HuntingNet.com Forums - Got my elk!!

Well, got a bull yesterday morning (Sat.). Just a decent 5x5 but I'm proud of him none the less. He makes 6 bulls each of the last 6 years. Had some good bulls (320+) in close on Thurs. and Fri. but Murphy and the wind kept conspiring against me. My buddy and I started out of camp before sun-up on Sat. morning heading high due to the heat. Well about a mile above camp we heard a really faint bugle. In a clearing along the side of a ridge, there was a 5x5 feeding away from us. We tried to get a reaction with calls but we could barely even get him to look up, much less come in. I told my partner Gary that if I could stalk this bull, I would take him (I ruined the cape during the pack-out of last year's 380 bull so I needed the cape real bad). Well, there was VERY little cover just a few burnt trees scattered about but I kept just enough between me and him as he fed away that I eventually got within 30 yards. He was quartering away and I took the shot. It entered behind the last rib and he bolted up the ridge so I cow called and he stopped broadside @ 60 yards so I decided to get another one in him. The shot was perfect and the bull laid down almost instantly when the arrow hit behind his shoulder. This is where it gets weird. We watched this bull for almost 1/2 an hour and HE DID NOT DIE!! We finally left him and came back a couple hours later and he was within a hundred feet of where we last saw him and very stiff so he must have died shortly after we left. But as we were boning him, we found just what we suspected. Both arrows were perfect. The first took his liver and one lung and the other went through both lungs just above and in front of the heart. HOW DID HE STAY ALIVE THAT LONG?!?!? I can't figure it out and neither can my buddy. Perhaps when he laid down immediatly he covered the lung shot and re-inflated his lungs (i.e sucking chest wound)? Honestly I have no idea but it was strange and kind of disconcerting. We found both broadheads (Muzzy 115 4-blade) and they were both still shaving sharp.