Bull Elk are Tough!!

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Since the elk season has started I was thinking back on how tough bull elk really are. I have gutted/cleaned/processed many bulls with old bullets, broadheads etc.. still in them. I am never surprised anymore on what a bull can withstand. 

A few years ago, I thought I hit a bull perfectly, even had my buddy film him walking away with blood midbody right behind the shoulder, this bull proceeded to go over 3 miles. My first arrow was at 7:30 am and my last was at 6pm. It was the craziest thing I had experienced. 

Also a couple of years ago I was helping a friend and he made a perfect shot (see picture) this bull stayed alive for almost 8 hours before we were able to glass him up and then close the distance. This picture was taken literally 5 or 6 hours after the shot.  They are incredibly tough. 

Anyone else have stories or pictures showing the incredible will to live these bulls have, Post em up! congrats to all of those elk hunting. 

 

 

[chico]

Have to agree with you -- The will to stay alive in wild animals is very strong . 

Good job finding yours . 

[Zeke-BE]

Complete opposite.  I had a friend arrow a bull while it was quartered away from him.  Then the bull took a step forward.  Bull quartered away with a step forward that ends up putting your arrow in the a$$.  It ran 100 yards and crashed.  Lucky SOB hit the main artery and died within in a minute   

[firstcoueswas80]

Nothing like that, but the bull I killed last year took a 180 Hybrid from my 28 Nosler through the pump station and barely flinched. 

[GreyGhost85]

My only archery bull was a nightmare. I put a Montec in the "12 ring". Complete pass through, right at crease of shoulder, about 3" below center. He walked about 100 yards and laid down in the middle of a meadow and stayed there for about 2 hours. Got to his feet, walked over to a fence and jumped it. Could not believe what i was seeing. At that point i decided i needed to get another arrow in him. Snuck around and found him bedded a hundred yards or so from the fence he jumped, behind a dead log with his neck and head exposed looking at me. I took the only shot i had and put one through the neck. Complete pass through again. The bull hopped up and ran off like he wasn't hit. Gave it another hour or so and started following the blood trail, or lack there of. Found him bedded again, probably 200 yards from his last bed. Snuck in close, straight above him and put one right behind the shoulders, through the top of the spine. The broadhead stopped in his brisket. That shot anchored him by breaking his spine. After that shot, a HUGE amount of air was blowing out of his body and he deflated like a balloon. About 3 hours and a quarter mile he made it without lungs. When i gutted him, the first shot was dead center through both lungs but they didn't fill up with blood like they should. The air escaping from the holes in his lungs filled up his chest cavity like a balloon is why it all released after the last shot. He was a big, tough bull (374" if i remember correctly) but man, it was a rodeo getting him down. 

[More D]

My first bull, only really, had three different bullets in him when we worked him. I was amazed. 

[lancetkenyon]

I have found arrow stubs w. broadheads totally encased in scar tissue through vitals in bulls before.  Amazing they can survive that amount of trauma.

I also shot a deer a long time ago.  Shot was way too far back.  I knew it, so we let the deer lay up overnight.  The next morning, found that buck 100 yards stone dead.  Not a drop of blood on the outside, but broadhead had cut the femoral artery on the offside in the body cavity.  It bled out inside quickly.  

[AzDiamondHeat]

I told a story a year or so ago where I helped my buddy track his first elk for just over 6 miles. We were certain he winged it. After found it was confirmed to be a boiler room shot. This was a cow rifle hunt.

Conversely, Every bull elk I have been involved in taking has been shot with a bow with the furthest one traveling about a quarter mile.

I sometimes wonder if the shock of the bullet/gun gets their adrenaline going a bit more.

 

 

[GreyGhost85]

Here is that bull i referred to. Hate when people post a story without a photo. Don't want to be that guy. You can see the arrow from the last shot still lodged in the spine. i think this in 2008 or 2009 and i was 23 or 24 at the time. 1st and only Archery tag. That tall piece of grass growing up in front of the near side 3rd point still bugs me. Not sure why nobody told me to take my hat off either.....

 

[Hoss50]

I have not shot a bull, but both cows I have participated in taking were tough as heck.

First one was when I was about 15 years old. My dad and I were about 60 yards apart tucked in the trees. A cow elk walked up and didn't know we were there. My dad cracked her with a 300 Weatherby mag right in the vitals and she started running. He shot her again in the vitals, and she kept running, right into me. I hit her with a 338 Win Mag with a shot that was too far back, but she turned and ran back toward my dad. He cracked her 2 more times and she ran another 75 yards before she piled up. In hind sight we should have just let her run, but we didn't know any better. All 4 of my dads shots were good shots with 200gr Speer Grand Slams, and none exited. Mine passed through. She was running on pure adrenaline. When we gutted her the lungs and liver were literally just liquid in the chest cavity. Adrenaline is an amazing thing.

About 4 years ago I shot my last cow. I had a good shot at 260 yards broadside, and squeezed of a round from my 257 Weatherby. 115gr Berger HVLD. She didn't flinch a bit, and the 3 cows jogged about 25 yards from the sound of the shot. I was shocked because I had missed, or so I thought. She stopped quartering away from me and I shot again and they ran off, but right as they were getting out of sight I see her drop. We got up to the cow and she had 2 entry holes in her (1 in each side), and zero exit holes. We opened her up and the first shot had been a perfect double lung hit, and she made no move like she had been hit. The 2nd shot hit lung and lodged in her off side shoulder.

Elk are super tough. I am kind of thinking that breaking elk shoulders with a bigger round might be a better plan from now on though because I don't know how far she would have run with just my first shot, if I hadn't dropped her with the 2nd shot.

[trphyhntr]

my friend shot one in the face this weekend. at least it looked like it was in the face. decent blood for a minute then nothing 

[AZbowhntr]

Well I know if you shoot a bull in the back of the head they die pretty quickly.  My only archery bull hardly flinched when I shot him the first time.  Just stood there for a minute or so looking around.  He finally trotted off a ways and I decided to shoot him again but miss judged the distance.  Arrow hit him right smack in the back of the head.  The crazy thing is the arrow punched through his skull and lodged against his eye.  You can see the arrow sticking out the back of his head below his right ear.

 

[Couzer]

Toughest bull in 22 North

This is a late rifle bull from 22n I killed a few years back. If you look close you can see a arrow shaft and wackem broadhead. While gutting/cleaning this bulll as I was reaching into the chest cavity I thought I felt a broken rib. To my suprise there was this arrow shaft completely lodged in from side to side healed up. There was a baseball sized white mass healed up around the broadhead protecting the gut inside. This guy had this arrow lodged in him for some time!!!

[tomgobbler]

hsd a bull buggling his head off this morning chasing cows like nothing was wrong with him - my friends son snuck in on him and shot him at 44 yards . He had a little blood on his face thought he had took an antler tip while fighting - I boiled & cleaned the skull for him -a  swacker broadness has went in side of face -angled through sinus cavity lodged in the bone under the eye . Arrow shaft had snapped off even with the hide . Bull acted like nothing was wrong 

[trphyhntr]

1 hour ago, tomgobbler said:

hsd a bull buggling his head off this morning chasing cows like nothing was wrong with him - my friends son snuck in on him and shot him at 44 yards . He had a little blood on his face thought he had took an antler tip while fighting - I boiled & cleaned the skull for him -a  swacker broadness has went in side of face -angled through sinus cavity lodged in the bone under the eye . Arrow shaft had snapped off even with the hide . Bull acted like nothing was wrong 

Bro that's my friends elk I think lmao.