front leg, totally my f-up. Probably survived, my season ended.




P

I’ll never shoot a bull head on with a bow again, doesn’t matter if it’s 5 yards or not

And yet there are bow hunters that would argue you into the ground that it’s lethal shot. Like you, that shot isn’t for me.

It's lethal IF you can hit that hole under the chin every time. It's not a real big hole.

Elk Anatomy is different from Deer anatomy.

I had a good string of horses and mules. When I did not get drawn, I would go with a neighbor to help butcher and pack out the animal. After a bad recovery and an almost fist fight on a dangerous recovery, I sat some rules for me and my mules to get involved with.

A. the guy with the tag had to go to the rifle range with the type of ammo he was going to hunt with at least three times prior to the hunt. It has never ceased to amaze me how a guy would show up with his rifle with a variety of brands and bullet weights with no clue what was going on with any of it. One guy showed up at the rifle range with his 30/06 7400 with Remington 55g Accelerators, and figured to use a Leatherman knife to butcher his elk. During those 3 sight in trips, we talked about skinning, care of meat and how to keep the meat till it got to the processor, etc. Details seemed to really piss some off, reality of dealing with the amount of meat, processing a dead game animal, their having to get their hands dirty, etc. Often, it came down to their lack of interest due to the fact that their wife did not eat, nor would cook any elk or deer meat. Another guy showed up at the rifle range with his 7 mag BAR with a coffee can of loose ammo of different brands, when I questioned him on type of bullets, etc, his response was, "We do not get into that kind of thing", meaning him and his brother. They were able to keep the shots in an 8" circle at 100 yards.

B. Anyone that just wanted to go to the range and verify zero the week before hunting season did not get the pleasure of my mules packing out their game, since I was working for free.

C. Anyone that figured that their rifle was still sighted in from last year, was asked to loose my phone number...I did not care who he was, how much money he made, DR or Lawyer, they could all kiss my Azz.

D. If the elk was hit, ran off down a deep canyon, I would wait at the top, holding the mules while they quartered up the animal and packed the animal to the top. I did have 300 feet of rope, with a couple of mules broke to harness that could pull the hind quarters part way up. We Indian Skinned all animals, quartering, back strap, boning the meat off the neck.

Another poster said that 25% of the people that shot an elk had no idea of how to track an animal. I have seen a few that did not even care to track, but opted to "go get another one"...a terrible thing to actually witness.

I bow shot one two years ago in NM. I was in a ground blind 30 yards from a waterhole. A decent 5x5 came in to drink, facing away from me. Even though I’d killed five elk with my bow, I was excited. As he turned to leave I took a quartering away shot that I think went into his arm pit, angling forward. We left him for three hours, then six of us took up the track. According to my sons gps we followed a sparse blood trail over a mile. We saw him going over a ridge with several other elk, and we lost the trail. I don’t know if it was a fatal shot.

One time, years ago, four excited guys in a truck came roaring up to me while I was in front of our house. They were tracking/chasing an elk one of them had wounded on a ranch next door and ran onto our land.

The driver told me he wasn’t required to ask my permission to proceed tracking it on my property, but was being courteous by letting me know.

I told them to go ahead, and told how to find the two track through our place. I was taken aback at his understanding of NM hunting rules.

Recently I found this in the NMGF website:

“ Anyone who wounds or may have wounded any big-game species must go to the place where the animal sustained the wound or may have sustained the wound and make a reasonable attempt to track and kill the animal. This requirement does not authorize trespass on private land. Call 1-800-432-4263 for assistance recovering a wounded animal that enters private land.”

What would happen after a call to this phone number?

Lost a 5x5 Roosevelt. He recovered but I didn't recover him. Lessons are pretty obvious from my story. He was walking slowly down a steep hill broadside at 125 yards at my shot, 180 Swift Aframe in 06. I aimed tight behind mid shoulder, and he stepped in a hole and lurched down as I shot. The bull dropped like a stone and rolled down the hill. Hmmm... he should not have dropped like that where I was aiming. But he was down.

I walked up to him. I didn't see a wound but he was unconcious. I considered a finisher but my cell phone buzzed from my partner above me asking which way the herd had gone. I stepped away from the bull to see up the hill better, and he got up and ran away.

An excellent tracker and I tracked the bull for 8 1/2 hours, covering a mile and a half. The only blood was smears on the under side of limbs, never a drop on the ground. No tracks in the Olympic Pennisula ground cover, minimal bent ferns. Blood indicated he was hit high at the back of the withers. We could have made the entire blood trail with a half cup of blood and an artist's brush. The bull rejoined his herd a few days later with a dirty, mussed patch high on his withers. We watched him off and on all winter.

It wasnt a bull, but a cow and it still puzzles me.
Still hunting through timber, 30-06 with I think 165 fusion (It was in college, I wasn't the bullet nut that I am now). Shot was less than 50, MAYBE 30 yards, 1/4ing away. No hair no blood at the shot sight, but we had a good idea of where she was going so we tried to cut her off, or ambush her as she got there.

We crossed the trail and found a fair amount of blood, probably 200 yards from the shot site, if memory serves.
Tracked it, never found her and ran out of light. It was the last day of the hunt. Called local Game and Fish (I had shadowed her for school for a couple months so knew her well.) Told her the story, she said "youre free to recover, but remember the hunt is over."
I responded with "Shelley, I will not let a wounded elk suffer. I will let you know what happens".

Never found the elk.

If I had to guess, I shot her too far back. Looking back, I should have put it at the base of her ear.

Arrowed a cow, waited 1/2 hr and then lost tracks and sign on a skid road. Spent all of the next day running out every possibility. Two weeks later encountered some other hunters in the same locale, and two weeks back to the day they'd had a cow fall over dead in front of their rig. Waited about 20 minutes and no one showed up, so they loaded her up. They were still hauling my arrow around and I at least got that back. Glad Mother Nature was not the consumer.


Seems to be the policy if one is using a guide in this neck of the woods. Draw blood and your hunt is over.

I lost a bull during Archery season. I called him to 20 yards shot thought it was perfect. But the arrow didn't hit where I was looking. I had hit a tiny branch in the sun that I did not see. The arrow hit back in his paunch. I left him for 5 hours. Had 5 guys searching for him. Lost all blood and tracks kept searching for a day and half. Ripped my tag up and went home. 3rd day a hunting partner found him by smell and birds. He was laying in some rocks under a downed tree. We had walked by that area several times. I was sick never lost another elk since.