Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Sick story re: loss of elk

Sometimes trying something will spook the elk to where you never find it again, vs letting it bleed out in the meantime...

Life has some tough decisions. I"m glad I only have to walk my shoes and not everyone elses too.

But then my wife is almost always along with me, and she carries a 44 mag or 10mm all the time.

Don't take a knife to a gunfight? How about taking a knife to a knife fight where the other guy outweighs you 4 to 1, is carrying 10 or 12 knives, and can kick hard enough to crush your skull?

Halfway through the post I'm thinking 50 cal round ball. It happens every day in ML season.

I found myself in a similar situation this year, but it was a yearling cow. She was taking a couple minutes to expire and I didnt want her to suffer. So I reached for my knife.....and thought no, I really should use this 357 I've been carrying for the past few days.....

In 2007 I took a cow out of a string at about 40 yards. We had been watching them for the better part of an hour as they worked their way towards us. While I was prepared for a 500 yard shot as they passed below us in the short grass, they surprised us and came straight at us. I couldn't get a clear shot at one until after they passed by, finally taking one at about 40 yards. Here is what I wrote at the time:

"Assuming a classic kneeling position I followed the lone cow with the scope, keeping the crosshairs behind her right front leg and a little under halfway up. Just before she stepped into a draw I squeezed the trigger and she went straight down. I chambered another round and when she got back to her feet I took a second shot. This time she dropped straight down and out of sight. Both shots were well placed and I was sure I would soon be field dressing my second elk of the year."

"What I didn�t know at the time was that when the cow dropped the second time she had gone over the edge and slid to the bottom of a steep, 50-foot slope."

"I was sure the cow was dead so I gave Dave my rifle and asked him to take it to the truck and bring my pack on his way back. Although the hills were fairly clear of snow the slope the cow had gone down was shaded and still snow covered. The snow had helped the cow slide to the bottom where she ended up in a tangle of small tree limbs that made her look something like a bull. I followed her path to the bottom and received a nasty surprise as I approached her. Although both shots would have been fatal by themselves and the cow was expiring, she was still very much alive. I, of course, no longer had my rifle. After assessing the situation for a bit I drew my knife, threw one leg over her neck and proceeded to slit her throat, all the while thinking �so much for a quick, clean kill�. "

Lesson learned - keep a firearm handy at least until you know the animal is dead..

Terminal ballistics of round balls sucked way back when then had nothing else just the same as today. With the bullets available now, I have a hard time imagining, why one would choose to use one (or three) on any hunt...

I shot a mule deer buck one time with my '06. I knocked him down and broke his back. I had one round left ( I had missed about 20 times before I saw this buck!) I was 16 at the time, peak of wrestling season and 10 feet tall and bullet-proof to boot. I grabbed the buck by the antlers to bulldog him down and he tossed me like I was a rag doll!

I jumped up and quickly used that last shot from my '06. That was my one lesson. I haven't tried that crap since!

dennis, that's funny...Exact same thing happened to me, only I WAS outta ammo. I stood on the downhill horn, grabbed the up one, and went to stab him thru the ribs(didn't wanna screw up the cape). He was kinda still thru all that, but as soon as the blade pricked him, he proceeded to kick my ever-lovin' azz. I figgered I could bonk him on the nose with a club and knock him out like a trapped coyote. Wrong-o.... Everytime I would run by and whack him, it would pizz him off and he'd try to get me again. Finally, his skull was turned to mush.... And I was damned tired. And beat-up....

A couple years ago my old outfitter was gored purty severely. He had doctor as a client that wounded a big ol' buck. They was a long way from the truck and he decided to let the buck 'help' himself to the truck. They each grabbed a horn, and proceeded off the mountain. By golly, that deer did kinda help them along, with all his struggling. But somewhere along the way, ol' Doc lost his grip. The buck was able to knock Tom down and thrashed his azz. Doc was able to stop the bleeding and stabilize him, until the life-flight helicopter whisked him to the hospital in Junction. Come real close to dying from the punctured lung.

My brother in laws dad was in a coma for weeks after being trampled by a muley he thought he could cut its throat. This to me is where my side arm comes in handy. I watched my dad try to shoot a spine shot spike at close range with a 300 WM. He had to shoot tree times before getting him behind the ear. I dropped a southern white tail with one shot. When I walked up he was still looking at me. I fired at his head and missed. Took two shots at close range to kill him. You won't see me wrestle any elk or deer. I'll just take old 10mm off my hip and get it over with.

Some years ago I read about a farmer in KS IIRC who made a pet out of a whitetail buck. When it was about 4 YO, he went outside one day and it took him. It just kept coming at him and all he could do was to hang on tight to the antlers. He had a farm pond nearby and over the next half hour, he was able to work the deer into the pond and get on top of it's head and drown it. When they got the guy to the hospital, they had to sew up over 70 holes.

A whitetail is far smaller than an elk and smaller than many mulies. I wouldn't want to tangle with any of them.

Well stuff like this happens more often than not, I know guys that will shoot there rifle once, then go hunting then put the rifle away wet or not till next year! Checking Zero is a religion with me, I check often during the season, just to make sure. My usual ammo load that I carry is a loaded rifle, either 4 or 5 depending on the cartridge and between 10 or 15 more in an ammo pouch, if I have a day or back pack then I will throw a full box into that! The game we hunt deserves that we at least can hit a grape fruit at 50 yards!

Lots of folks here with common sense.

A few with pontification.

Probably typical.

And I used to be the one to carry whats in the gun because I thought I'd never see the day.

Today I rarely set foot without a full box of ammo. And consider that could not get me to a dead animal just depending... ONE bad shot and a rodeo and shooting circus can ensue.

Jab the guy when he is down and has lost an elk, doing the very best he personally could/knew how to. He made a few decisions, and they may not have been the best, but its his deal, not ours. And he is still around and not in a hospital.

BTW I don't practice either... FWIW. But I can certianly hit a grapefruit, and alot further than 50 yards...with many weapons.

Just try and cut the nuts off a house cat.
THEN tell me how you're gonna wrestle an wounded elk

I had a dumbass knock on my door to see if I had any 257 Roberts bullets or if he could borrow a gun to finish what he started.

He had 2 loaded rounds when he left for the day to hunt. I went with him to finish off his buck.

Not only was he a dumbass for not having enough ammo to finish the job he started he actually shot the buck on my place. After the game warden was done with him he surely wished he hadn't stopped at my place.

Last year I took a nasty fall on some loose shale and landed on my scope. I shot it a couple times and it was right on...but just for the moment it turned out. The rear ring was damaged and it allowed the scope to move but you couldn't tell it by looking at it and it didn't wiggle by hand at all. A week later I shot an elk. I put it down but it was a bad hit, a foot to the left and 6" high at 150 yds. Luckily I spined it. She was down in some heavy brush and needed a kill shot. I got within 10 yds to shoot her in the neck. It took me 4 shots over a rest to hit her. I know guys who only carry 3 or 4 rounds with them. If I'd done that, I'd have had a problem.

That made me laugh.

My first and only antelope buck, in Colorado, and not even a very big one. After a really bad first hit, second shot a hole through both lungs you could see light through. Walked up, he was laying there bawling. Didn't want to shoot him again being so close, and will admit I didn't want to mess up the cape. Tried to stand on his neck and stab him in the heart..........surprise! I always thought they only had 4 hooves....all of a sudden he had about 47. I'll just shoot the next one again. Can't even imagine what a bull elk could do to you.

One of the guys I Elk hunt with shot a bull one afternoon right at last light. He came back to camp and said he had shot a bull and it dropped in its tracks deader then hell. So we packed up and went to cut it up and haul it in. We got to the bull and he was still alive no one had brought a gun just knives, packs and a hatchet. We finished the bull off with a hatchet. Wasnt a fun deal dont want to do it again. Always make sure they are dead and always have a gun with you.

I had an uncle, has since passed , walk up on a 80 whitetail doe that was wounded. He was a large strapping man ,6'5, 255 lber, afraid of nothing or no one..... As he stepped up to her ,she kicked his right foot about seven feet straight in the air. As he laid on the ground next to it, he gave her a one handed shot with his well worn .30-06. If a half grow doe can do this kind of damage a bull elk can be worse, I imagine something like a rodeo bronc , with large weapons attached to his head.
Now as for not being properly prepared to harvest animal..... You could write several books on the subject. Slitting throats and such are by now means necessary when you have a gun in your hands..... and if you are out of ammo, you have not planned properly.