Shot my first elk BUT

[Red Dawg]

sorry to hear about your misfortune. that really sucks that you lost your elk. I can see where you are coming from. How far did the cow go from when you shot her.

[bucklucky]

It does suck though  that you didnt get to enjoy your cow Oh well, chalk it up as  a learning experiance

[boneaddict]

Same here.  Alot of inexperienced folks on here and alot of folks watch the tv shows which portray this kind of action all of the time.   As with bucklucky, learned the hard way and want to make sure an animal doesn't go to waste.  That hide, the guts and the heat created with the wound, just ruins the meat.  It cn be pretty nasty even in very cold temps.  These warm temps, NO CHANCE.

[demontang]

She went about 100yards or so, the trees where really thick and I didnt even know there was a well used trail there tell the next day. It also didnt help that the elk where running every where after I shot, it made it hard to track without much blood sign from the rain. This hole archery season has been a learning experience, In the last three days I learned a lot about how elk act by getting busted, not being ready to shot when they walked though a line, and now I'm getting good at finding them and getting setup.

[boneaddict]

They will teach you something on every hunt, I promise.  Thats all part of the experience.  Keep learning and enjoy the fruits of your success whether thats watching a sunrise, a squirell frolicking in the bush while you are patiently waiting for that elk to come in, to two bulls squaring off.  Its ALL good.  You'll have lots of other chances.

[jdb]

we made a similiar mistake a few years back, My Dad shot a buck in the evening and it got dark went back at first light and found it but it layed out all nite. and it was spoiled and that was in november! Live and learn. JB

[demontang]

This season has been great, I had a cow only 5 feet from me yesterday and she never know I was there. That is something I never thought was possible with as little camo I had, I cant wait to get back out .

[Tony 270WSM]

Maybe they thought the person who shot it wasn't able to find and recover it, so rather than letting it waste they put it to use. Could have been done with good intentions.

[LongTatLaw]

Last year I shot one an hour before dark with 2 arrows in the boiler room... I gave it a lil over an hour and tracked it by light for another 3 before losing the blood. I later found out some guys winched it into the truck probably within an hour of my shooting it...drove it up the road and chopped its head off. They left the rest to rot.

I eventually got the head back through much pain... but the animal was wasted in the process...  I guess finding a gut pile is better than finding a moved, rotted full animal just missing its head.

Sorry you lost it... I would def go after it within two hours no matter what. Take lights with ya bro..or this may not be the last time you tell this story!

[Fullabull]

The gents are right on with their assessment.

I once shot a bull before dark and skinned and quartered it out. I laid out the quarters so air could flow around them for the night and went back to camp. When I returned in the morning, one of the quarters had slipped and landed on part of the cape. We lost most of that quarter because the heat could not escape well enough.

I shot my first archery bull this year in the evening and didn't get back to camp till 3am where all the meat was safe and cooling.

It's a hard lesson to learn but I bet it will never happen again

Fulla

[demontang]

I had some lights with me but they just wouldnt put out that much light in the dark of night up there. I have since found my good mag lights that my son had hidden from me. I plan on getting a stinger streamlight with 295 lumens for track