Beaver,
We shoot lots of cows. If one doesn' t draw a bull, then its easy to get the cow consolation prize. We are meat hunters and cows make for some fine eating. You are right though, there is that inevitable chance that if you shoot enough of them you will kill a wet one. I try to avoid shooting a cow with an obvious calf by its side, but in the " fog of war, er I mean elk hunting" it is not all that controllable. To maximize my odds of shooting a dry cow, if there is a group of elk to choose from, then I seek out the largest, fleshiest, " pot bellied looking" cow in the group, seems like this nets a high percentage of " dry" cows.

We did have one hunter in our group last year that did just like you did and shot the mother and once he realized what the score was he then shot the calf. I thought it was honorable. From time to time things get messy and you just have to deal with it. In our parts we have a little bit of a " consolation situation." Colorado' s elk herds are so over populated that the CDOW is going after the cows hard. I we don' t do something to bring the populations down and we get a winter like we had in 1982 then there will be mass starvation. Even so, it does rain on your parade when you kill a wet one.

Bench shooting may approach perfection,
Hunting can' t, except maybe on these forums

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM