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How Many Shots? Your Advice Needed.

Yep. Keep shooting until they quit moving. Elk aren't bullet proof, but I've seen them take punishment that a deer never could. Combine that with the terrain they many times live in and the lack of good blood trails that often happen, and a "dead" elk can easily become an unrecovered elk. Seen it.
 
I almost did the 2-elk thing myself, management harvesting on a ranch in South Texas for cow elk. A big herd of 30 or so came in to the protein feeders and started milling about. I had to wait quite a while to get a clean shot with no other elk behind the one I was shooting at.
Finally I shot, and the 30 animals sort of shuffled, got all mixed up and then separated out. I could not see which one I had shot at, to gt off an anchoring shot. They were nervously starting to leave for the woodline.
I waited and waited, was about to shoot again when one cow got this sort of embarrassed look, hunched up a bit, and then fell down. Boiler room shot behind the shoulder that missed the heart, through and through both lungs, at 110 yards, 180 grain Partition Protected Point at over 3000 FPS (at the muzzle) from my Tikka 300 WSM. And she didnt even show any signs of it for quite a while. That was a long wait.
 
I'm not an advocate for shoot them till they quit twitching, I've followed more elk farther because someone panics and throws it on three round burst and pushes them into the next county. If I see the shot was quality I just watch, if they flop over their dead, if not they bed up close then you have a second, clean shot that you can make count.
It's my observation if you hit one and the rest are standing there looking them and getting nervous it's because something is bad wrong with the animal you hit, if the rest of their buddies stand around and don't take off more likely they will just bleed out standing there and flop.
At range with elk very often they take the hit real hard and with no preceived danger they just die there, you get their adrenaline cranked back up and your doing yourself no favors.
 
bigngreen said:
I'm not an advocate for shoot them till they quit twitching, I've followed more elk farther because someone panics and throws it on three round burst and pushes them into the next county. If I see the shot was quality I just watch, if they flop over their dead, if not they bed up close then you have a second, clean shot that you can make count.
It's my observation if you hit one and the rest are standing there looking them and getting nervous it's because something is bad wrong with the animal you hit, if the rest of their buddies stand around and don't take off more likely they will just bleed out standing there and flop.
At range with elk very often they take the hit real hard and with no preceived danger they just die there, you get their adrenaline cranked back up and your doing yourself no favors.
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Interesting
 
bigngreen said:
It's my observation if you hit one and the rest are standing there looking them and getting nervous it's because something is bad wrong with the animal you hit, if the rest of their buddies stand around and don't take off more likely they will just bleed out standing there and flop.
At range with elk very often they take the hit real hard and with no preceived danger they just die there, you get their adrenaline cranked back up and your doing yourself no favors.
Click to expand...
I can't disagree with your observation, and I take it to heart.

My issue, and that of many others here don't have the observation skills you have. Some not having seen as many live elk as you have seen shot, and subsequently good bullet tracking.

Its similar to comparing myself to an Olympic caliber athlete.
 
I shoot until they're down.

My first elk was at 638 yards with a 300WM and 200gr Accubonds. I heard the first round hit him, he shrugged his shoulders with no other reaction. So I kept shooting. When the gun was empty after 3 rounds and I was digging for more he slowly walked off. A full 5 minutes later we heard him fall and roll down the mountain. Upon recover all three shots were through the lungs with plenty of damage, through and through. They are tough animals in tough country, a relatively small run can lead to a great deal more effort in recovery.
 
I shoot em til down.Afew I've let go like a double lung with my bow at close range and also shots like that with my 338.Ive packed a 7 # finished at 8 3/4 for last 14 years.Usually tossing a 300. My old country was really thick and grizzly infested.Been packing my 6.5 as I've been muley hunting.i would definitely follow up.
 
Roadrunner2 said:
While recently hunting the grasslands of Montana, I took a large bull at 700 yrds (no apparent wind, 308 180gr). Now I have been reading here for years how animals properly shot at long ranges just don't react because the gunshot noise is so far away. I was on top of a very pointy grassy hill and the bull was on a ridgeline standing broadside with his head to the right and his right front leg forward as if about to take a step. When I fired all he did was lift up his right front leg and hold it up, so I know that I had made contact. Remembering what I had read here about animals not reacting, I waited for what was probably about 15-20 seconds (maybe more or maybe less-hard to tell in the excitement of the moment). The bull was with about 8-10 other bulls, and they slowly began to spook, so fearing that I might lose the animal I (mistakenly) took a second shot.

I found the bull about 100 yards away, and upon quartering it I discovered that both shots had entered the chest about 4-5 inches apart and lodged on the inside of the left shoulder (no exit wound) and caused massive damage to the muscle there.

The second shot was totally not needed and just added so much damage to the left shoulder meat that most of the meat there was ruined. Had I not fired the second shot I would have preserved a lot more meat.

My question to y'all is what do you do when you've just shot an animal at range, you know that you've hit it, and it's just standing there about to run off. Not wanting to wound an animal and cause needless suffering and have to track it for miles, do you take another shot and ensure a quick kill and possibly ruin a lot more meat, or do you just need to be patient? Your suggestions please...
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I'm in the "Shoot until they go down" camp. Having lost a couple over the years, I learned this lesson hard!
 
So keep sending lead.....but won't shoot an explosive bullet because of meat damage....think I got it now. 😅
 
bigngreen said:
I'm not an advocate for shoot them till they quit twitching, I've followed more elk farther because someone panics and throws it on three round burst and pushes them into the next county. If I see the shot was quality I just watch, if they flop over their dead, if not they bed up close then you have a second, clean shot that you can make count.
It's my observation if you hit one and the rest are standing there looking them and getting nervous it's because something is bad wrong with the animal you hit, if the rest of their buddies stand around and don't take off more likely they will just bleed out standing there and flop.
At range with elk very often they take the hit real hard and with no preceived danger they just die there, you get their adrenaline cranked back up and your doing yourself no favors.
Click to expand...
Would your opinion change based on the terrain you're hunting in?
I've always respected your opinion which is why I'm curious.
 

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