Bull Elk Custody Battle - Montana

Too bad, but big animals sometimes bring out the worst in people! It could be that the bull had expired and the guys put an arrow into it after it was dead so they could claim it. It could have also still been alive and since the original shooter had left the area temporarily the guys thought whoever wounded it had given up. However, if they removed that first arrow and stashed it in the brush like the article alleges, it sounds like they were not being ethical when they claimed the bull. This isn't the first nor probably the last that there will be a fight over who gets the animal and that's a shame.
 
Shouldn't have left the area. Only my opinion, but no telling if the bull was actually alive and wounded. Other group sees it with no one else around and harvests the bull.

I probably would have given it up though.
 
Elk make people crazy. I don't know what it is but people lose their minds over elk

I thought I was going to have to put up a fight for an archery kill a few years ago. Bugled in a bull and one lunged him. He went and bedded in the wide open and another hunter saw him. I ended up bumping him and he crashed down into a creek bottom and expired. As I approached him I noticed another hunter making a move on him and motioned to him to stay back. He promptly yelled back that it was his elk and that he arrowed him the night before. We went back and forth for a couple mins while we stood over the bull and I finally asked him to show me a three blade broadhead hole as I was shooting a two blade. After a couple minutes of searching he said congrats and walked off. Never thought I'd almost get in a fight over a bull that I shot....
 
'Unfortunate situation similar to the story of my son, then in high school, shooting a nice bull north of Gardiner and following it for a couple of miles down to the road and a fence it could not even cross due to severe wounds. Passers-by in a Suburban vehicle jumped out, killed it, and tagged it in front of my disappointed son. We then found the game warden and explained what had occurred. He said that, although he considered it unethical, if an animal is still standing it is fair game and he was unable to do anything about it.
 
I didn't read the whole article but I wouldn't even want an elk I didn't kill myself, especially just for a set of antlers no matter how big. I'd feel ashamed every time I looked at him hanging on my wall.
 
I would never claim a bull that tipped over as was walking by me. If I have to shoot the bull, I have no issue tagging the bull.

You stay with the bull if you shoot until know you missed or hit the bull. Don't push the bull but no way any of us can say with certainty we just made a lethal shot unless you see 4 legs pointed up in the air. I see no emergency reason both the hunter and his buddy had to leave the hunt location. One should have stayed and should be the hunter. Because you just don't know the bull will not circle right back and that might be your last chance to put an actual lethal shot in the animal.

Another issue. Was a warm day but they knew that as the sun came up so if they did not have the ability to retrieve a downed elk then that is on the hunter for shooting when may or may not be able to recover the meat on a warm day. Two guys is one more than I have had to pack a bull out. I get the quarters in the shade if is warm and if there is no shade then I am not shooting since poor planning does not give me a right to launch an arrow.

If a bull elk walks by me and is not staggering then I would shoot. Maybe I see an arrow, maybe not. Maybe I see a fresh wound, maybe not. If I get to the bull and see an arrow that is not mine or a wound that is not accounted for then I would call out to see if a hunter is nearby. The elk only moved 100 yards so the hunter would have heard me. If I do not hear a response and no one walks up after about 5 minutes of me calling, I see no obligation to wait any longer and will tag the bull which is required by the regulations in almost every state. Promptly tag. Once I tag the bull, ownership is resolved in my mind. Appears F&G concurs in this real world situation.

I will say it again. Wounding a bull is not killing a bull. Lots of bulls walking around that were shot. Some recover fully. Some die slowly over weeks. If is a mortal wound that takes hours or days for the bull to die then perhaps an "imminently mortal shot" is a better rule of thumb to claim ownership when draw first blood.

I have no way to know if the bull in this story tipped over without another hunter shooting an arrow. The statement was a second hunter shot the bull. Putting the arrow in a bush, especially if there is a broadhead attached, is something I would do if no other place to secure so did not step or sit on it.

I have no way to know if the bull would have recovered from the wound if had not encountered the other hunter. Performing an autopsy in the field when an animal is shot by more than one hunter and then have someone give expert testimony as to the level of lethalness of an arrow's path is silly. Make a good shot. Stay near where you shot and be ready if the bull circles back or if you see the bull through a patch of trees or your self-selected wait time is now up. Have a plan to recover the meat before spoils. Have a plan to contact helpers if you are not able to recover the bull without them.

My 2 cents.
 
They should have given it it up. We have morals in Montana and it would have been the right thing to do.
 
That came out a little wrong. I think the kid was very excited and wanted to show his family. Yeah he probably should have stayed there but you should not have to worry about someone stealing and elk from someone else that is just crazy.
 
I shot an 8 point whitetail one day with my shotgun way back in the late 60s when I was only in my teens during a hunt at Fort Custer near Battle Creek. It was shaking it's head as it walked up, which was rather strange, but after I downed him I walked up to him and saw why. There was a perfect hole with fresh blood around it made by a shotgun slug through one ear. Just as I was about to gut him a guy and his wife walked up and said they had been tracking him and I had shot "her" deer! I didn't offer any argument and just said congratulations and let them have him. The next day I was hunting near there and killed a big 10 pointer, so I was rewarded for doing the gal a favor and not getting into a pizzing contest with them even though that deer wasn't hurt with that ear wound.
 
Last edited:
Keeptrying said:
Shouldn't have left the area. Only my opinion, but no telling if the bull was actually alive and wounded. Other group sees it with no one else around and harvests the bull.
I probably would have given it up though.
Click to expand...

Why did it take both guys drive out and get some help? The shooter should have stayed and kept an eye on the bull.
They guys who tagged the bull had no way of knowing the situation since there was no one around, not even a vehicle. The bull could have been wounded days ago as far as they knew.
Now after it was made clear the bull was shot by the original hunter, his arrow found and the blood trail followed the six guys should have done the right thing.
Mistakes were made by both sides but the ones who tagged the bull did nothing illegal though they were certainly not ethical in my view.
 
They should not have left the elk, simple as that. As far as I can tell, there is no other objective criteria by which to determine the rightful owner of the carcass. Taking an animal I didn't really kill would take the fun out of the hunt. On the other hand, if someone else insisted they killed my bull, I'd find consolation in the fact that their hunting season is over and mine just got extended.
 
Grimsrud said the hunters told him that they saw his elk, a different bull with an arrow stuck in its shoulder (possibly the one Harrell hit), run down the hill.
Click to expand...

Chickenshit move right there, if true.... tells me all I need to know about the 'party's' integrity.
 
The original shooter deserves the elk. But, I have seen stories on here that a hunter takes a wounded deer or elk just to keep the animal from suffering. Admirable. If the original hunter shows up, it is the hunter. My opinion; every one has one and I have one.

Agree with several posters, on a trophy elk, do not leave the area.
 
As crazy as this sounds....I will never be remembered for what I killed in the field or caught while fishing. I want to be remembered for the time I spent with my wife in the mountains and our friends at our deer camp, our children and grandchildren enjoy times afield with us. Killing an animal has nothing to do with me as a man, a friend, a husband or father.
 
On the elk opener this year I was headed back to the trail head a little after dark. The trail comes out into a opening and right in the middle of the trail is a dead 6 pt bull. I thought I was seeing things, I walked over to it and poked it with my hiking stick, it was freshly killed. I thought how strange.

At the trail head there was a camp with 2 young kids in it out on their own for the first time. They were busying fixing pack frames around the camp fire. It was their elk, they said they were headed back in the morning to get it. I'm pretty sure they were just scared of the dark. I glassed then up the next morning breaking him down. strange.
 
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