smarandr
Well-known member
This was my third time out archery elk hunting and I planned on applying what I learned doesn't work the last two years to make this year more successful. I was by myself the first two days putting miles on the boots and doing some scouting so that when my brother in law showed up we could get right to work.
When he got to camp late in the afternoon I told him about a couple of good spots that I wanted to show him before it got dark. One of them was relatively close to a road and I thought we could get to before sundown. When we got there I told him that I wasn't going to take my pack because it was such a short hike, but that I'd take my bow just in case, and he told me that he wasn't going to bring anything.
As we were climbing the heavily wooded ridge my brother in law looked up and said, "Elk!" I looked and sure enough a string of cows was wandering through an opening in the timber at the top of the ridge. My rangefinder was still in my pack, but we figured the distance between us and the elk was right at the edge of my effective range. As the cows and calves moved through the opening we finally saw a nice set of antlers come up over the ridge. Finally he entered the opening, I mewed to freeze him, and loosed and arrow.
In that dark timber after the sun goes behind the mountain (still about an hour of legal shooting light) it's tough to see branches, but whether or not I saw them, my arrow found probably every one of them between me and that bull. The arrow was deflected enough that I couldn't tell if or where I hit him, and now the whole herd was moving off as fast as they could.
We hurried up the mountain to look for something, whether it be my arrow or blood, or hopefully both. Unfortunately we couldn't find anything, and it was now getting dark fast. We decided to come back when it was light and look some more.
The next morning when we got back we ranged the shot and discovered it was almost exactly as far as we thought it was. However, we still couldn't find my arrow, but we couldn't find any blood either--it was infuriating. We looked and looked until we decided that there wasn't anything to find in the area, so we continued hunting.
About a half mile away, late in the morning, we stumbled upon another bull elk. He became aware of us and bolted before either of us could even nock an arrow. As we continued on and got up to where he was, my brother found an arrow and motioned to me to come check it out. My first thought was that there was another hunter nearby that got a shot off, but as I looked closer I realized that I was looking at my arrow. Upon closer inspection I could see that it had wet blood on the back half and dried blood on the front half. So I assume that the front half made it all the way through, and the back half was still lodged in him all night long; when he turned to run away from us the next morning the broadhead snagged on a tree branch and got yanked the rest of the way out.
We followed his tracks for as far as we could and could only see trace amounts of blood every 10 yards or so. When lost his hoof prints entirely we weren't able to follow any recognizable blood trail after that. We hunted hard for him the next three days, but never were able to see him again. My best guess (and maybe this is wishful thinking on my part to help me feel better) is that the arrow was deflected into some non vital part of his body and that's why there was so little blood.
I can only hope that he's going to be alright and around for me to try again next year. I feel horrible that I wounded him, but take a little comfort in the fact that we did everything we could to recover him (if he was even recoverable). I also learned a valuable lesson that even though there may still be an hour of legal shooting light that doesn't necessarily mean that there's an hour left of ethical shooting light in every situation. Had I been able to see those branches between me and the elk I probably wouldn't have attempted that shot. Anyway here's a picture of him that I took with my trailcamera a couple of nights before I shot him
When he got to camp late in the afternoon I told him about a couple of good spots that I wanted to show him before it got dark. One of them was relatively close to a road and I thought we could get to before sundown. When we got there I told him that I wasn't going to take my pack because it was such a short hike, but that I'd take my bow just in case, and he told me that he wasn't going to bring anything.
As we were climbing the heavily wooded ridge my brother in law looked up and said, "Elk!" I looked and sure enough a string of cows was wandering through an opening in the timber at the top of the ridge. My rangefinder was still in my pack, but we figured the distance between us and the elk was right at the edge of my effective range. As the cows and calves moved through the opening we finally saw a nice set of antlers come up over the ridge. Finally he entered the opening, I mewed to freeze him, and loosed and arrow.
In that dark timber after the sun goes behind the mountain (still about an hour of legal shooting light) it's tough to see branches, but whether or not I saw them, my arrow found probably every one of them between me and that bull. The arrow was deflected enough that I couldn't tell if or where I hit him, and now the whole herd was moving off as fast as they could.
We hurried up the mountain to look for something, whether it be my arrow or blood, or hopefully both. Unfortunately we couldn't find anything, and it was now getting dark fast. We decided to come back when it was light and look some more.
The next morning when we got back we ranged the shot and discovered it was almost exactly as far as we thought it was. However, we still couldn't find my arrow, but we couldn't find any blood either--it was infuriating. We looked and looked until we decided that there wasn't anything to find in the area, so we continued hunting.
About a half mile away, late in the morning, we stumbled upon another bull elk. He became aware of us and bolted before either of us could even nock an arrow. As we continued on and got up to where he was, my brother found an arrow and motioned to me to come check it out. My first thought was that there was another hunter nearby that got a shot off, but as I looked closer I realized that I was looking at my arrow. Upon closer inspection I could see that it had wet blood on the back half and dried blood on the front half. So I assume that the front half made it all the way through, and the back half was still lodged in him all night long; when he turned to run away from us the next morning the broadhead snagged on a tree branch and got yanked the rest of the way out.
We followed his tracks for as far as we could and could only see trace amounts of blood every 10 yards or so. When lost his hoof prints entirely we weren't able to follow any recognizable blood trail after that. We hunted hard for him the next three days, but never were able to see him again. My best guess (and maybe this is wishful thinking on my part to help me feel better) is that the arrow was deflected into some non vital part of his body and that's why there was so little blood.
I can only hope that he's going to be alright and around for me to try again next year. I feel horrible that I wounded him, but take a little comfort in the fact that we did everything we could to recover him (if he was even recoverable). I also learned a valuable lesson that even though there may still be an hour of legal shooting light that doesn't necessarily mean that there's an hour left of ethical shooting light in every situation. Had I been able to see those branches between me and the elk I probably wouldn't have attempted that shot. Anyway here's a picture of him that I took with my trailcamera a couple of nights before I shot him
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