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Well long story short, I shot a nice bull this afternoon. Hit him high. Very steep downhill angle. Around 25 yard shot. After the shot he barreled back down the mountain. His cows were the first to make it up and over the adjacent Ridge. He was a couple minutes behind them. Really moving slow, head hung low. No blood on entry side. When he switchback up the hill the exit side had lots of blood. Backed out to leave him overnight. He went over a Ridge into a thick timbered North facing slope with a creek in the bottom. Any thoughts on how to approach him in the morning. Couldn't find arrow or blood. First arrow released on an elk. Sw Montana. Thank you
Kyle, if you hit him high on a steep down angle, you probably won't see much blood on the entry. Lots of blood on exit side is a good sign. If he continues to bleed out that side, he should leave a blood trail as his hide saturates. I would think you got at least one lung which should mean dead elk by morning. I would start by going back to the location of the shot and looking for blood again with fresh eyes. If you cannot find any there, go to the last place you KNOW he was and start looking for sign. Be sure to look higher up on grass, trees, etc. as the blood may not have made it to the ground. Check the underside of leaves too. If all else fails, start a grid search. Sounds like he was sick and hopefully didn't go too far as long as you didn't push him tonight. Good luck!
I second the advice above. I think you will find him on the otherside of that ridge you last saw him on dead! Good luck
Tough luck. There's blood somewhere, you just have to find it. Follow his footprints until you find blood.
There may not be much blood thrown when he was barreling downhill. If the drip rate is constant, there will be more drops where he was moving slower (one foot apart instead of 30 feet apart).
Sometimes blood is heavier when an elk travels uphill/downhill depending on if the shot is forward/back.
If you can't find the arrow and should have, then he took it with him. It could have still been cutting as he ran if you didn't use an expandable.
When you find the blood trail, check the center of the tracks to see if he's bleeding from the nose (lung shot). If you hit one lung, it's probably fatal. A high hit that missed both lungs usually isn't. A bull can easily go a half-mile on a one-lung hit.
Get right in there before the meat goes bad. If you can't find his trail, listen for coyotes at first light, ravens all day, and as BOTW said, grid search. I'd commit 2 full days to the search, and spot check the area for scavengers for another week. If you find him even after the meat's bad, tag him. You'll be able to live with yourself.
Stick with it and learn all you can about the process; it's an essential skill of a well-rounded elk hunter.
Good luck.
Some good advice here, the first thing I would do is this. Go to where you watched the bull go "up and over". Mark that area with some flagging tape, or something you can spot from his last sighting. This way you will have a point of reference (looking back) if you don't have good blood up to that area. Get out there at daybreak, if you caught one lung, you'll have your first elk. Post some recovery pics! Good luck.
DJ
No luck. I went up and grid searched the entire hillside where I last saw him. Not one drop off blood. I then got on the nearest game trail that led of that hillside. About 500 yards down it I found a spot of blood about the size of a teardrop. Over the next 300 yards or so I found four more spots of blood all similar size. All dried up and from the day before. This game trail led me into a timbered basin where I could hear multiple bulls bugleing, one which sounded like the one I arrowed. Well over a mile from where I released the arrow to the last spot if blood. No beds and no sign of him slowing down.
If you hit him he isn't going to be bugling for awhile, he would go silent and bed up if he is not dead until he heals up.
Thanks for the update Kyle. Sounds like you worked hard looking. If you didn't push him and he went a mile, hopefully it is a survivable wound.
Wonder what would have happened if you had pushed him instead of backing out? reckon he might have kept on bleeding?
Give a single lung animal a chance to bed and clot the blood and a good percentage of the time, not only do they survive but you never see any more blood. Only bull I ever failed to recover was because I let him rest overnight. rancher found him a couple days later, three miles away, still alive. It was a single lung hit.
I have been in the same Valley everyday since I hit that bull. Two days ago I killed a Mule deer up there. The Ravens were all over that thing today. No sign of them anywhere else in the area. On a side note I heard easily 500 bugles in there today. They were fired up. One of the coolest things I have ever experienced.
If he's dead there ought to be a bunch of bird activity in the area....keep your eyes open and good luck!
