Wounding an Elk
 

My friend has a ranch in MT. He shot an elk the ither day and he turned just as the arro was released, and he is not sure where he hit him. The could see the elk bedded down for 10 hours and did not appear to be hurt that bad. They tried to stalk up and get another arrow into him, but spooked him. The other guy with my friend was upset when my friend wanted to hunting the next day, he said " You had your chance and blew it and you should not hunt anymore this year"!

My question to all of you, do you believe he should quit, or keep hunting? I think since he has not filled his tag, he should keep hunting. I know it is not illegal, but the other guy told him he was being unethical. I do not beleive that is the case.

Would love to know your thoughts.

Of course he should keep hunting. If possible he should go after the same elk. He should however work on taking better shots but then again we all should. Most bow hunters have experienced this at least once. It makes you a better hunter from then on.

Wounded animals happen. Thats just freakin silly to expect someone not to hunt because they wounded the animal.

Was there alot of blood where it had bedded down? If not keep on keepin on!

good answere ..if no blood was found in the bed ,keep on hunting.

removed by RD

A bull that beds up for ten hours is likely hurt pretty bad. Even in the middle of the day they'll usually get up and move around every few hours. Ten hours is a long time. I've seen elk take a lot of punishment and travel a long distance after taking hits that would ultimately be fatal. Wounding does happen, but I agree with Ron Duval. If he wants to keep hunting he should hunt for that particular bull and only that bull.

I agree with the two previous posts. Good luck.

Could they see where the elk was hit? if it was a shoulder shot then keep hunting.. a shoulder shot only ussually gets three to four inches of penetration and I have had a lot of elk bed up for long periods of time nursing and packing it full of dirt. a client of mine shot an elk the first week of Idaho archery and that elk was later taken four weeks into the season pushing 11 cows and fending off three small satellites. As a guide we have a two wound maximum after that you are done completely other wise you are takeing away from other hunters.

We've all done it if we've hunted very long. My policy if a man draws blood other than a grazing wound your done. Too many elk get hit in archery season and not recovered because of lots of reasons. I've heard hunters brag that they have stuck two or more elk and not recovered them during a season. It may be my respect for the animal but in the events of not recovering and animal I tend not to have the heart to shoot another just to cover the first mistake. I would be going after the one elk or trying to find it. Look for crows and magpie's and multiple coyote tracks coming in and out of one general direction. Good luck and we all make mistakes sometimes.