One Tough Elk

[338edge]

Seem some similar things. Friend of mine shot a nice bull a few years ago and while boning it out we found a mushroomed 270 slug in the back leg. It was surrounded by scar tissue and all healed so must have been from a year or two prior. Bull aged at 7 years. This year I shot a nice 6x6 bull. While quartering the bull found an arrow shaft and broadhead in the upper shoulder. The area around the arrow was infected but the bull appeared otherwise healthy. Who knows if he would made it long term. It was from the same year and archery season had ended 2 weeks prior. Pics of the bull attached including removing the arrow!

Great job!!

 

[Country Bumpkin]

That's sad...I feel like those of you who found old wounds is a direct reflection of past hunters who didn't uphold their duty as a sportsman. There's some real respect for elk, and animals in general. Those of you who posted pics, good shooting, and nice elk!

I can certainly share this viewpoint with you on many occasions, but then again, not all lost elk (or otherwise) belong in the category of unethical hunting. Even the best hunters make mistakes on that "guaranteed kill shot". There are a lot of very successful elk hunters on this forum that, while they may not say it, know that if you haven't lost an elk yet, it's unwise to throw stones at those who have. I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't happen to me, but I have tracked a few for friends that did not end in high fives. Without knowing the full story of each battle wound that these elk have suffered, it's hard to judge the inflictor. I'm going to keep taking only the highest percentage shots and hope that human error and outside influences stay at bay in the elk hunting woods, fingers crossed that none of us lose an animal, but my condolences to those that have or will, they are tough beasts that demand quality projectiles and precise hits.

 

[ATH]

Elk are indeed tough, which makes it dangerous to judge people based on partial information from a recovered animal with previous wounds or animals that don't drop stone dead from the first shot.

The first elk I shot with a rifle was at medium/long range, and he took 3 rounds through the vitals with a magnum round beginning with "3" and showed no reaction until the 3rd one. Even then he walked off and stayed on his feet for several more minutes, hacking blood all over the side of the mountain. The only way to shoot him better would have been i the heart or break the shoulder structure. I was deliberate in not shooting for the shoulder as I valued the meat.

I will say, before witnessing it (and having another witness there), neither one of us would have imagined such a thing was possible. But we witnessed it and conducted the post-mortem. Yet I've gotten the keyboard commando reaction to the hunt based on assumptions about how things SHOULD go.

It's easy to criticize people based off partial information. Use enough gun, give yourself every advantage to stack things in your favor, and use some understanding i judging the outcome of others' hunts.

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Elk are indeed tough, which makes it dangerous to judge people based on partial information from a recovered animal with previous wounds or animals that don't drop stone dead from the first shot.

The first elk I shot with a rifle was at medium/long range, and he took 3 rounds through the vitals with a magnum round beginning with "3" and showed no reaction until the 3rd one. Even then he walked off and stayed on his feet for several more minutes, hacking blood all over the side of the mountain. The only way to shoot him better would have been i the heart or break the shoulder structure. I was deliberate in not shooting for the shoulder as I valued the meat.

I will say, before witnessing it (and having another witness there), neither one of us would have imagined such a thing was possible. But we witnessed it and conducted the post-mortem. Yet I've gotten the keyboard commando reaction to the hunt based on assumptions about how things SHOULD go.

It's easy to criticize people based off partial information. Use enough gun, give yourself every advantage to stack things in your favor, and use some understanding i judging the outcome of others' hunts.

If it was with regards to my comment, I was more referring to the guys who found elk with bullets in their hind quarters or arrow shafts in the top of the back. It doesn't matter how many rounds it takes, as long as you get the job done, as ethically and responsibly as possible. I agree its impossible to know how an animal will react to being shot, but as long as you can react appropriately, and get it done then its a successful hunt. I've had to use two or three rounds on deer before. It sucks but that's a risk we take when we hunt.

 

[Country Bumpkin]

Ah, yes, I agree. I also have had a bit of a shooting match with a buck where the 1st shot didn't go as planned. It was NOT my finest moment. I think where it gets cloudy is with archery. It's darned hard to get a follow-up shot to get it done. If that first shot isn't money, you either need to be Darn lucky or all of the stars need to align to get back on that animal for a finishing shot. With that, I think it's even more critical to take only the highest percentage archery shot. For rifle, there's still no excuse to take a low probability shot, but shot angle and distance can be stretched with a reasonable expectation of 1-shot kills.

Two years ago I shot a mulie buck at 30 yards with my bow. He ducked slightly and I hit top of both lungs. It was quite fatal and I'm sure he didn't live more than a minute or so, but he dashed about 250 yards and out of sight . . . very little blood as he was bleeding internally. It was going to be about 87* that day and it took me two hours to sort through all of the other fresh tracks and recover him. How an animal can cover that much ground with both lungs pumping blood into his chest cavity is beyond me, but he was nearly a lost animal. They are a lot tougher than us bipeds.

 

[16penny]

I shot a cow elk last December at about 100yds with 44mag carbine 240gr jsp she just flinched and stood in the same spot shot again and she flinched once more walked about 30yds and fell over walked up on her and she was breathing out of entrance wounds in chest one bullet went all the way through and one didn't exit both shots were in the lungs [ my buddy looked at me after the first shot like wasss uhuapp! because that little carbine will nail a snuff can every time at 100yds with that load] we were both surprised she shook off the first one even though it was a fatal shot