Your Move, Episode 1

[jrebel]

Liver shots are very lethal....very fast.  My cow this year entered from a sharp quartering away.   I hit and broke three ribs, hit / nicked the liver, diaphragm and one lung.  She was dead in under 60 seconds.  I didn't get a full pass through and hit high to low so the blood trail was not very good at all, but still found her with good tracking skills.   

[erk444]

Liver hits can kill quick, or they can take days to finally put them down. Not sure why though Might depend on where the liver is hit I think. We've all had shots that have put an elk down fast. Even when the shot wasn't perfect but, as a general rule, an elk hit through one lung or one lung and liver will be a difficult blood trail 9 times out of 10.

[kisfish]

Cool thread. For me personally I am going to wait for a broadside shot.

[elk247]

5th day of a 10 day hunt i'd pass on this dink bull.

Was waiting on that.  Yah, he's barely a keeper     Anybody considering throwing out a nervous grunt with their voice to stop bullwinkle before he enters the vital covering brush?

Grunt, whistle, pop, glunk, mew ect. Anything that you can do at full draw. Wait as long as possible for the angle to be favorable. Passing on a bull with a questionable shot on the 5th day of a 10 day hunt in Montana in late September isn't the end of the world.

[Jonathan_S]

I agree that a questionable shot not being taken isn't the end of the world but I do not consider a 20 yard shot on a slowly walking bull, broadside, questionable    for me

[jrebel]

Blood trails are mostly influenced by these factors.....

1.  Sharp broadhead.
2.  Major vessel / organ.  Major vessels will make an animal spray blood. 
3.  bottom 1/3 of the animal. 

I have seen a couple high double lung shots that did not put blood on the ground.  Due to the shot being high the elk filled up with blood not leaking much on the ground.  When blood was found it was from the elk coughing / wheezing from not being able to breath.   

Archery hunting does create wound cavities like rifles.  It also does not create devastating exit wounds, if any at all.  The best advise I could give anyone that hunts archery is to be super attentive.  After the shot always mark the last place and direction the animal was seen.  Sometimes you won't find blood for 20-30 yards because it takes that long for it to drip down their hair. Lastly....Don't cover up the blood you do find.  Use direction of travel to find new blood....usually they will not do an about face and change direction sharply. 

[elk247]

That's not my idea of broadside. I'd shoot for Jrebels dot after letting him walk as far as possible,  slightly quartering away is my favorite.

[Curly]

Let him continue to walk a bit until he is broadside or slightly quartering away.

[D-Rock425]

Or another thought.  I would hope D-Rock425 is with me and I have him with his hunting knife in his hand and throw him like a dart at the elk.  Very caveman like 

this would be the safest bet off all.  I'd ride that bull out until he died.

[Jonathan_S]

Let him continue to walk a bit until he is broadside or slightly quartering away.

Yes.  If that bull was stopped at that angle though and I thought wind might swirl, I'm taking the shot.  I might get one lung but I can get the liver no problem.  Liver hits are deadly with any weapon.

[coachcw]

I have seen liver hits go one hell of a long way inless he beds up quick it can be real  tough .

[WSU]

Having had very mixed results on the liver hit, I certainly wouldn't count on a liver hit to be deadly.

[jrebel]

The liver is very  vascular and is considered a solid organ.  It has major vessels (as seen it the picutre) and will bleed profusely if hit.  If you are unlucky enough to miss one of the major vessels on a liver shot, it will not bleed as much.  All animals (including humans) have a fantastic ability to clot and stop bleeding.  So....if again you are unlucky enough to miss one of the major vessels in the liver......it will bleed slowly and take a long time to kill the animal.  Sometimes it may not even be blood loss that kills the animal, it may be infection. 

[jrebel]

Next animal you kill....take the liver out and dissect it, you will be amazed at how many large vessels run throug it.  If you do more then "just nick it" you should cut one...which is why livers are such deadly shots.  The bad thing about livers if most of the blood is low pressure so the animal tends to bleed in to the abd. cavity and not out on to the ground.  Tracking can be difficult. 

These are animals that need to sit for a couple hours before tracking.  If weather permits. 

[Jonathan_S]

Maybe I've just been lucky but I have liver hit multiple deer and one bull elk and I've tracked multiple other deer that were liver hit.  One buck I hit far back in MZ season and he didn't go 100 yards before laying down.  They generally get sick very quick and stop moving.  It is true they don't bleed outside the body much.

Elk are just amazingly tough, I've helped find bulls and cows that went forever on one lung too so unless you take out the heart or both lungs, it's anyone's guess.