that empty feeling

[bow hunter]

i left out for northeastern nevada for my archery bull hunt a couple weeks ago. i had talked to a few people from this site and i had a pretty good idea of where to start looking. the first morning i glassed 30-40 bulls. mostly raggys but a huge 400 class 7 pt and several nice 6pt shooters were there as well. the 3rd day i watched them go into this drainage of lodge pole to bed down and slowly and quietly walked into the bottom of it. the wind was good and i began to cow call a lil. a bull bugled and in no time came in to 40 yards. just then the wind swirled and he was gone. a few minutes later a small 5 came in and i let him walk. then, moments later a 350 class 6 pt was coming right to me. he was 25 yards away when he walked behind a tree and i drew my bow. i was shakin a lil but was doing well until he looked my way and screamed one of those deep throaty bugles right in my face. i missed but i blame it on the poop that was runnin down my leg. although i was bummed, i was thinking this in itself has already made my hunt a success. the next few days was quiet and didnt really get to close to anything else. then yesterday i awoke to a cool morning a several bugles. i hiked in from the tent about 1/4 of a mile and saw 3 bulls in this meadow bugling. i sat in the quakies and began calling. it wasnt 5 minutes before a nice bull came in perfect. was was walking below me about 30 yards and i sent a arrow right behind the shoulder i thought. he bolted and i walked down to find the first blood. i waited an hour and began tracking. i had constant good blood, even chunks, for 8 tenths of a mile. i got him up from his bed and he must have clotted up and i never found another drop of blood. i looked for 8 hours. every hunter that has been there knows that sick to your stomach feeling i still have. i decided to punch my tag as i know in my gut thats a dead bull. i hate it, but i think its the thing to do. that being said, anyone that hasnt ever chased bulls in the high country with a bow during the rut is missing out. you owe it to yourself to do what ya got to do to make it happen. youll have a memory forever. to see the aspens all turning colors and hear elk bugling all night as you try to sleep is a memory i know ill have to revisit often. congrats to all of you that have filled their tags and good luck to all that are heading out.

 

[belly-deep]

bummer! must not have been "right behind the shoulder" though

 

[Dinkshooter]

bummer! must not have been "right behind the shoulder" though

Elk are freaky, everyone that has lost one thinks it was right behind the shoulder???????

Back to the freaky part. I think it has something to do with their color????????????? They are just longer than they look?

No other animal in North America has been hit as many times perfectly and still got away. Fact.

 

[Dinkshooter]

i decided to punch my tag as i know in my gut thats a dead bull. i hate it, but i think its the thing to do.

You'll never see that quote on MM.

 

[pseshooter300]

I hate that at least you had a good experience

 

[mdunc8]

That sucks man. Been there before. It's not fun. Good luck with the rest of your season though.

 

[belly-deep]

Elk are freaky, everyone that has lost one thinks it was right behind the shoulder???????

Back to the freaky part. I think it has something to do with their color????????????? They are just longer than they look?

No other animal in North America has been hit as many times perfectly and still got away. Fact.

They can survive on one lung supposedly

 

[bow hunter]

that is why i believe i said i "thought" it was right behind the shoulder. i agree, obviously not.

 

[Gerald Martin]

bow hunter, You may very well have hit it right behind the shoulder. Did you see how high the hit was? A low hit behind the shoulder can definitely hit one lung and not gut and the elk can survive. The bull I shot this year was shot through both lungs (the lower lobes) about two inches behind the heart and through the diaphram and out the stomach.
I watched the bull for two hours after the shot and backed out until the next morning. Thankfully, he did not go far, in fact the total distance he traveled was less than three hundred yards. But, the entrance hole was covered by the shoulder muscle ( I shot through the leg) and the exit was plugged by stomach matter. There was only about a gallon of blood in the chest cavity. I'm convinced the bull died from being gut shot, not because of excessive bleeding or collapsed lungs.

Years ago, my brother hit a bull at ten yards low behind the shoulder. He did not get the guts and hit the bull about six inches behind the shoulder and eight inches up from the belly line. We found eight beds over about 1 1/2 miles the next day and 18 hours after the shot the last bed had a bit of fresh blood in it. I'm convinced that bull survived.
A friend of mine who is a wild game processor had an elk brought into his shop that had been shot through both scapula with a .7mm the year before. The bullet was either a solid or did not expand properly and he recovered the bullet and beetled out the scapulas because he couldn't believe an elk could survive a hit like that.
Elk are tough.

 

[Caseknife]

That is a real sickening feeling to have that happen, but.....elk are real tough animals. I had a college classmate that killed a spike bull in rifle season that, upon field dressing, he found a broadhead inside the pericardial sac around the heart. The bull was healthy as could be with no other signs of injury, you can only hope that is the case with your lost bull.

 

[idelkhntr]

Great to hear about your experience, sorry about the result. I respect your ethics for punching your tag.

 

[huntbux]

@ bow hunter

seems you had much much better luck than i did on my northeastern Nevada bull elk hunt. I saw some nice bulls could never get in on them. Only say elk 3 days out of 11. Very crazy the difference in units. No calling, no bugling, plenty of water in the unit but very dry. Never got an opportunity at an elk.

 

[shoots-straight]

Probably time to get back out there and do the "Crow em" technique. Get up on a high vantage point in the area and glass the sky. Just as the technique sounds look and listen from Crows, Ravens, Eagles, and Vulchers.

 

[bow hunter]

there is a guy up there hunting the same area i was hunting and he said he would look for the birds or dogs to see if he can recover the rack for me. i have mixed emotions about that. one side of me thinks that i owe it to the animal to at least display the rack since i took him. other side of me feels that if i didnt recover the meat then i dont deserve the rack. my ideal situation would be that he doesnt find anything and that bull is still walking around and doing ok. i still have a late archery tag for the ruby's for muleys. maybe that will turn out better. i did get my archery antelope filled so maybe my muley hunt will go as good as that did. best of luck to everyone in their future hunts and congrats to all that have filled tags

 

[bow hunter]

thanks, it makes me feel a lil better anyways.

 

[CoryG]

You can see the entrance wound on this bull... I was above him and he was quartering away...

2 hours later, I finished him after a long stalk and after spending most of that time on hands and knees looking for specks of blood. While boning him out, we found 2 perfect "X's" in both lungs... one high in the right lung and one low in the left lung. Fat clogged the entrance hole and the arrow didn't exit the other side. Both lungs stayed fully inflated.

This bull was literally hit "perfectly"... yet he was still alive 2 hours later. HE would have eventually died as the lungs filled with blood but how long? I was a skeptic of the "perfect hit" stories before and I still the majority of them are "optical illusions" from the hunter's stand point and weren't truly perfect but there are definately cases where a perfect hit can result in a lost animal... I got lucky on this one...

 

[Elkmagnet]

Manure occurrith. Learn from it and move on the fact that you feel bad and are still thinking about it says a lot. Good luck in the rubys.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

I lost an animal a couple of years ago on what I firmly believe was a very good hit, but I did not give the deer enough time after the shot.

It really sucks, and my hat is certainly off to you for punching your tag. It speaks volumes of your ethics. Good luck on your late season muley hunt.

 

[bow hunter]

thanks for everyone's input. i appreciate it. the folks on here make this site the best of them all bar-none! good luck to everyone!