Well, thanks to the help of Buckman and Elkslayer and his son I get to share the story of this Elk!
This was my first archery elk and became a great educational experience for me! Buckman has been getting pics of this guy at one of his stands for about 3 weeks and as time has gone on he had become pretty consistent.
Saturday morning I got a call from Buckman, asking.... Do you want an Elk?.... I sure as heck did as Elk meat is a favorite in my family and we just cooked our last elk steaks about a month ago! He said make sure you are in the stand by 2 PM as they have been coming in pretty regularly around 3:30. So just as was advised I was in the stand by about 1:50 PM. The wind was pretty gusty Saturday and after being in the stand about 15 mins I felt like I was getting a bit of motion sicknes..
I stuck it out and the wind calmed down after about an hour and a half. The wind was blowing directly into my face and at about 3:15 I had a doe catch my scent directly behind me and she proceeded to spend about 10 minutes blowing and letting everyone know something was up. She finally disapeared and within another 15 mins I began to hear some noise from directly behind me again.
The first elk came in at about 3:35 or so and this young spike was not far behind. Before i could even get my bow in hand and get lined up in shooting position I had 20 Elk directly below my stand. Every one within 25 yards!!
This 1x2 bull was the only bull in the group and he seemed to think he was King. I took my time and chose my shot opportunity carefuly as I didnt want to get caught with that many elk so close! After a couple minutes he turned broadside to lunge at a cow who was "Invading His Territory" I used the commotion as my opportunity to come to full draw! I lined up a double lung shot and as I released he began to turn slightly away from me, my arrow hit about 4 inches forward from where I intended but seemed ok elevation wise and had great penetration! The elk all took off and stoped about 50 yards away and began "Cow calling" to each other. They re-organized as a group and bolted out of there about 10 mins later.
I waited about 20 mins before getting out of the stand and proceeded to go look for some blood where he was standing. After consulting via cell phone with both Buckman and Elkslayer I was re-assured that even though I felt like I hit a little far forward, If I was accurate with my description of the arrow placement it should still have been a vital shot so he was probably a "Dead Elk Walking"
I didnt want to push him to hard so I stuck close to the stand looking for his departure direction via blood trail. To my dissapointment all I could find was about 30 yards of minimal drops of blood! By this time it was dark and my headlamp flashlight wasnt the best at illuminating those drops of blood! To top it off there was no snow and everything was still wet from the last 3 weeks rainshowers. Needless to say I didnt have a very good bloodtrail to follow.
I am grateful to Elkslayer who grabbed his oldest boy and headed my direction to come help look for him. I went to aquire a better light and met up with Elkslayer and his boy before we all headed back down to look for my Elk.
We were able to pick up his blood trail again but would only proceed about 15 yards before loosing it again. I couldnt believe how hard it was finding some blood!! We spent the next 2 1/2 hours following the same pattern of finding a few drops and loosing the trail again. I was litterally on my hands and knees crawling at times to find some drops of blood and get an idea of which direction to look next! At about 7:45 PM Elkslayer whispers back to me...."There he is.....get your Bow, he's still alive"
Well......I made the mistake of leaving my bow back on the trail a few hundred yards....
....lesson learned the hardway.....
After returning to get my bow...and Elkslayer patiently waiting and hoping those were indeed "Elk Eyes" he saw not "Cougar or Bigfoot Eyes"
We got within about 15 yards and could see he was hurting pretty bad and struggling to breathe. I couldnt get a "Finish Shot" because of how thick it was, but after watching him for a couple minutes it was clear that he wasnt going anywhere and I walked up to him and put his final "Kill Shot" through both lungs fom about 2 feet away!
After all was said and done this Bull went between 300-350 yards and was still alive 4 hours after getting an arrow right through the heart!! The arrow went in on the top of the heart and came out on the other side dead center...the pic Elkslayer shared is the arrow exit hole! We couldnt believe it!! But the proof is in the pic!
A Big Thanks to Elkslayer and his boy for helping me with my most difficult tracking job to date, and with getting him out of the woods at 9:00 at night! Also to Buckman for being generous enough to let me hunt one of his stands and put some Elkmeat back in the freezer!!
