ORIGINAL: mooseslayer3
went out the other day and one of my friends dad got a shot @ a nice 6 point bull elk. it was approx 200 - 250 yards away broadside standing still so the hunter took aim fired and the bull dropped in his tracks. so we thought perfect than all of a sudden the bull like starts crawling and than manages to get up than he shoots at it 1 more time. later we went to look for the elk thinking its not far but boy we were in for a suprise. from were it was shot to the next 300 yards was a blood trail that u couldnt miss it was a very large one than all of a sudden he stops blowing the blood out and the only blood we can see is were it is being wiped off on the branches. we followed that elk blood trail for a solid kilometer according to the gps and still couldnt find him. no doubt he is probly gona die its just sad cause its was such a nice animal and now we cant find it.also were do u guys think the first shot hit maybe gut or something cause if u shoot a elk in the chest with a 300 winchester it dosent run a kilometer and more it just really puzzling cause he dropped in his track but its all over with now it just makes a guy think what went wrong.
From my experience that could be a gut shot. A disappearing blood trail often times means a gut shot because stomach contentsor intestinal matter will alot of time end up partially or totally plugging up the entrance wound. Clues on the ground at the place the elk was hit may have been able to tellyou if it was a gut shot or not. There may have been stomach contents etc on the ground, the color of the blood etc etc.
Really he could have been hit anywhere....blood trails are ephemeral and fickle things and aren't always a good indicator of where the hit was. Also, even a solid shot with a .300 doesn't gaurantee the animal won't run.
Did you spiral out from the end of the blood trail to search for clues? I know I don't know the specifics but it sounds like you could have done more in terms of tracking him down. I'm not trying to jump your case but I mean he could have changed direction suddenly or you could've missed the trail going in a different direction etc. Assuming he stopped bleeding may have been a mistake but I don't know for sure I'm just throwing things out.
It's a shame though. I would get a dog or something and go back to make sure you didn't miss him somewhere and widen your search.