When do you consider your tag punched?

[Indian Summer]

In reading Mikeha33's Shot Placement thread, other threads on shot distances, and of course my favorite, the frontal shot threads the question comes to mind: Life is never perfect. So when do you consider your tag to be filled? When you stick an arrow in an elk? When you know that even though you did not find the elk that the shot was most likely fatal? Or only when you actually recover the animal?

Tags aren't cheap. It's 365 days until the next season. Vacation time is priceless. Say it's day 1 of your hunt and you make a shot on an elk and it doesn't tip over in sight. What are your thoughts???

[Gypsumreaper]

Shot placement is huge, last year I hit an elk in the top of the back through the back straps I chased him for 4 days finally found him alive an with the herd, I kept after that herd but never got another shot, I kept asking myself if a 7 point stepped out will I shoot him, and luckily it never happened once I seen the bull alive and well, I wanted to shoot him but if another shot arose I may have take. It, but idk never had the opportunity. If my shot is better and I know is in a vital area my tag is punched,

[under H2O hunter]

I suspect that most won't answer this question honestly. But I will. I am there to hunt for meat. So my tag is punched when I recover my animal. If I stick an animal and it doesn't tip over in sight. I wait several hours before attempting my recovery. I shoot to kill and I do everything I possibly can to make all my kills quick and the recoveries as easy as possible. But the best laid plans don't always work out like they are suppose to. So I track my animals as best as I can. I will spend hours in one spot looking for that one drop of blood or track. If I come to a point that continuing on is not possible then I start to grid. If grid-ding doesn't help then I go back to hunting another animal.

[Drawnandpinned]

Being my first year bow hunting my tag is always filled when the 300wsm cracks ha I have been practicing with my bow everyday and hope to never put a bad shot on anything but I know things happen

[phall]

my tag is filled when my tag is on the animal, but after the shot i will not hunt or shoot another animal until i have exhausted all possible efforts at tracking, trailing, or grid searching for the original animal i have shot.

[ishy]

When my tag is on the animal. I had never really thought about being done if you shoot one and not recover it until I heard Nugent got in trouble for wounding a bear in alaska and shot another, it's against the law there and he didn't realize it. I know some animals die after being hit, but some make it. I have seen a bullet lodged in a shoulder of a bull that was harvested in archery season a following season. A huge cyst formed around it and he was fine, didn't show any signs of being injured. Read another article about a husband and wife that found thier broadhead in a bull they shot the previous season and he was fine. My bear this year had taken one of those high and little far back shots before I got him and he was fine.
Courious to hear everyones take on this like I said I never thought about it much. Interesting topic.

[Indian Summer]

Let me add a little twist to the question: Things happen. We all know that. Twigs appear that weren't in focus before. Animals turn or jump string.

But let's say you took a shot that you know had been debated here and elsewhere before. The distance was a little longer than you knew you were 100% confident with. maybe the shot angle was too much. I have debated the frontal shot. So now the question comes to your mind "Maybe I should have waited for a better opportunity?" That means that we bear a little more responsibility for the unfortunate outcome. Do you punch the tag? Do you so ok I shouldn't have done that and resolved to only take quality shots from then on out but keep hunting?

As you would imagine as an outfitter I have had many clients ask me what my wound policy is. It was always a tough question because on one hand you didn't want to give unprepared or unethical hunters permission to fling as many arrows as it takes to kill and find a bull. on the other hand you didn't want to be over reactive to a perfectly nice and caring hunter who did everything to prepare and just had some unfortunate incident cause the point of impact to be less than ideal. For me the true answer was it is a case by case scenario. One thing is for sure I always made sure we did everything humanly possible to follow up looking for the elk. That meant at least 2 days. After learned all about the situation when and where the shot was taken, then I saw how the hunter felt and how much effort they were willing to put forth to finding the animal then I'd make the call.

[poisonarrow]

In Colorado it is not legal to use a dog to track wounded animals. I have wondered why not? If the dog is trained to blood track, it seems it would be a huge service to the hunting community to use him to recover the animal or to confirm that the animal is in good enough shape to survive.

[Swede]

I try to be careful about all of my shots. I won't attempt one with a significant risk, but I punch my tag when I am standing over the animal.

[Trophyhill]

I consider my tag punched when I see the elk dead.

[Stick]

When it is filled out and properly placed on the animal.
I have been fortunate to never have wounded an elk. The first elk I ever killed though was because a guy had shot him and although it wasn't a killing shot he had not spent the proper time or effort to locate the animal. I made him take me back to the site and did my own looking. Jumped the bull within 200 yrds and then killed him. As already stated these animals deserve the best efforts you can give to make sure they are recovered and exhausting every possibility to get it done!

[Steve G]

Like the rest, in my opinion a tag is punched when its on an animal.

There are times when hunters make mistakes, when they are not made out of carelessness or disregard for the animal, that person has an opportunity to learn from it, and I would say guess that sucha a hunter will certainly have a hightened awareness and become more conservative because we do care for the animals. I would not hope for such a person to punch the tag and call it a day. Proceed with additional caaution.

Its the guy who feels no remorse for a harmful careless act that you wish would punch his tag and call it a trip. Unfortunantely he's the guy who wouldn't think of it and is off after a new target after a minimal search for the first animal.

[Indian Summer]

As already stated these animals deserve the best efforts you can give to make sure they are recovered and exhausting every possibility to get it done!

OK next question: You have 7 days to hunt. How long do you consider a reasonable effort is?

[Gselkhunter]

As already stated these animals deserve the best efforts you can give to make sure they are recovered and exhausting every possibility to get it done!

OK next question: You have 7 days to hunt. How long do you consider a reasonable effort is?

It wasn't a 7 day hunt and it wasn't an elk. I hit a ewe back in the ham when she jumped before the shot. Nothing I could do about that, she moved as I released and I don't know why she moved. Once I hit her I knew it was my responsibility to finish the job. What in sued was 3 days of hell tracking a wounded sheep that could still climb rock better than I on 3 legs. Long story short, she ended up on private property and I was forced to get the aid of the DOW. They had intentions of putting her down but when they saw her they didn't. They wanted to see how she would heal. She did well, sheep dropped a lamb the next spring and lived 5 more years after that.
Point of the story, the DOW didn't consider my tag punched and I killed another ewe the next weekend.

[foxvalley]

As already stated these animals deserve the best efforts you can give to make sure they are recovered and exhausting every possibility to get it done!

OK next question: You have 7 days to hunt. How long do you consider a reasonable effort is?

That depends on where the animal was hit, ie,if you saw where the arrow hit,and if you can determine if that hit was superficial, or leathal. Any animal hit in the guts is a dead animal,period, and you should spend the rest of your hunt looking,or smelling, cause there is no question. Also, hitting only one lung,great chance this animal is dead,but could go much farther.This is your animal,even when all the meat is spoiled, you should tag the rack.A cow,well nothing to take out,your call.
A wounded elk is a wounded elk, reguardless of the position of the animal when shot,and is a judgement call by the hunter weather that shot should be taken or not.
Talking about animals that I have wounded is an extemely personal,gutwrenching thing that I really don't care to talk about,to anyone,but if someone can learn something,and it helps them find an animal,ok.
I hit an elk last year,broadside, low in the chest, about 3 inches up into it,just below the heart erea.I knew I missed the heart, but there was a chance that I might have hit the sack that envelopes the heart. After the shot, he went uphill,and only bled for about 75 yds.before the blood stopped altogether.
This happened the first 3 hours of the first day,even before I had a chance to eat my first candybar of the hunt.All indications where that it was superficial,but there was that slight possibility of nicking that heart sack,which would have eventually killed him,so I spent the next 2 days looking, and the next 6 days,"smelling for him",of which I came up blank.A dead elk, after a couple days,really stinks,and you can use this to your advantage by playing the thermals,and is extremly effective at finding an animal when you know it's dead and all other efforts failed.

[phall]

you search until you have exhausted all efforts... then come back the next day to search again... after that im hunting again with the possibility of finding/smelling it later, if found later and im positive its the game i shot i tag it. as others have said it depends on where the animal was hit too. and with saying that i sure wish colorado would allow lighted nocks in order to better see where the arrow hit the animal, in order to better decide when to track ete etc

[ishy]

+1 for lighted knocks in Idaho, I think they would make a huge difference in planning tracking. I have been carrying a camera and even in slow motion often it can be tough to pin point the exact spot of impact. With lighted knocks I think you'll see that impact point with the naked eye.

[foxvalley]

x2 for lighted nocks,knowing exactly where you hit can make all the difference in finding your animal,especially the time allowed for the animal to die before you start looking.

[Indian Summer]

I consider my tag punched when I see the elk dead.

Since something similar to this has been the answer for a few I'll ask yet another question:

A very common way to find dead animals is by letting the birds, most often ravens, lead you to them. But by then the meat has gone bad. So what if you do find your elk and it is in fact good and dead but not salvageable? What if it's a cow too and there's not even a set of antlers to show for your efforts.

To punch or not to punch?

[Trophyhill]

I consider my tag punched when I see the elk dead.

Since something similar to this has been the answer for a few I'll ask yet another question:

A very common way to find dead animals is by letting the birds, most often ravens, lead you to them. But by then the meat has gone bad. So what if you do find your elk and it is in fact good and dead but not salvageable? What if it's a cow too and there's not even a set of antlers to show for your efforts.

To punch or not to punch?

Damn it Joe! Somehow I knew you'd get back to me on this one the short answer is to make sure it never gets to that point but as you said earlier things happen, branches jump out into the path of an arrow, the animal takes a step etc. the right thing to do would be to notch the tag. The one thing we can do to circumvent this is to take and make great shots. I have had 2 deflections in the elkwoods. 1 when the arrow struck a branch and ricocheted into the tree tops (I wanted that opening day cow) and another hit something and shot into the dirt at a big bulls feet. I felt sorry for myself on both occasions but at the same time thankful that I didn't cause a slow agonizing death and lost animal. Here's to hoping no one here knows that feeling this year!

[Indian Summer]

Ha ha... not directed at you at all. Just used the quote to save some typing. I thought it was an interesting question and scenario.

I agree let's hope it doesn't happen. And let's do our best to avoid it right.

[Trophyhill]

Ha ha... not directed at you at all. Just used the quote to save some typing. I thought it was an interesting question and scenario.

I agree let's hope it doesn't happen. And let's do our best to avoid it right.

Right you are

[_rj_]

my tag is filled when my tag is on the animal, but after the shot i will not hunt or shoot another animal until i have exhausted all possible efforts at tracking, trailing, or grid searching for the original animal i have shot.

Exactly this.

[Wapiti]

Once I decide to release that string and the arrow hits flesh my tag is punched ! It is up to me to make sure of my shot and then track and retrieve my trophy. If for some reason ( and yes it has happened ) I fail to put my hands to antler out of respect for my quarry I consider my tag punched !

The biggest bull I have ever called in and shot ( 5 yard shot broadside very slight quartering too me... shot the crease 1/3 way up !! ) I never found him and that haunts me to this day !! I searched for 7 days to no avail. I had no problem punching my tag then and still wouldn't today. I feel in my heart it was the correct thing to do and have lived with it for 20 years and I'm still good with it.

Travis