Hee Haw *censored*

[CampCoffee]

I feel like a *censored*. Shot a spike and didn't recover. Don't know if any of you have done that, but it's sickening.
Sunday morning there was lots of wind, snow, and swirling around. I was on stand on Bethel, and several groups of elk were coming thru the funnel. I catch sight of a spike about fourth in the row. The herd was moving fairly quick, so I had to count tines (it was a 2x1), aim and fire before he got thru the opening and would lose him. My sight picture was high on the front shoulder as he was heading at 2o'clock. Hit him and off they go.
There was 2-3" of snow on the ground so we tracked the blood, over the ridge and down into the other drainage. By the time we lost him, we had spooked him three times, traveled 2.5miles, and we'd spent seven hours tracking him. The last few hours he pretty much stopped bleeding, only a BB size drop every 20-feet. He headed off downhill into the ugly rugged, and he had dropped below the snow line. We knew we couldn't follow his trail without the snow in that mess.
Any thoughts on dealing with a bonehead stupid shot that wounds an animal. All I can say is I am vowed to not rush my shot on an elk again, whether that means I score or not.

[Lowedog]

It happens.  Elk are tough animals.  It is possible that you bullet didn't make it through the shoulder and if so a good chance he will survive the injury. 

[robodad]

Here you go  Now off you go and don't do that anymore !!

[tshoote30]

It happens.  Elk are tough animals.  It is possible that you bullet didn't make it through the shoulder and if so a good chance he will survive the injury. 

  that sucks though.

[Superhunter333]

sorry to hear that. it happens  

[wapiti hunter2]

I lost an elk last year so I know how you feel.  My lesson was NEVER HURRY!!!  If you don't have time to make a good clear shot, and enough time on the clock (mine was at dusk in rain) to recover, then don't shoot.  It was buck fever that made me hurry and pull the trigger and I have felt sick ever since.  BTW, I found the carcase this year during early muzzy, nice 4x5 100 yards past where we gave up the search.

[Hunter Dug]

The lesson to learn here is next time you make a shot you are not sure of give the animal at least and hour before getting on the trail. The second and most important if your jump the animal while track after the first hour than you need to STOP and wait at least another hour or even better 2 before continuing tracking.  Very hard to do but a must. Always be perpared for a follow up shot.  Now I dont know what the weather conditions were but that may have played a part in your choices.  Bottom line is you have learned a huge lesson and I bet you will not make that mistake again.  Good luck and keep your head up I too know how it feels to lose an animal,  the horse is still saddled, jump back on.

[400out]

If he was heading down go back in there and head down too! If you got him good enough he won't want to go up 

[CampCoffee]

My buddy and I did give him an hour after the before we started tracking. Then after the first jump, we gave him another hour and ate lunch.
Funny thing, we came across 2 hunters who saw the blood and started tracking but they got sidetracked after a while and lost the trail. We got worried we'd get to the spike and just see a gutpile so we hurried too much after that. In hind sight, losing him that way to someone else would be better than what happened.

[Elkstuffer]

Go back up there and look for the birds. If he is dead they will find him. It's cold enough that you could still recover some meat. You will feel better knowing that you did everything that you could to recover the animal. We owe them that much. Good luck!