Saturday morning I took one of my buddies down to my honeyhole. We set up at 7 and at 7:30 am I called in two bulls to within 25 yards.....but he had no shot as we failed to clear out some shooting lanes..... Dooh!
He redeemed himself the next morning on a solo sneak that produced antlers crossing a saddle behind a rock. My buddy raced up to catch the bull on the other side and made the 40 yard shot. No blood. We tracked down to a meadow and still no blood. Figured he went up into the falldown choked timber on the other side......now he shot at 7am and it is now Noon.....so lots of time to die. But no.....he jumps up and crashes off.....we hear wheezing and figured he was a goner. Backed out after finding some very small drops of diluted blood (out of his nose) and pick up the trail the next morning.
Next morning.....past the little bit of blood the tracks disappear on hard ground. There are tracks all over otherwise so no clue where he went with no blood. We spend hours running grids and checking every dark hole. No bull. Sux. Happens. Still Sux.
Tuesday evening, my buddy and I decide to check out a new area and plot a path that takes us through super tight and dark pine (small....like 4-6" in diameter) full of rubs but has a clear trail through that we call the bull trail. Just as we step in we see a dead bull elk. Sure 'nuf it is his! nice pretty 5x5
Good Times.
congrats to all
So the bull was facing uphill broadside and jumped at the shot. That jump and move to his right changed impact from the midline at the shoulder (aim point) to a sharp angle in at just in front of the rear left leg towards the right front where the arrow actually connected. Full penetration with just the fletching sticking out. So it caught one lung and the diaphram as well as the gut (phewwww!!!!).
We found the bull nearly 50 hours after we last bumped it....which was 5 hours after it was shot. Temps were in the upper 70's during the day and mid to upper 40's at night. Do the math. That part sucks the worst as we were all looking forward to the bounty. We did skin it and make sure before making the call.
In the end......all is well. But my buddy took it pretty damn hard.
From all reports the interaction was positive and supportive while being serious about investigating what happened with this bull.....and following up on the report of another shot bull, as well as the report I was hunting with a deer tag but a cow elk decoy on my bow....true.....I was.....but I was hunting deer, not elk, and using the decoy when calling elk for my buddies as well as to put the deer at ease.
In any case, a very encouraging report. Thanks for being responsive to reports and professional in following up with folks!!!
No meat for us this year as they came out today without another elk. :( I still have a deer tag to fill in there though. :)