Gut shot elk will run a little ways then lie down, but they don't just die right away. They sit there and suffer for some time then die. I have only gut shot elk twice. One time was about a 320 yard shot in the desert with a 7mm mag and the wind made my bullet drift just a little farther than I had expected, and I caught it a little far back. I hit it on the run after that shot and it laid down to die and I put one more bullet in it to dispatch it as quickly as possible. The other time I was shooting a new 30-06 for the first time ever that I thought was perfectly zeroed in. I was too busy to sight-in myself, so I had my friend, an ex marine sniper trainer, to do it instead. First shot the elk were right on the edge of the timber and I swore my shot was right on the money, but the elk dissapeared into the trees. Followed a sketchy blood trail and as it turned out I hit the elk right in the liver instead of the lungs. It had gone an bedded down maybe 200 yards away, and still had enough energy when I jumped it to run to the other side of the small draw, where I dropped it with a double lung shot. After the hunt I took my rifle back to the range and discovered that I could not get it to hold any kind of group even at the 100 yard target, and I'm still not sure what the deal is, because it is real messed up right now and doesn't see any hunting time. Moral of the story is, if you gut shoot an elk good enough, like say a liver shot, they do go and bed down, but they do not die right away like some may believe. It is still the hunter's duty to track the animal down and dispatch it ASAP.