wondering the ratio of archery shots taken at elk vs elk recovered

[romaknows]

    I will start by saying that I love archery hunting,but it seems like lots of shots are taken at elk with the outcome of never finding the elk.

  I took a shot at 35 yards and hit a cow a little far back (liver ??)about 8 inches of my arrow  did not penetrate but it must have went almost all the way as bleeding mid line on other side.I was able to get another shot at her about 10 minutes later(spooked back my way by another hunter)which dropped her instantly.
  I  thought I had spined her but as as closed the distance for a quick kill shot she jumped up and ran off before that could happen.
 I waited 3 hours before tracking her, but long story short she was never recovered.
I am really bummed out  about not finding her ( searched for multiple days, just no blood to follow after 400 yards).

I have killed quite a few animals with my bow, but it seems a lot of other bow hunters I have talked to( the honest ones) have lost just as many elk as they have recovered.
 I know that a perfect shot will kill an elk every time, so please dont bash me about not making a great shot as I already know that.
I guess I am just really bummed that I mortally wounded and elk,and never recovered it,and thinking about giving up on archery elk.

[np205]

Shot at a bull opening day at 53 yds. Right as I pulled the trigger I saw his front leg move as he went to turn and hit him in the right cheek, in bone. Tried to get a follow up shot but other people bumped him, they weren't even hunting. Bull was taken the next day by someones kid I know while I was looking at them 150yrds away. I was glad it was taken and was even back after it myself, just wasn't close enough first. Rural hunting on private land. Sometimes it's the way it goes, my friend kept defending me saying I don't make bad shots like that. I shot my bow after, right on. The landowner saw it all happen and watched the elk turn as I shot, said nothing I could do. It happens, you make the best of it and don't quit. I don't ever want to wound or leave an animal out there, that being said it does happen. To be honest it happens in all seasons, you only have control over what you do and I even passed up a shot because I thought something wasn't right (it was ok  ) but I had to make and live with the call.

[Ridgeratt]

There are 2 Bulls that I know of they are looking for in Pend Oreille county right now.

[bwhntr350]

This can be a touchy subject for me. I have taken 9 or 10 record book Roosevelt elk, over the years, and have never shot at one from over 35 yards. That is the limit I set myself to back in the '80's. I have wounded two bulls. One from less than 15 yards that turned to run as soon as I released and the arrow hit, I think, jaw bone. The first one I wounded was a small 5 point that was 30 yards away. My arrow hit the tiniest of twigs hanging down. I saw the twig before I shot and I thought that there was no was my arrow would hit it. It did! The arrow deflected and hit him right in the arse. My Dad and I tracked him until dark and then, that night, it poured down rain. The dead bull was stumbled upon by other hunters four days later, bloated. They gave my the antlers, I tagged it, and was thanked by the local game warden for doing so.

The reason it is touchy for me is that I read about all these long shots. Some successful, some not. My thought, in the latter years of my hunting, was/is don't shoot unless you know you can make a perfect shot. Too much stuff can happen when shooting past 50 or 60 yards, way too much! Too me, it is not worth it. It is a sick feeling knowing that you stuck a animal and it is a hopeless feeling when you start to realize what you have done.

I will, probably, be labeled self-righteous for saying this stuff, but I cannot stand reading about 70 and 80 yard shots, and sometimes longer. To me that is just selfish and, yeah, stupid! But, it will never stop.

Let my lashing begin...

[Duckslayer89]

Shot at 4 elk killed them all up until this year. I'm blaming broadhead but can't say for sure exactly what happened. No penetration. 4 for 5

[Buzz2401]

I don't think I know a Archery hunter who hasn't lost an animal.  Guys I know who have been doing it for more then 30 years have all lost multiple animals.

[lokidog]

I've taken lots of shots at elk, in fact my first year elk hunting, I had to buy a second dozen arrows... none of those were hits though.   

So, maybe a more accurate question is hit/lost versus hit/recovered?

I have hit/recovered five, one I shot four times with three arrow, do I get more credits for hit/recovered?  The second and fourth hits were not fatal, I'll blame the leg shot on a bent arrow since it had already double lunged him once.    I will sheepishly admit that I have drawn blood on four that were not recovered, one survived for sure as I saw him two months later, one likely survived as she was seen limping with the herd about four hours later, one might have survived as I think I slid the arrow in under his should with a poor frontal shot, and one cow likely did not.     I can't blame distance however as all of these were less than 25 yards, I will blame inexperience and excitement though, still don't know how I didn't recover the cow.    

I lost one deer with the bow when I was fourteen or fifteen.

[Buzz2401]

I have found dozens of elk with arrows in them. Six elk over the years from archers who took frontal shots.  Arrow was off to the side and skimmed between scapula and ribs with arrow still on caracass.  Stuff happens and mistakes are made when the adrenalin is pumping.  My only issue is when guys tell themselves the elk will probably live and they keep hunting.  If blood is drawn a tag should be notched.  But of course this is only my opinion and its not against any law to keep hunting.

[lokidog]

I have found dozens of elk with arrows in them. Six elk over the years from archers who took frontal shots.  Arrow was off to the side and skimmed between scapula and ribs with arrow still on caracass.  Stuff happens and mistakes are made when the adrenalin is pumping.  My only issue is when guys tell themselves the elk will probably live and they keep hunting.  If blood is drawn a tag should be notched.  But of course this is only my opinion and its not against any law to keep hunting.

No other elk were shot at during the seasons of the last two and I only hunted after seeing the one on the first night of the late season.  The other cow was my first year elk hunting and I did end up with the finishing shot on one a guy I met in the woods had hit.  I will agree, that most of the time blood is drawn you should notch your tag.

[TVHunts]

This can be a touchy subject for me. I have taken 9 or 10 record book Roosevelt elk, over the years, and have never shot at one from over 35 yards. That is the limit I set myself to back in the '80's. I have wounded two bulls. One from less than 15 yards that turned to run as soon as I released and the arrow hit, I think, jaw bone. The first one I wounded was a small 5 point that was 30 yards away. My arrow hit the tiniest of twigs hanging down. I saw the twig before I shot and I thought that there was no was my arrow would hit it. It did! The arrow deflected and hit him right in the arse. My Dad and I tracked him until dark and then, that night, it poured down rain. The dead bull was stumbled upon by other hunters four days later, bloated. They gave my the antlers, I tagged it, and was thanked by the local game warden for doing so.

The reason it is touchy for me is that I read about all these long shots. Some successful, some not. My thought, in the latter years of my hunting, was/is don't shoot unless you know you can make a perfect shot. Too much stuff can happen when shooting past 50 or 60 yards, way too much! Too me, it is not worth it. It is a sick feeling knowing that you stuck a animal and it is a hopeless feeling when you start to realize what you have done.

I will, probably, be labeled self-righteous for saying this stuff, but I cannot stand reading about 70 and 80 yard shots, and sometimes longer. To me that is just selfish and, yeah, stupid! But, it will never stop.

Let my lashing begin...

I agree with you almost 100%.  I do believe there are guys that can take that 70 yard or maybe even 80 with extreme confidence.  Unless you have ice water in your veins though you toss a little adrenalin in and it could be easy to miss the mark.  Any doubt, I just won't shoot myself, I have too much respect for the animal.

I think the most important part you stated and the same goes for me is it makes me sick to see an injured animal go off knowing it will likely die slow and miserably.  There are people who have the "oh well, cant find it" and go stick another one as if it was no big deal.  That makes me sick personally.

To romaknows,  It happens, it sounds like you tried hard to recover her and that's the best you can do.   As far as giving up on archery, that's nuts.  It could have been a rifle shot and you could have lost her too.  Lots of people can tell stories of elk that were lost to a well placed rifle shot and didn't recover their animal, they can be tough as nails and they can drop like a ton of bricks.  You just never know.

[coachcw]

I know of seven one and done arrows this year . I haven't heard of any of my buddys loosing one . It does happen and I will say I wouldn't blame the type of broadhead used ever . one thing I will say is every time I have seen a bow hunter loose a animal it wasn't from a lack of effort to recover . on the flip side I have seen plenty of rifle guys shoot and just assume they missed and wonder off. And I said plenty not all of them .

[thinkingman]

I've been hesitant to share this story but here goes....
I have hunted archery elk before but never released an arrow at one.
I have been shooting daily(yes, daily) at the block in my backyard all summer and am confident with bh to 50yds.
Last Saturday opener I and a buddy were in the elk as early as 8am.
I got caught in the middle of an opening and busted by a herd of at least 40 animals toward the end of the morning hunt.
We went back to camp and relaxed until about 5pm and went back out.
I set up near a trail with good sightlines and shooting lanes and waited.
At 6:03pm, a lone cow and calf came down the trail moving fast.
I had just taken my mouth call out and set it down...I only had time to get my release on the loop and get set.  She stopped at 12 yards and was shielded by some small trees.  She took two steps forward into the shooting lane and looked right at me.  I was on target and as soon as I released the arrow, she flinched and bolted.  It was simultaneous.  Like 'jumped the string'. 
I called my buddy on the radio and told him to be on the lookout, hung some tape at my shooting location and waited 20min before looking at the impact site.
A few drops of blood here and there....nothing great and no arrow pass-through.
I looked up and could see the cow laying down about 50 yards ahead.
We watched her through binoculars and could not see any movement so we walked up on her with an arrow nocked. 
She jumped up and ran off before I could draw. 
There was a decent puddle of blood but she was moving pretty good.
We watched where she was headed and wondered what to do.  While we were discussing, an large, loud group of hunters pulling empty game carts and flashing flashlights came walking through, shouting and 'looking for their buddy'.  I asked them if they saw my cow and said 'Yeah, she jumped up and ran that way' in a vague sort of way.  It was getting dark and we hung some tape and marked our spot on HuntOnX, searched until it was too dark to see.
I was sick about the whole deal but determined to see it through.
At 5am we were getting geared up and at 6 we were on the move, hunting for my buddy's tag as we worked our way back into the area.
We worked our way onto a herd and were stalking a couple of cows when they alerted and bolted. 
20 yards in front of us was my cow, dead, with some evidence of scavengers around the rump.  My broadhead was pressing against the skin on the offside of the gut, and the smell was not encouraging.  We proceeded to tag her and get to processing, constantly reassuring ourselves this was going to work out.
We did a pretty good job of getting the meat off, and bagged by 11am, packed out what we could and hung the rest in meat bags.
We put that meat in the cooler on ice and went back in for the rest, got that in the cooler, packed up and went to town for more ice.
The meat was on ice until Monday afternoon when we started cleaning up the meat, deboning and packing.  There was an offsmell until we rinsed the meat but it looked really good.
I vacpacked the tenderloins and backstraps, took the rest to a butcher for grinding and steaks.
I told him the story and the timeline and he said it smelled fine.
I cooked one of the tenderloins the next night and when I sliced it, that smell of the kill site came pouring out of the meat.  I ate a few slices and it didn't taste bad, but definitely had a sour smell.
I called the butcher and told him of my experience with the tenderloin and he(different guy than checked in the meat) said if it was overnight, it was 'bone sour', a term I'd never heard before, and that it probably wasn't good.  He suggested that I  dispose of the meat rather than pay a couple hundy to get sour meat processed, which is what we did.
I am still sick over the fact that the animal suffered and died that way and the meat was wasted.
We honestly worked as hard and fast as we could to do the right thing.
Sucks.

[syoungs]

some times things are out of your control and it happens, sounds like you did everything you could have done, sucks to loose an animal to bone sour, we saw quite a few that would come in with it back when we were processing.

3 years ago a guy came to us with 2 deer to be checked in for processing, he and his son had killed them the 2nd day of archery season. this was 5 days later. He had both animals, skin still on, wrapped in blue tarps, in his truck bed, under a canopy. both were rotten to the point of having maggots on them, he still wanted us to "salvage what we could", cause the inside meat should be fine.

another time a guy brought us a small bear, hide on, late august. he drove it around for 2 days in his truck to show it off, wanted us to skin it, turn the eyes and lips, get it ready for a mount. these people must not have had olfactory senses from birth!

[Rainier10]

I have not hit and lost an elk, yet, knock on wood.  I have seen it happen, not a lot, but it does happen.  I would say I have seen it 4 times in my 20 years of archery hunting.

I have hit more than one deer and not been able to recover them.  Some I have found the next day or two and can see that it is was only a flesh wound.  Grazed the brisket or top of the back.

My buddy shot a deer and couldn't find it.  Two days later hunting the same area he shot a deer and it ended up being the deer from two days before.  It was chasing does again.

[Mudman]

The last 2 years I hunted elk archery legit seriously (several years ago)I shot 3 times.  I missed a 65y open field broadside shot on 7pt bull.  Low under belly.  I shot high at dusk 30-40 yards 5pt bull.  Wounded in front shoulder blade.  Saw him later in season with old wound on shoulder.  This one really was depressing.  Probably wasn't enough light in trees at dusk and I misread pins.  My fault.  1 shot at 45y lead cow pass through double lung.  The 7pt I called in but he sensed danger and would not come closer.  It is a shot I can make but excitement likely got to me.  I figured it not a chance to get again so I took shot.  Cousin got him later in muzzy season.  Great bull.  5pt I should have got.  I upgraded sights after that and what a huge improvement with the black Gold sights.  Cow was easy money.  Ya we miss and wound in archery season.  Nor perfect shots are always made.  However I think as a whole archery hunters leave no more or less wounded animals to die not recovered than modern.