Sorry to hear about not recovering the elk.

The first deer my brother shot was a big fat doe. She was walking down a steep ditch quartering away, with a two blade broadhead. The arrow did not pass through and there were only a few drops of blood. He watched her go up a hill and marked where she walked/ran into another ditch.

She probably went 150-200 yards with only a few drops of blood. When we found her the arrow had taken one lung and clipped the heart, but she had so much fat, it had held the blood in the cavity.