Conundrum!

[Tigger]

You are on your archery elk hunt and all goes according to plan. Th big bull is standing at 20 yards and you watch as your arrow buries itself in his chest. The bull takes off but stops at about 35 yards and stands there. Do you shoot again? If you do, you risk him taking off and you will have to find him. If you don't he might take off anyway and you only have 1 arrow in him. Is the risk of him taking off worth the second arrow ???

[Elkhunttoo]

If he stops and stands I'm doing all I can to get a second shot with minimal movement. If I'm confident my first arrow was in The vitals I'm not in as big of a hurry to get the second shot off.

[Swede]

I will always take the second shot if I have one. Even if all I have is a shot at the hams. If I have one n the boiler room the elk is going to die. More bleeding will bring it down quicker. I placed five aluminum arrows in an elk one time. It just stood there until it tipped over and ruined all five arrows. A year or two before I shot one twice. It ran off, but Oly was on it and soon found the little 5X5. A friend shot a bull and watched it quiver for ten minutes then slowly walk off. We never found it, even though the hit he described sounded good. If they hang around standing, I'm shootin. If one is good, two is better.

[Roosiebull]

I will always "kill em' again" if I get the chance....I love getting a second good arrow in them.

[WapitiTalk1]

Guess I've had a few opportunities for a second arrow. One time for sure it was needed and I got that bull. Called a 5 point in for a guy one time and had told him to ALWAYS get a second arrow off/in if the situation allowed. He did but the problem was that he missed the first shot (he thought he connected) and the "second" shot was not in the vitals. That one didn't end well. So yes sir, if a hunter had the first arrow on target and has a second opportunity at a good angle, it's the way to go IMO. It sure can't hurt anything.

[Swede]

Th big bull is standing at 20 yards and you watch as your arrow buries itself in his chest.

RJ, why under these circumstances would you wait for a "good angle"? What if the elk runs off to 35 yards and is stopped giving you a rear only opportunity? There is one arrow in his boiler room buried deep right now. He is going to die. I am taking that second shot while he still stands. I want to increase the bleeding and get him to go down ASAP. If all I have is a gut shot, so be it. He will lay down very soon.
Now if we change the scenario and I have a marginal hit, or don't know what I hit, that is a different story. A follow up shot has to take into consideration that I could be just wounding a healthy animal. Not good.

[Roosiebull]

Th big bull is standing at 20 yards and you watch as your arrow buries itself in his chest.

RJ, why under these circumstances would you wait for a "good angle"? What if the elk runs off to 35 yards and is stopped giving you a rear only opportunity? There is one arrow in his boiler room buried deep right now. He is going to die. I am taking that second shot while he still stands. I want to increase the bleeding and get him to go down ASAP. If all I have is a gut shot, so be it. He will lay down very soon.
Now if we change the scenario and I have a marginal hit, or don't know what I hit, that is a different story. A follow up shot has to take into consideration that I could be just wounding a healthy animal. Not good.

I might be a little the opposite, if I get a marginal arrow in one, I will take any other shot I can get. (last year was such a scenario, easy shot, I somehow messed up and liver shot him, pushed for a second shot, got lucky, but it was a bad angle, 59yds, almost facing away, but that shot put him down quick after finding the lungs)

if my first shot is good, and I know it, I will take another good shot, but i'm not aiming at hams, I like eating them....a second arrow on a good first hit is just practice, I don't think they die faster.

I absolutely respect your angle on this, and you may be more right than me, just sharing my reasoning.

[Cbb]

I shot a whitetail years ago in the rut. He hunched up and just slowly walked off. Then he stopped at 45 and stood there. I put another in him. He took 2 jumps and died.

Nkw he probably would have done the same without the 2nd arrow, but why take a chance? If I get the opportunity to shoot the same elk with an insurance shot, then the 2nd arrow is flying. Arrows and broadheads are replacable.

[Tigger]

So pretty much everyone says shoot again. Being devil's advocate, what about this scenario:

If you do NOT shoot, the animal is calm and may wander off a little ways (or maybe not at all) and dies. Easy trail. Maybe he dies in your site. However, if you shoot again, he takes off like a scalded monkey leaving a difficult trial to follow and he goes full tilt until his last breath.

I am not advocating this, but thought I would throw it out. If the animal is dead on his feet, every second that he stands there shrinks the circle that he could die in.

Of course Saddlesore and Elknut probably have it figured out so that he runs TOWARD camp, thus saving the effort required to pack him out!

[Wyo67]

If he stops and stands I'm doing all I can to get a second shot with minimal movement. If I'm confident my first arrow was in The vitals I'm not in as big of a hurry to get the second shot off.

Same here. A second shot may cause him to take off as others have said, but IMO the benefits of having two arrows in the vitals outweigh the potential consequences. Keep shooting until it is down.

[saddlesore]

Although I am a rifle and muzzle loader hunter,I take a different tack. Many rifle hunters say keep shooting until they are down.
I never take a marginal shot and when I drop the hammer, I know it is dead on.That is a dead elk. Most of the time,elk will not dash off at the noise.They need to know where the noise came from before they do. I stay still and quite after the shot. I have killed elk in a small bunch and it isn't uncommon for the remainder of the elk to walk over and sniff the dead or dying elk.

Of course,reloading a front stuffer is not a quiet or motionless deal so the elk is going to figure it out real quick Plus there is seldom enough time.With a rifle,even racking the bolt and such gives the elk more noise to locate on. With a good double lung,the elk will dash off 35-60 yards and fall over. Most I shoot do not even know I am there and stand there until they die.

Once an elk detects you, it is amazing how much that adrenaline can drive it and put distance between you and it. Maybe times landing in a nasty patch of blow downs.

I would say, if you know it is good hit, a few cow calls to calm it down.The next is to pass on questionable shots.

[Swede]

if you know it is good hit, a few cow calls to calm it down.

After last season, I do not know that I can ever be that certain. My brother was standing next to me when I shot a nice buck at 30 yards. We both saw the hit and the fletching sticking out of the side of the critter. He congratulated me and we took a little break thinking the deer would be an easy find. Two days later we had found neither hide or hair of it.

[Wyo67]

So pretty much everyone says shoot again. Being devil's advocate, what about this scenario:

If you do NOT shoot, the animal is calm and may wander off a little ways (or maybe not at all) and dies. Easy trail. Maybe he dies in your site. However, if you shoot again, he takes off like a scalded monkey leaving a difficult trial to follow and he goes full tilt until his last breath.

I am not advocating this, but thought I would throw it out. If the animal is dead on his feet, every second that he stands there shrinks the circle that he could die in.

Of course Saddlesore and Elknut probably have it figured out so that he runs TOWARD camp, thus saving the effort required to pack him out!

With all assumptions that I have made a good shot, have a good shooting lane for a follow-up etc..., even if I see an obvious lethal wound (blood flowing out of the boiler room), I'm still flinging a second arrow. A good second arrow will shrink the circle you talk about even faster and create a second wound channel for blood trailing if needed. If I don't have a shot due to poor angle or whatever, I'm not taking it. Just cow call a little to try and calm him down.

For rifle - again depending on the shot (how'd he get within 20yds? ), I may wait a couple extra seconds to see what happens. I don't want to waste meat from blood shot quarters...

[Swede]

I think the rifle hunters including Wyo67 make a good point. I would not take a shot at the hams of an elk with a rifle either. A shot with an arrow is a different story. That would be a new experience. I would not expect to ruin any meat, but I am not positive.

[Lefty]

Ive been the type of guy, two shoots are better than one. Ive killed a lot of big game with two rifle shots before the game was on the ground, And both shots were right where they should have been.
My first elk hunt 24 years ago. I Being a new elk hunter and new to the west, I told my brothers-in-law I always take that 2nd shot even if I know the first was good. He made the comment he was surprised when he heard two quick shots and was surprised I could put to accurate shots into a moving bull.
The cow that Iarrowed was pumping blood out of the arrow hole, I slipped another arrow in beside the first. She still went 50 yards

But there may be times Where I may not make a 2nd rifle or arrow shot, the moment may dictate. But always ready for a second arrow or squeezing the trigger

[>>>---WW---->]

I'll take a second shot only if I feel it is needed and only if the angle is right to put it in the kill zone. For sure, NO Texas heart shots!

[Wahpeton]

They're not down until they're down. Keep shooting is my vote.

[N2mywake]

[quote="Tigger"]If you do NOT shoot, the animal is calm and may wander off a little ways (or maybe not at all) and dies. Easy trail. Maybe he dies in your site. However, if you shoot again, he takes off like a scalded monkey leaving a difficult trial to follow and he goes full tilt until his last breath.
quote]


I called in a massive 5x5 that my dad shot at around 20 yards with a crossbow in 2013, we celebrated and relived the moment, after about 15 min we decide to just look for the bolt, the bull was laying about 25 yards away down a small depression. We debated on what to do and didn't want to bump him. I decided to circle around below in case he tried to give us the slip but we felt he wouldn't get up. He did spook and get up I lost sight of him about 300 yards away, we searched for 4 days for that bull. The hunters in camp after us recovered him, we had walked within 25 yards of him no less than 10 times while searching. I kick myself to this day for not slipping an arrow into that bull.