This past weekend I was able to take my nephew on his first archery bull elk hunt. We had a lot of action on Saturday and he was able to arrow his first bull elk on Saturday evening.
The shot was 24 yards, but not perfectly broadside. He had a pass-through and we watched the bull for about five minutes before walking out of sight. He was hurt and hurt bad. We waited an hour before tracking and found the arrow right away. There was a good size pool of blood and lung material that the bull had coughed up. We figured we had given the bull enough time, and pursued the trial. After about 60 yards we bumped the bull.......we could not believe he was still alive.
We made the choice to head back to camp and return in the morning. It was not an easy choice, but one made easier by a thread that began here entitled "Leaving a Bull overnight" http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/34418-leaving-a-bull-overnight/
One of the things that really caught by attention that Coosefan said was "I'd rather lose some meat instead of the entire elk!"
We found that bull at sunrise the next morning. After a very short celebration (and a sigh of relief), we instantly rotated the bull placing the downside up. Next, we made the cut Coosfan had mentioned down the back of the neck to the tail to cool meat off. Gutted, skinned and quartered the bull on the ground and found that he hit one lung and hit the liver. The bull was filled with blood from internal bleeding. We got the bull to the butcher (Casey's actually) and did not loose any meat!
I wanted to thank all of those who posted on that thread giving advice, especially COOSEFAN. I believe we did the right thing and wanted to thank you guys for helping us be able to handle a tough situation correctly. Thanks again guys!