Frontal shot on elk, situation ethics and other musings

[branches]

DOUBLELUNG, Thank you for telling us your bow hunting story. I hope that all hunters can learn from what you went thru with your elk hunt.

[bowhunterforever]

Bad shots happen. With any weapon. Mistakes are made and that’s how we learn to be better hunters. Thanks for the story Doublelung..!! Your a stand up guy!!

Also it never ceases to amaze me how tough the wild animals are.

[idaho guy]

tagging for next update. Curious what caused your first shot to miss and hit they far back. Sounds like he will survive which is the good part.

I was hunting alone and called an elk in that came straight in close then spooked and I cow called and stopped him at 20 yards quartering away. I shot and hit him squarely in the butt also! I think he jumped forward at the release. It was not a fatal hit although I spent a lot time looking and he was a really nice bull. I really appreciate this post Dl and others I have read from you. You do have a lot of knowledge. Also Jackelope If a bowhunter should stick to rifles for sticking arrows in trees I should have quit years ago    

[pianoman9701]

Bad shots happen. With any weapon. Mistakes are made and that’s how we learn to be better hunters. Thanks for the story Doublelung..!! Your a stand up guy!!

Also it never ceases to amaze me how tough the wild animals are.

Shoot me in the butt with a broadhead and I'm going to die right there!

[Skyvalhunter]

If its the bungie as opposed to the cheek you probably would

[pianoman9701]

Either way, I'm going down right there. I'm no elk!

[cbond3318]

Bad shots happen. With any weapon. Mistakes are made and that’s how we learn to be better hunters. Thanks for the story Doublelung..!! Your a stand up guy!!

Also it never ceases to amaze me how tough the wild animals are.

Shoot me in the butt with a broadhead and I'm going to die right there!

 

[bigbullshedhunter]

I took frontal shot at 8 yds on a 340 idaho bull this last sept. Found the last 6 inches of the arrow snapped off. The rest sank in him. Lots of blood for first 100 yds then nothin. Jumped him twice the next couple days. Never ended up finding him. So first year I havnt shot a bull. Pretty frustrating. Especially since I'd been trail camin him all year. Will more than likely never archery hunt again. Ruined it for me.

[pianoman9701]

I took frontal shot at 8 yds on a 340 idaho bull this last sept. Found the last 6 inches of the arrow snapped off. The rest sank in him. Lots of blood for first 100 yds then nothin. Jumped him twice the next couple days. Never ended up finding him. So first year I havnt shot a bull. Pretty frustrating. Especially since I'd been trail camin him all year. Will more than likely never archery hunt again. Ruined it for me.

...OR you could stop beating yourself up and realize a couple of things. 1. nothing is wasted in nature, and 2. It doesn't matter which discipline you use, you can lose an animal for hundreds of reasons, most of them unknown until you actually do it. I would wait a while before I'd start selling my bow, were I you. 

[Magnum_Willys]

I took frontal shot at 8 yds on a 340 idaho bull this last sept. Found the last 6 inches of the arrow snapped off. The rest sank in him. Lots of blood for first 100 yds then nothin. Jumped him twice the next couple days. Never ended up finding him. So first year I havnt shot a bull. Pretty frustrating. Especially since I'd been trail camin him all year. Will more than likely never archery hunt again. Ruined it for me.

Hear ya.  Son and I love the action with archery but its not worth the potential heartache for him so we rifle hunt.  I can appreciate his position, you either get where you can shrug it off or just take broadside 35 yard shots to minimize chance of loss which still can happen when they jump the string or other.   Hunting takes luck - to find em, see-em, shoot at em - and yes, takes luck to drop em, rarely 100% and with primitive weapons I ballpark it at 80%.   

[2MANY]

I took frontal shot at 8 yds on a 340 idaho bull this last sept. Found the last 6 inches of the arrow snapped off. The rest sank in him. Lots of blood for first 100 yds then nothin. Jumped him twice the next couple days. Never ended up finding him. So first year I havnt shot a bull. Pretty frustrating. Especially since I'd been trail camin him all year. Will more than likely never archery hunt again. Ruined it for me.

I feel for Double Lung and all others.

I did the same thing recently on a similar sized bull.
Not totally straight on but slightly quartering.
I tried sneaking the arrow in-front of the rib area but it slid under the hide and down the outside of the ribs.
Sickening.
Found the bull again a day later and a few miles away screaming his head off with a group of cows.
Unfortunately this time he didn't charge in to fight this bone head of a challenger.
I should have shot him walking broadside at 25 yards but I didn't and he turned towards me and locked up.
My bad but you are not alone.

[2MANY]

Double lung and Karl.................................I have max points in Wyoming and I'm trying to make a plan???.
I would be willing to put in with someone who is a slower runner than myself.
Hate them grizzly bears.

[Seahawk12]

Just curious.
If your buddy had a drone in the back of the truck would you have used it to locate the downed elk?

[DOUBLELUNG]

Just curious.
If your buddy had a drone in the back of the truck would you have used it to locate the downed elk?

If it is legal, yes. 

[DOUBLELUNG]

Bad shots happen. With any weapon. Mistakes are made and that’s how we learn to be better hunters. Thanks for the story Doublelung..!! Your a stand up guy!!

Also it never ceases to amaze me how tough the wild animals are.

I was at an elk conference in 1991.  A Montana bio had brought an elk heart in a jar for show and tell.  A hunter had given him the heart because it had a weird bump on the side.  He had cut it away and there was a .30 cal mushroomed bullet embedded in the wall of the heart, healed over.  The bull was acting perfectly healthy until the hunter killed it with a shot through the lungs.