Worst possible outcome

[Infamous]

Despite the thread title, I'll start by saying, I had an amazing month of hunting! I spent 5 out of the last 6 weekends in the field. Saw 5 elk, 2 mule deer, a snake, a badger, around a dozen turkeys, a bear, and heard 2 packs of wolves. All on my first ever hunt. A solo archery elk hunt.

With that said, I went through something that no one should. So here goes:

I went out this past weekend, the last weekend for archery in 31. I knew the rain would be moderate, and it was cooling way down. I woke up to rain, and as I was procrastinating because of the weather, I heard an engine getting closer. I kicked it into drive, and headed out a 7am. At around 7:30, just after sunup, I'm sneaking along and "CRACK". I look up and see a decent bodied raghorn. I kneel down and range him, 43.5. I cow call, he turns, and uninterested he keeps doing his thing when he turns his head away, I draw. He's perfect broadside, and standing still. With nerves high, and adrenaline pounding my heart, I steady and let loose. I hear what sounds like my arrow ricochet off 2 or 3 trees and he startles, but doesn't take off, just walks a bit. I cow call a bit more to keep him around. I thought he fell over, but he just walks off. So I'm sitting there thinking I missed, and go look for my arrow. I look for about 10 minutes and VOILA! I find PIDDLES of blood. I can barely contain myself. It's been about 20 minutes since the shot. I hear nothing so I figure I'll pop over the low ridge quietly and take a peek. There he is! Bedded down. I sit silently and watch him. All of a sudden, out of nowhere bear dogs come baying and running right toward my elk on the game trail above us. Crash crash crash he blasts through the brush and up out of the drainage. I can't believe it. So I wait a bit, and start tracking his blood. Which all but stopped from where they bumped him. Then goes to nothing. An hour and a half and I find blood again. I track it, it gets better, BOOM, gun shot. I make my way there because it's in the same direction as my blood. As I'm headed through the timber I hear " Hey"! I look down and 3 rifle bear hunters are 200 yards below me. 1 says be careful, we're hunting bears here. I tell him I'm tracking my elk, he says good luck. A mile later the blood disappears just before private corporation land, and I spend the rest of the day searching the area. Nothing. I'm so heart broken, I don't know what to do. I have no one to call, and even if I did, I'm 3.5 hours drive, and a 2 hour hike away. I end the day moping back to camp only to damn near get hit by the bear guy's truck flying down a closed, gated road.

I go over and over it in my head, and I feel horrible. But I can't find anything I could have done different. Other than my shot must not have been perfect, or he wouldn't have been able to keep going. The blood was bright red, and bubbly. Even some strange bright red chunks of what looked like lung tissue.

Sorry for the long drawn out story. But needed to vent.

[wawhitey]

did you contact the timber company and explain to them your situation to try to get permission to recover your bull? try it, and even if they say no, call a game warden and tell him whats going on. my guess is you can get your situation resolved, at least as far as being able tpo go track.

[wawhitey]

wild guess........... idaho?

[Infamous]

did you contact the timber company and explain to them your situation to try to get permission to recover your bull? try it, and even if they say no, call a game warden and tell him whats going on. my guess is you can get your situation resolved, at least as far as being able tpo go track.

It isn't a timber company. It's an California racing company. I tried to contact them preseason about the land but no luck. It was Saturday, and after f&g closed.

[Infamous]

wild guess........... idaho?

Yep

[Infamous]

I try telling myself that maybe it wasn't a fatal shot, that maybe he never went down. Despite the good blood, it only lasted about 50 yds before it dwindled to a drop here and there.
Regardless, I feel sh!tty. I try to tell myself that it's the dogs fault, but they had just as much right as me to be there.

1 thing is absolutely undeniable, nothing but family will ever be as great as elk hunting. Even though they were quiet where I was all month, I had encounters, saw a good amount of wildlife, and learned a huge amount. I will NOT be making the same mistakes next year.

[wawhitey]

How long ago did you wound the bull? If it was last couple days I would contact fish and game, if they can get you in there to search, even if the meat is wasted, finding the bull would give you peace of mind a little bit. I wounded (barely) a bull this year. first attempt at archery hunting, and never tagged an elk. i know the one i shot is okay, but still i know it sucks. get in touch with fish and game they may help

[Infamous]

How long ago did you wound the bull? If it was last couple days I would contact fish and game, if they can get you in there to search, even if the meat is wasted, finding the bull would give you peace of mind a little bit. I wounded (barely) a bull this year. first attempt at archery hunting, and never tagged an elk. i know the one i shot is okay, but still i know it sucks. get in touch with fish and game they may help

Thanks. I should have thought of that today. I wondered whether I should call them, like they would need to know because of numbers or something, but wasn't sure. The peace of mind would be great, because since I drove away I've felt the exact same as the moment I realized he was gone. And I was in good country. I saw 2 more while tracking blood. I could have gone back out but felt like it wasn't right. Like I couldn't make an attempt and possibly take one and feel good knowing there might be one down or injured because of me. Maybe that seems over emotional, but I'll tell you, I've never had such a crazy, awesome, wild bag of cats in my head emotional, (good and bad) other than with my family. I definitely will be making this a lifelong thing. And hope I never go through this again.

[wawhitey]

no its not ridiculous, or over emotional, i hung up my bow after my bad shot this year. i felt it was the right thing to do, for me personally. not saying others would have to in that situation, i just felt it was what i should do at that time. but if it was this week i would still try to contact idfg and try to get them to let you in there to look. better to pack out a head and no meat, and know what the outcome was, than to have it bugging you for the next 5 years. if this was recent enough you might get some help from scavenger birds, assuming the bull died

[Infamous]

Thanks

[zpd307]

thom, i know your pain....

[Infamous]

Yeah, it sucks.