Tracking Wounded Elk

[DOUBLELUNG]

I second using a GPS if you lose the blood; you would think you could do a tight spiral out from the last blood without one, you cant.  Also, don't put too much faith in conventional wisdom - if it's not working, try something different. 

My toughest - and most satisfying recovery:  At 10am I shot a bull at 42 yards.  I watched the arrow sink in right behind his shoulder - perfect double lung shot!  I had a plan to meet my partner for lunch, so marked the spot with flagging tape and headed to the rendezvous.  He had killed a bull too, so I went back to find mine. 

At the shot, he whipped around and ran back the way he came from, down into a drainage between trees.  I quickly found the back 10" of my arrow - with stomach content in the broken shaft!  WTF?  I was sure I'd seen the arrow enter; for it to hit stomach, he had to have wheeled before the shot, so the arrow entered where I saw, but angled back, not straight through the lungs.  Still confident he was dead, I proceeded downhill and began to search the drainage - nothing.  This area had so many elk, it was like a feedlot - tracks everywhere.

Baffled, I returned to the shot location.  I got down on hands and knees, and found pinpoint blood and flecked of bloody stomach content.  I began to work those out.  About 4 hours had passed, and with the sun behind me I could follow the tracks of this particular elk - they had a shine in the grass the older ones did not, and I occasionally found little bits of sign - each of which I marked with orange flagging.  Though gutshot, that elk went UP the ridge, crossing over into the next drainage.  I was still on hands and knees, after 260 yards on the GPS, heading down into the next drainage - I saw antlers bob in the aspens ahead of me.  He was bedded, and though his nose kept dropping, he was still alive.  There was a rimrock closer to him to my right, I removed my boots and stalked up onto the rimrock.

Despite my stealth, he was standing as I crested the rimrock, arrow nocked and ready to draw.  I could only see his pelvis and about 10" of his back in front; I drew, aimed to the side of the spine, and released.  The arrow sank to the fletchings forward of his pelvis; he shook like an electric current ran through him.  As I nocked a third arrow, he ran - I shot after him, and heard my arrow rattle through the aspens.

After 30 yards, i found my last arrow - 100% covered in bright red blood, I couldn't figure it out.  I followed the few sparse blood drops, and when I lost them, I used the GPS to circle out until I found another. It took a couple of hours to cover the 110 yards from the second site, and he was stone dead on his side. The second arrow was sticking partway out of his back, and the third shot, I discovered, had passed through his rear shank (calf if you prefer).

As Mr. Phelps stated, be in shape, be persistent, and don't let conventional knowledge of wounded animal behavior cloud your mind to the possibility your animal may not act like the majority.

Total time to recovery AFTER starting to track was 4 hours, in which time I covered 370 yards as the crow flies.  The first shot?  He had turned to nearly facing me in the time it took the arrow to reach him - it entered behind his shoulder but didn't pierce the ribcage until his 2nd to last rib - went through the rear of one lung, and penetrated the diaphragm and liver after passing through the rumen.

[billdo5]

I hope you wait longer than 30minutes on a big bull

[billythekidrock]

A hunter also needs to be in GOOD ENOUGH SHAPE to give the animal the effort it deserves.  I have been with people that give up because the blood trail is getting further away from the truck or the animal is heading straight down.

Don't shoot if you aren't prepared to track through whatever terrain is around you.

I agree.

[JPhelps]

I hope you wait longer than 30minutes on a big bull

I waited 42 minutes on last years archery Washington bull and 10 minutes on my Montana Rifle Bull.

On the Washington bull, I knew I had hit the bull in the heart, saw blood right off the bat, good blood trail, found my arrow (had 26" penetration), heard the bull crash, etc...  If all these things hadn't added up I would have waited longer.

[billdo5]

Yeah i just hate when u spook them out of the bed and they go on that death run

[brianmtsinc]

Some really good points on this thread.   

I ALWAYS have a small spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide in my pack.  It works GREAT!!   

My only other point is this:    It is better to wait then it is to hurry in and risk pushing a wounded animal.  Of course there are a couple of factors that may change this (weather ... other hunters in the area) but I never will understand people rushing in.  Most of the time it plays out just fine and they get their animals.  However, I have seen several cases where an animal was lost after being jumped out of it's bed - and I for one, won't risk that happening if it is my animal.  I have always taught my kids, "No harm can come from waiting, but harm can come from not being patient.   

[Bookworm007]

I would say waiting can be key. Of the three animals I have shot two dropped dead in their tracks, but one of them fell over after the shot and then got up and proceeded to walk away........

It was the first animal I had ever had to track and had very little experience. There was a ton of blood where I shot the Elk but no blood trail. I did not wait 30 minutes to start tracking and just started following tracks in the dirt. Ran into the herd of elk, but mine wasn't with it. So I figured it had dropped dead somewhere in between and I had missed it. Well I end up stumbling onto the elk, I had what looked like a solid shot that was still bleeding a little, but rather than marking the spot and letting nature take its course (like an idiot I had ditched my rifle since I was hiking to heck and gone) I pushed it and it took off like a bullet. I proceeded to run into another unit that I was not allowed to hunt. So even wounded these animals are extremely tough!

This is the animal I think about every time I pull the trigger now. Losing an animal is a terrible experience and I never want it to happen to me again.......... So keep your gun with you and be patient! Also having someone with you to act as a spotter is very helpful.

[blackhorn]

Little trick I discovered by chance is to look for hornet activity those suckers are great at finding blood.  Another helpfull tip, have a second person with the tracker for situational awareness.   

[billdo5]

U really didnt have your gun.....

[billdo5]

Also i believe there is a law that you can track it 250 yards into an area ur not suppose(like a refuge) to be or something to that matter...

[JLS]

Also i believe there is a law that you can track it 250 yards into an area ur not suppose(like a refuge) to be or something to that matter...

There is no law that authorizes this action.

[billdo5]

Are u sure because a guy i know shot a buck and it went into the refuge so he called the game department and they said he could track it a certain distance into the refuge... hmmm 

[h20hunter]

I've no idea of the legality but if I was tracking blood into an area like was mentioned I would think that the blood trail would be enough to show a warden to allow tracking. Hopefully....last thing a warden wants is a lost animal under those conditions.

[JLS]

Are u sure because a guy i know shot a buck and it went into the refuge so he called the game department and they said he could track it a certain distance into the refuge... hmmm 

The officer might have authorized it, but there is no law that allows for it.

[billdo5]

The officer is the law now a days lol