This kind of happened to me this past season. He wasn't the biggest bull elk that I've ever shot or seen, but he was a decent 6x6 and was the only bull that I saw this season.
I had my favorite elk rifle, my .300 Weatherby with 180 gr Barnes TTSX bullets, and I was laying prone with my rifle on my bipod. I had lasered him at 250 corrected yards above me on a hill. When he walked out from behind one tree I had my crosshairs on him for about 40 yards until he disappeared behind another tree near a property line where I don't have permission to hunt. The problem was that he was walking almost straight away from me and I didn't even get a good quartering angle for a shot.
I will not shoot an unwounded animal in the butt, so that season ended in tag soup.