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Long Range Hunting & Shooting
Non-recovered Elk - my fault or bullet failure or both?
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<blockquote data-quote="Brad Quarnberg" data-source="post: 2950483" data-attributes="member: 107866"><p>I feel for you: it certainly is not fun losing an animal.</p><p>As mentioned already, it's hard to say without having witnessed the shot placement and seeing the blood/blood trail. </p><p>Early in my hunting career I made a good hit on a deer and couldn't find it. It was in the bottoms near a river and at the shot the whole bottom exploded with deer that had been bedded in tall sage brush. I found a tremendous amount of blood but lost the trail after about 15 yards and it got dark soon after I lost the blood trail. I went home and told my dad about the shot and after answering all of his questions, he told me to go to bed and we'd find it in the morning. After a sleepless night, we headed to the last spot of blood (I'd marked with a piece of surveyor tape). Because of the number of deer that'd been in the bottom, their tracks made it impossible to decern which belonged to the deer I shot. We started a circular search from the last spot I'd seen the deer (the deer herd had run in all kinds of direction, even almost running over me in their haste to exit the hanger zone) and where the blood ended. That deer was only about 40 yards from where I'd shot him. It appeared he was at full speed when his legs gave out and slid into a patch of tall sage that literally covered his body. My dad found him because he got on his hands and knees and found tiny specks of blood and the disturbed ground where he slid into the brush. I'd hit him just behind the shoulder and the exit was just between the neck and the inside of the off shoulder nicking the carotid.</p><p>Your hit could have missed vitals completely, and with her mixing in with the herd it could have wiped out blood sign and made tracking a much harder proposition. If you traveled a mile looking and couldn't find her, she might not have been fatally hit, or she piled up like my deer in a place that made it difficult to find.</p><p>I wish we could use dogs here like we did in Germany. Losing a game animal once shot was extremely rare. I watched a dog team track a Red Stag for over 4 miles before the hunter got a second killing shot after the dog found it bedded.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Brad Quarnberg, post: 2950483, member: 107866"] I feel for you: it certainly is not fun losing an animal. As mentioned already, it's hard to say without having witnessed the shot placement and seeing the blood/blood trail. Early in my hunting career I made a good hit on a deer and couldn't find it. It was in the bottoms near a river and at the shot the whole bottom exploded with deer that had been bedded in tall sage brush. I found a tremendous amount of blood but lost the trail after about 15 yards and it got dark soon after I lost the blood trail. I went home and told my dad about the shot and after answering all of his questions, he told me to go to bed and we'd find it in the morning. After a sleepless night, we headed to the last spot of blood (I'd marked with a piece of surveyor tape). Because of the number of deer that'd been in the bottom, their tracks made it impossible to decern which belonged to the deer I shot. We started a circular search from the last spot I'd seen the deer (the deer herd had run in all kinds of direction, even almost running over me in their haste to exit the hanger zone) and where the blood ended. That deer was only about 40 yards from where I'd shot him. It appeared he was at full speed when his legs gave out and slid into a patch of tall sage that literally covered his body. My dad found him because he got on his hands and knees and found tiny specks of blood and the disturbed ground where he slid into the brush. I'd hit him just behind the shoulder and the exit was just between the neck and the inside of the off shoulder nicking the carotid. Your hit could have missed vitals completely, and with her mixing in with the herd it could have wiped out blood sign and made tracking a much harder proposition. If you traveled a mile looking and couldn't find her, she might not have been fatally hit, or she piled up like my deer in a place that made it difficult to find. I wish we could use dogs here like we did in Germany. Losing a game animal once shot was extremely rare. I watched a dog team track a Red Stag for over 4 miles before the hunter got a second killing shot after the dog found it bedded. [/QUOTE]
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Non-recovered Elk - my fault or bullet failure or both?
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