Frustrated Archery Elk Hunter Any advice, words of wisdom

[bojangles]

here's a story for ya. My buddy shot a bull a few years back, a good, old one. I went and looked with him, and we found nothing but blood for about a hundred hards and it dried up.

 

A few months later another buddy had a rifle tag for the same unit and shot the same bull, and cut his hand on the broadhead when he was dressing him. The broadhead was in the vitals, but the blood had coagulated around it, and healed over.

 

sometimes perfect isn't good enough.

 

but personally, i think you can't have you broadheads too sharp. and i think it may have played a factor in this story.

 

good luck, keep looking.

[elkaholic]

Sorry you lost a great bull!!

 

Always tough to lose a bull - if you will look at the anatomy of the elk there is actually a huge - none vital zone just behind the shoulder 3/4 way up.

 

these animals are "super" tough - clippin this or nippin that doesn't get the job done! That's not to say this bull didn't die eventually.

 

i've seen shots that I thought - Noway that hit anythin vital - i was wrong obviously - elk was dead

 

I wrote about the impossible shot - a few yrs back-

 

long story short - guy shot the elk archery said he made a great 50 yrd shot- we found elk - It was way after dark - we loaded it up - hauled it to camp- I couldn't see a wound hole !!??

 

we found the braodhead while butchering - it was embeded in the front brisket - it never penetrated the body cavity- he had cut the main artery in the neck - the bull never went 50 yrds .

 

How is this possible - i can't explain it but it happened .

 

 

Thats Hunting!

[elkhunter]

Sorry you lost a great bull!!

 

Always tough to lose a bull - if you will look at the anatomy of the elk there is actually a huge - none vital zone just behind the shoulder 3/4 way up.

 

these animals are "super" tough - clippin this or nippin that doesn't get the job done! That's not to say this bull didn't die eventually.

 

i've seen shots that I thought - Noway that hit anythin vital - i was wrong obviously - elk was dead

 

I wrote about the impossible shot - a few yrs back-

 

long story short - guy shot the elk archery said he made a great 50 yrd shot- we found elk - It was way after dark - we loaded it up - hauled it to camp- I couldn't see a wound hole !!??

 

we found the braodhead while butchering - it was embeded in the front brisket - it never penetrated the body cavity- he had cut the main artery in the neck - the bull never went 50 yrds .

 

How is this possible - i can't explain it but it happened .

 

 

Thats Hunting!

 

http://www.google.com/search?q=elk+chest+cavity&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#biv=i|1;d|F1y62NG5e9EG7M:

 

I see tut big opening in the chest area, didn't know it was so big

[Alpinebullwinkle]

I have personally harvested 19 bulls and helped many others on both rifle and archery hunts. With archery particularly you can count on very little blood trail. Usually they bleed internally more than externally. Most of our archery kills we have had 300' or less of blood trail to work with. We have recovered many bulls that went over 1/2 mile and quite a few that traveled over 1/4 mile. Sometimes if you do not have the sound of the bull going down to get you in the vicinity you have to invision what is the path of least resistance you would take if you were wounded. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't unfortunately. A bull elk can go a lot farther after injured than you ever can imagine.

[CATERPILLAR]

keep looking maybe something will show up. losing one sucks, but it happens to alot of people. Elk are tough and can take alot to die some times, he may have made a mad dash and is just further away from where you think he could have made it.