Argh! Bad shot,how long to wait?

[Navesgane]

After playing this bull for a few days I finally got a shot on him. It was about 15 yards and I thought I made a good one, maybe a little high but behind the shoulders. I listened to him run off and after about 30 mins began the tracking. Well...I started getting a bad feeling when I didn't see as much blood as I was expecting. I tracked his running/blood trail for about a half mile when I lost it in a creek. This was about 9:15 pm and I figured I would get back after it at first light. He ran almost straight downhill. Is it likely he hit the creek and followed it down as well? I never found the arrow and like I said, the blood trail was minimum although there.
Regardless, either way this turns out my archery tag is filled for the year...

[Indian Summer]

My first comment is that I hope people realize how tough elk are and that even good shot angles don't mean elk will flop over dead on the spot. So don't take shots at marginal angles or distances!

No, I don't think he followed the creek. Keep in a straight line with the direction he was heading. The good news is that from the creek it's all uphill so if he is hit hard he won't make it very far. You may end up just doing a grid search. Not much blood is common. Especially if it was hit high. Elk have thick hides, plenty of fat, & lots of thick blood absorbing hair.

Take a partner or two if you can, get back there and scour the entire area. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for ravens. Good luck and that's mighty respectable of you to consider your tag punched since you feel it was a fatal shot.

[Navesgane]

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Been at it for an hour and a half now, still can't tell what he did about halfway down this steep slope that goes to the creek. He was going down a hiking trail, then just bailed off down the slope. I looked both up and down the creek with no sign and the sides are very steep, too steep for him to want to travel on I think. In going to do a grid sweep down creek then up if no luck.

[jmez]

I doubt it is too steep for him to want to travel. Steep doesn't bother the elk much. From the way it sound look for the birds circling in another day or so.

[ferris bugler]

Are you sure he bailed downhill off the trail to the creek? If it was his last moment he may have gone uphill. I've had that before. Also, use your nose. If you think you have a strong rut smell of elk it might be him. I've found a couple that way after losing the blood trail. Good luck.

[Navesgane]

Went up and down the creek about about a thousand feet and did a grid sweep, nothing. The only track that I did see was going up the hiking trail on the other side of the creek. It was a large walking track but didn't see a spot of blood, and I find it hard to believe that he just went to a walk once he hit the bottom of the creek. If he did than he quit bleeding as I followed it for about a quarter mile before it turned to private land. For a while I was guessing and hoping that a merely grazed him that maybe he did stop bleeding as he didn't bleed much on his original track I followed, which i was following more of his running tracks than blood. I figured I would go back to the spot that I shot him in hopes I could find an intact and fairly clean arrow. I'd still be out there if I didn't have to work tonight.
This first season has definitely been an experience I'll never forget as I called in my first bull last week and got a shot on one this week. If I could give other newcomers to the sport a little advice from my lessons learned they would be to know your ranges of avenues- don't wait till the animal comes in to know its approximate range, know the distances of the trail that you assume it will come in on and range nearby markers such as trees- if its on this side of that tree it will be about x amount of yards, etc. This bull gave me no time or situation to range him when he came in and He was probably closer than what I thought.
Think I'll spend the rest of archery season eating humble pie, practicing shooting and calling and make a donation to the elk foundation, along with reading this forum more. Good luck to all those out there!

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[dreamhunter]

Good stuff and I appreciate your hunting ethics. I'm sorry you never found him.

[mjblowers]

I, too, appreciate the effort.

Take my summary story either as good/bad news for you. I shot a cow over the weekend. Gut shot. Didn't really know it at the time. Tracked her for 3 hours until midnight that night, heard her crash off as I finally called it quits.

Took at her in the morning, blood was dwindling, I was going 100 yards in between tiny spots. Finally found her - alive (I felt terrible) just sitting on a game trail, waiting to be finished off . If you don't nail them ---- like others have said... it could be a lonnnnnnnnng walk.

[TonyOI]

Jeff,

I am very much a rookie when it comes to elk. I have only had one experience with putting an arrow into one and tracking it after the shot and it sounds VERY much like the situation you have on your hands. Again I am no expert so take my story however you want. On the second to last day of Colorado archery last year I closed the distance from 400 yards to make a 40 yard shot on a 6x6 (it was incredibly awesome.) He was slightly quartered away and I hit him a little high. Blood loss for the first 150 yards or so was very good (I'm a former whitetail hunter, elk have alot more blood to lose.) I found my arrow about 150 to 200 yards down the blood trail and got about 10 inches of penetration, it looks like your arrow may have penetrated a little more considering how much was broken off. Not to mention that the broadhead may still be in the elk which means its rattling around and still cutting. Blood trail began to dwindle down from major splatters to a few drops here and there. Around 300 yards into the tracking I jumped the bull and heard him crash off in the distance. I decided to back out and give him more time. After lunch and a few hours later I got back on the blood with some reinforcements (true elk killers to the core). The bull bedded down and had a major pool of blood laying from the spot where I jumped him before. After he got up from the bed and me jumping him the blood took a major turn for the worse and had to go to old fashioned hoof tracking. Every now and then we saw a spot or two of blood. This bull too went to water and crossed over a creek and then no more blood was ever found and hoof tracking became even more difficult. We tracked this bull for a little over 17 hours after the shot and almost a mile according to the GPS. We called it a night around midnight and went back out the next day which was the last day of the season. Started doing a wide/grid search. There were no suspicious birds flying over to be seen at all and the season rapidly came to an end but that gut wrenching feeling in my stomach still lingered. It all started as an incredible adrenaline rush and ended with much grief and disappointment. My season was over with no meat in the freezer. Over the winter I started to put together a new idea of where I think the elk may bed and oddly enough the bull I shot was headed in that direction. Almost 7 months after I took that shot and after the snow melted I set back out in May to see if the bull I lost and truly thought about every single day after that hunt was laying on the slope where I had lost him. I started out on the last marker I made on my GPS and headed in the direction that I think they bed. Sure enough not even 150 yards from that last GPS marker I laid eyes on my bull. I have never ran up a slope so fast in my life. I knelled down next to the remains, said a quick prayer to thank the Lord for the closure I so longed for over 7 months, got pretty emotional, and felt much remorse for the animal that I was unable to put the meat to use. Some guys may bash me and say that I wasted this beautiful elk, believe me it was truly bitter sweet. But DO NOT give up on the chase. My time to recover the meat passed but even 7 months later the chase was still on my mind which is why I continued searching. I was able to see where the arrow went into his ribs and it looked like I caught his liver and a small piece of his lung. I read something that said an elk hit in the liver will go to water and could possibly take 24-48 hours to expire. After seeing where my arrow caught him I believe this was the case. Again I am not very experienced with elk but my situation seems to match the "facts" I read pretty darn close.

The point I'm trying to get across here is you still have time to find this elk. The arrow appears to have gotten some pretty good penetration. Yes it didn't lay dead 100 yards down the blood trail like we all would have desired but that doesn't mean it isn't laying dead somewhere. We managed to get within 150 yards of my elk but never saw it. Make dang sure you do EVERYTHING you can for your situation not to end up like mine. DO NOT let that little bit of doubt cloud your optimism. Remember how hard it was to get that bull in range? Apply that same determination to locating this elk that your arrow broke off in. Stay positive. Stay hard at it. And continue on that chase.

Best of Luck,

Tony

[Olydog09]

Good stuff Tony. And good on you OP for doing what you did in an ethical manner. Wounding/losing game is a humbling experience filled with a lot of grief. However if you havent had it happen you havent bow hunted very long and like the way you went about it. Good luck next year.

[Kevrod3]

Good Stuff man! Sorry, I've been where you are! Learning from mistakes and opportunities is life. You'll get em next time, until then keep your head up!

[Navesgane]

Thanks for all the replies.
I found him today. Nothing glorious to report, only regret in not looking harder.

[Indian Summer]

What! That's big news man! There's a huge difference between the closure of finding him than never getting to see or recover anything. Especially when you punched your tag like you did. Maybe that's why you found him? Yes you lost the meat and there's nothing you can do but learn from that. But wondering where exactly he ended up and never getting to wrap your hands around that rack sucks. When I saw you updated this thread I couldn't click on it fast enough. Congratulations.

Pics please?

[Navesgane]

Thanks Indian summer. I didn't take any pics, and it wouldn't of made for any good ones anyways, the wildlife was deeply vested in him. He was a decent 6x5. I only took some hair to tie some flies.

[ctdad]

I agree with Indian summer. You killed an elk and recovered it. That's a ten percent club. 90 percent of elk hunters are envious even if you didn't get the meat. You will next time

[Indian Summer]

Wow. If I found a bull killed I'd pack the rack out of there even if I had to shove Jolly Ranchers up my nostrils to block the odor while I cut it free. lol

Go back and quickly tie a rope to one horn and tie it off to a tree so nothing drags it off and go back next year for it..... cleaned and bleached.

[Navesgane]

The odor wasn't what deterred me. It was the feeling that they didn't belong to me. Just my own personal opinion and nothing against others who would of done differently. I felt like I had to leave him back to the earth as much as I could as I failed to do my part. It's the hippie in me I reckon.

[Lark Bunting]

How far away was he from where you stopped looking? How did you find him luck, tracked, ravens, etc?

[Navesgane]

How far away was he from where you stopped looking? How did you find him luck, tracked, ravens, etc?

He was way uphill from where he was headed which was originally down. I believe Indian summer and another poster suggested this but when I listened to him run off and tracked him all signed led down. I truly believe I never 'stopped looking' for him, I just went in the wrong direction(s).
I met some other hunters the next morning and gave them my phone number in case they happen to find him and got the call today about noon after I came home from looking this morning.

[zpd307]

my gut is wrenching with yours... I too shot my first ever bull just 5 days ago. the arrow hit high up above the heart and stopped on the opposite shoulder. I knew it wasn't a great shot but was convinced it was a lethal hit. I elected to go back to camp, an hour hike, and get my buddy. by the time we packed up our butchering gear and such, we were back to the impact spot 3 hours later. I shot him in a wallow the area was very marshy, so it took a while to find where exactly he went, I could only see him for 30 yards when he ran off. I finally found a spot of blood about 60 yards from the impact spot after another hour of looking. the blood trail was very spotty and the going was slow. but, it did get better and blood was starting to spray and smear over small pines as he went through them. after around a 100 yards of blood trail, he stopped and pooped and then bedded down on a trail. he was no longer there. the was a decent pool of blood and a weird blood mark with dirt and pine needles on a down fall next to it. after the bedding spot we only found 2 more small spots of blood and another weird spot of dirty particle blood on a higher down fall. as we were expanding our perimeter to hopefully find some more blood, my buddy said he heard something get up and run off about 60 yards ahead. a couple minutes later he said that he heard it again not far from the first sound. we backed off figuring that it was my bull since the area was not a bedding area and the thermals were blowing up in his direction the entire time and a healthy elk would have slipped out sooner. at this time it had been 6 hours since I had shot the bull..... we went back the next day, after a very anguishing night..... we went to where we heard the animal and found the spot where he had bedded down the second time. again he had pooped. there was not much blood in his bed, in fact there was only a smearing of blood on the down fall that he was resting against and another weird smearing of dirty particle blood on the same log about 2 feet where the shot blood was. then it dawned on me that the dirty blood was from his mouth. he was bleeding from the mouth and was picking up debris in his blood soaked beard. so at least that I could confirm that I did hit some lung. both times that he bedded, he was hurting enough that he couldn't hold up his head. and the third spot that I saw the weird blood was that he was stopped at a higher up down fall, that he would have needed to jump over, and rested his head on it while looking back at us after he got up from his first bed..... we followed his tracks from his second bed and only came across on 2 more spots of blood and another pile of poop, from where we heard him take off a second time after we jumped him. after that, nothing more...... we followed likely travel trails in all directions for hours and found nothing. we finally decided to grid search in a likely travel route based on his direction and it ended up in the nastiest section on blow down that I have ever seen. some piles were taller than I am. there were only several trails the elk had made to get through it and I followed each one for a ways to find any sign that he had gone through. nothing..... after 2 grueling days I called it. I was ready to leave and head back for home, but decided to reboost morale back in town. we talked to a group of hunters who said that a bull whose hurt and jumped will walk until he dies. that didn't help.... but they also said to watch and listen for the birds. I we went back up and I hunted the area for the next 2 days, 4 total after I shot him, and wasn't lucky enough to hear the tell tale sounds of the birds. while I was back in the area, my buddy talked to 2 guys from Montana that had just came in to hunt the same area that I have been hunting. he advised them that we were leaving the next day and that we could have our camp. he told me later that he should have given them my info so that they could call me if they found my bull.... we left half a day early and never saw them again.... I would have made it worth their while to take his head off the mountain and to the nearby taxidermist for a European mount. sorry for the long post, but I had to get this off my chest. lesson learned, if in doubt wait it out. I am confident, now, that if I had waited until the next morning he would have expired in that first bed that we had found..... also, I too was surprised that he had enough left in him to continue heading up hill, with amount of blood lost and the fact that he had a arrow digging in his left shoulder....

[Indian Summer]

One thing I use as a rule when tracking elk is that when running after being shot most often they keep in a fairly straight line. Of course if they are hit really good they usually can't/won't go uphill. But they are tough as nails and the idea is to get as far away from the danger as quickly as possible so they may very well go uphill. Deer are craftier making turns and such. Elk may hook a little one way or the other but in general they keep heading they way they were in the first place. Keep in mind they are running on adrenaline at that point. Once they stop it's a different story. Then they may sidehill or turn down.