wild at heart

Y'all are all exactly right, hind sight is 20/20. If we would have left for camp after the shot, in the morning he would have been laying there where we bumped him 150 yards from where I shot him. But, what happened happened and I have to live with it til my next opportunity arises.

Bailsuk

Feel for you Fella , i hope i never go through the same senario .

Rickmur

What a shame but we all have or will be standing in your shoes at one time or another. You have a great attitude and I think you probably will be rewarded again.

wingchaser_labs

No way he got both. Maybe the back corner of the one lung, all liver, and guts. That was a very hard angle and the shot should have been on the front inside of the shoulder. If you split the front legs, no matter what angle, there is your heart and the lungs are right above it every time....... The liver was destroyed hence the 150 yards to first bed so it was a very effective shot but just needed about 5-8 hours to die. I've been there same situation only at 35 yards and quartered away. Bull looked almost exactly like this one only he had six splits on both sides like that bull had on his left. I hit last few ribs going in headed up the center of his chest, got liver and one lung I figured afterwords with complete penetration up to the fletchings. I heard the bull run about 80-100 yards and heard a crash and then nothing. Figured I got up into the lungs and heart. Walked to where I hit him found good blood right away sat for almost an hour and went to look. Go to where I heard him crash moving slow and quiet and he gets up barrelin down the hill on me. Couldn't get a shot. Walked over to his bed and had clots and lots of dark liver blood and my arrow busted right before the fletchings. Couldn't beleive it. Waited a few hours for my cousin to resume tracking and we lost blood after 100 yards of tracking and spent alot of hours searching for him for two days. He is dead with that hit and 3/4 an arrow in him but just couldn't find him. Should have went back to camp got the frame packs and waited until the guys got back in the afternoon but being the first bull I had shot with the bow and hearing him go down, so I thought I went to look. I learned the hard way too. Now if I don't see the elk go down I wait a minimum of 3 hours before I start looking depending on the shot placement. Elk are one TOUGH animal thats for sure. It happens and ya just gotta learn from it thats all you can do. WCL