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I went elk hunting completely solo this last weekend. Friday night while hunting the thickest draw of trees I've ever hunted, I called in a really nice 5x5 bull to 20 yards where he started to destroy a sapling. While he took his frustrations out on the baby tree I moved to where I thought I could get a shot. Just as I stepped out in to the opening and drew my bow back, he stopped rubbing and stepped out 10 yards in front of me with a perfect opening in the trees right over his vitals. I let the arrow fly and drilled him. I heard the arrow hit and seen my pink fletchings hanging out a few inches. I waited about 30 minutes and was pretty sure I heard him crash. and started to try and find blood................ nothing, zilch, notta. I shot him at 6pm and stayed up there till 930pm looking for blood. I decided to back out and start looking again in the morning. I got back up top at 5:30am the next morning. And worked grid patterns out from where I shot. After hours of finding absolutely nothing I decided to head towards where I had thought I heard him crash. Turned up empty handed again. Went back to where I shot him again and worked a few more grid patterns and I couldn't find anything. I stayed up there till 1230pm. Sunday I went back up just to see if I could see birds or any sign. Again nothing.
I'm really bent out off shape over this. Actually sick to my stomach. I'm curious if anybody has had any trouble with slick trick broadheads opening a wound channel? A few years ago I shot a cow with slicktricks and almost had the same thing happen. My buddy and I actually just got lucky and stumbled on her after looking for her for three hours and only finding two small drops of blood. I don't want to be the guy to blame equipment failures for anything but I have to try and make sense of this crappy situation.
I'm going to head up on Thursday after work again and see if I can see birds or anything.
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That sucks. All you can do is make every effort to try and find the animal. If you can't all you can do is reassure yourself you made the effort at recovery. And hopefully it will benefit the rest of nature some way.
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that sucks. that makes 15 bulls that i know were lost so far. not sure it's wolves after all for the drop in numbers
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What really sucks is this is the first bull I've ever even loosed a arrow at. I'm not planning on still trying to archery hunt for elk this season. I'm still going to try and find him though. Just to maybe see what went wrong.
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sorry man, that story makes me sick to my stomach. Good luck on your search
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Buddy,
that's a tough situation, I have been in before, persistence pays off in the end, don't get discouraged, stuff happens, keep on truck'n.... part of life, nobody is perfect...
Matt
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Sorry to hear it. My only thought is that the hit was not where you thought exactly. I know at least on me, my mind has played a few tricks when I've found a wound no where near where I thought I'd struck an animal.
I shoot ST magnums, and have had very good luck with them; the two cows I've killed were either passthroughs or hanging by fletching on the offside; I think every deer I've shot has been a clean passthrough, with the exception of one I shot poorly and went right through both temples because of my bad shooting. All animals have left very good blood trails. I'm shooting 65 lbs at around 415 grains.
I do hope you find him, alive or dead-
dg
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Hey Chrome...That is not a good feeling and we have all been there before. It is the sucky part of this sport.
I had a very similar experience using slick trick broadheads this year. I just smashed a smallish 6 x 6 at 25 ish yards. He ran off. 30 seconds later i thought i heard coughing and then i thought i heard him crash. I got super stoked..marked my position and walked out. I found my brother and he had also shot a 6 point. After taking care of his bull we went in search of mine. Found my part of my arrow just soaked in blood. tried to find blood and nothing. We finally found blood and it was just a speck. it took us forever to follow trail. I thought for as good of a hit i would have just had to follow the red highway to my bull but there was literally nothing to go off of. Ended up getting some other help...my old man...and finally found the bull.
What happened when i shot was his front leg was extended and after the shot and hit him the skin and muscle covered the hole up. I am pretty positive that the blood we found was leaking from his nose/mouth. When we dressed him i bet there was 3 gallons of congealed blood in his rib cage...He just did not bleed through the entry hole (there was not an exit).
I have also had obscene R rated blood trails with slick tricks.
Hang in there man. This is the worst part of the game. It just happens no matter who you are or how long you have been playing.
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That sucks!
I'll offer a few suggestions that may or may not apply.
I am certainly not judging you as I was not there.
First everyone is always worried about broadheads but for elk I worry about having a heavy enough arrow to pass through at all ranges.
Second was he quartering to? This is how I believe most elk are lost. A very slight quartering to angle and you only get one lung. An elk can live for days on one lung.
Third most guys are just too afraid of the shoulder, a perfect shot on a broad side elk is straight in line with the front legs halfway up the body. If you hit behind the leg by 4" you can miss the lungs all together. I myself use to aim to far back with a bow.
Lastly never give up looking for blood. Don't get discouraged there is a spec of blood somewhere.
Learn from it and move on. Good luck next year.
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That is a tough one for sure, but it happens. However, to minimize this ever happening again, I suggest using non-mechanical, fixed blade broadheads ONLY. I shoot Bear Razor heads without the insert/bleeder blade. (Another good one is Zwickey or Magnus heads in 2 blades) They are a two blade, fixed position, cutting tip, and resharpenable broadheads. They fly incredibly well. I have yet to lose an animal (deer or elk) using them. In fact, I have NEVER had an arrow that did not pass completely through the animal (including elk). This pretty much assures you will have a blood trail (river in most cases) to follow.
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