Bad shot placement?

[LoganKenworthy]

Totally baffled this year after making what I thought was an absolutely money shot. When he turned my arrow was hanging out the other side by its fletching and was covered in bubbly bright red blood. Perfect. Hear him crash after my buddy got a little loud celebrating (he had actually laid down to die after taking about 4 steps). Give him an hour and I’m expecting a bloodbath, what I find is like you took a spray bottle and just spritzed the air with it. Almost nothing. Finally runs out completely after 50-60yds and I start gridding, catch his scent and walk right to him. Open him up and I am about 2-4inches above the heart. Later I look at the photos and now I’m second guessing my shot placement. Maybe y’all can give me some clarity.

 

[rkcdvm]

That looks solid to me. Maybe a bit high. Also there is good stuff to hit high too. Aorta , vena cava, any of the aortic arches. Honestly even in the abdomen there are plenty of kill shots that are pretty quick but not having a landmark to hit them makes them not reliable. Hit an elk in the major blood vessels that run along the spine ( aorta , vena cava) they're done. Hitting the kidney or the portal vein and they're done too. It take awhile though. An animal that size has a lot of blood pumping in circulation. They can also have a splenic contraction and it will give them a massive amount or RBC's quickly and that can keep them going for a bit. Plus shock hormones will also keep them running. There is a video on youtube where a guy shoots a whitetail doe in the chest with a 50BMG and that doe ran over 100 yards with a hole the size of a cash register in its chest.
Also, what people call caul fat is an organ called the omentum. It can also plug up hemorrhage (that's one of its jobs) and can delay the animal dying as well even when you hit something in the abdomen that is vital.
Certainly lots of factors that can go into a lethal shot taking a bit of time for the animal to expire.

If you have any questions you can PM me. I've been a veterinarian for 15 years ( I do treat deer and some exotic cervids) and have also been a comparative anatomy instructor off and on for 10 years. I can certainly try to answer whatever questions you have.

 

[LoganKenworthy]

Thanks for the info dump! Never knew that about caul fat. I was just amazed at how quickly he expired and then the corresponding lack of blood. It couldn’t have been more than 15-20 seconds between the shot and hearing him give his death rattle. This is my 4th elk with a bow and I’ve maybe gotten a cup of blood total in blood trail. Hoping for a red carpet next year

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

It’s called bow hunting.

 

[big44a4]

It took this bull 2.5hrs to pass and the blood trail was like this all the way to him 150 yards. Blood trails can be deceiving and elk have a lot of blood. Should have taken a picture with my boot next to it for size comparison. In the 2nd picture you can see it was spraying blood and pouring out on the ground (right bottom looks like puddles from first picture) as well. The 3rd picture can see he stopped here and a few other places on his way to final resting place. Also stopped taking pictures as it was all the same a blind man could have followed it.

 

[rkcdvm]

It took this bull 2.5hrs to pass and the blood trail was like this all the way to him 150 yards. Blood trails can be deceiving and elk have a lot of blood. Should have taken a picture with my boot next to it for size comparison. In the 2nd picture you can see it was spraying blood and pouring out on the ground (right bottom looks like puddles from first picture) as well. The 3rd picture can see he stopped here and a few other places on his way to final resting place. Also stopped taking pictures as it was all the same a blind man could have followed it.

That is pretty incredible.

 

[Billy Goat]

Every animal is different. It's too hard to know how much drive they have.


The best blood trail I have followed on an elk was also one of the longest. He went 350-400 yards with blood in a U shape coating trees on his trail. It was buckets and buckets, perfect double lung/top of heart area, he just had the drive to keep going. Blood was 6' up on trees. Looked like you dumped a bucket of paint down the trees.

 

[voltage]

It sounds like to went well, just a poor blood trail?

That seems related to the head and what filled the entrance/exit holes.

 

[LoganKenworthy]

It took this bull 2.5hrs to pass and the blood trail was like this all the way to him 150 yards. Blood trails can be deceiving and elk have a lot of blood. Should have taken a picture with my boot next to it for size comparison. In the 2nd picture you can see it was spraying blood and pouring out on the ground (right bottom looks like puddles from first picture) as well. The 3rd picture can see he stopped here and a few other places on his way to final resting place. Also stopped taking pictures as it was all the same a blind man could have followed it.

Wow, can’t believe he was up for that long losing all that. I would have been stoked to see a trail like that. Glad you ended up finding him.

 

[Jethro]

Congrats. What was the total distance it went?

Always better to have a trail with little blood and a dead elk at the end than lots of blood and no elk.

 

[4cMuley]

I’m struggling to understand how one could think that’s bad shot placement. I guess maybe a tiny bit higher than ‘perfect’. Bull expired quickly, meat in the freezer, well done.

 

[LoganKenworthy]

It sounds like to went well, just a poor blood trail?

That seems related to the head and what filled the entrance/exit holes.

Yeah it was excellent in terms of time to kill, literally less than a minute. This is my second less than stellar blood trail with my G5’s. Thinking hard about switching broadheads, but not sure what I want to move towards.

Both holes seemed fairly clear, he did have the arrow hanging by the fletches for a few yards (40?) before it fell out.

 

[LoganKenworthy]

Congrats. What was the total distance it went?

Always better to have a trail with little blood and a dead elk at the end than lots of blood and no elk.

I’m struggling to understand how one could think that’s bad shot placement. I guess maybe a tiny bit higher than ‘perfect’. Bull expired quickly, meat in the freezer, well done.

Total distance was about 160-170yds? He went straight uphill which was making me very nervous until we heard the crash and moan. Felt awesome until we started bloodtrailing and second guessing what had happened.
I certainly felt that I had made a good shot, but after explaining the situation to my dad and showing him some photos, he felt that I had put it too high. Trying to get some second opinions. If I made even a small mistake I want to improve for future years. Thank you for the input.

 

[wapitibob]

Maybe a tad forward and missed the arteries coming off the heart but that shot isn’t too high.

 

[Fowl Play]

You had good shot placement, elk just have a large body cavity that needs to fill before you get a large blood trail. And thick coats that can soak up quite a bit. Your story is pretty common even with well placed shots.

 

[justin davis]

Sometimes they die so quick they don’t get to bleed much. I’ve arrowed quite a few that died literally in seconds and left pretty much no blood trail because I think didn’t have enough time to leak blood out

 

[mt terry d]

I've never seen any bow-shot elk leave much of a blood trail. Even a perfect heart shot.

Any shot that kills within several seconds is a money shot.

Congrats!

 

[cnelk]

Nobody. And I mean nobody is going to tell you that shot should have been an inch or two in any direction

Nice shot

 

[voltage]

Cool blood is overrated. I never found this bull

 

[mt terry d]

Wow, heartbreaking.. A hunting partner had similar. Left overnight. Next day we found he'd gone maybe 200 yards and bedded then switched bedding spots about 8 times during the night in a 20 yard circle. We then tracked him about 500 yard with almost zero blood and then he joined some other elk and we lost him.

They'll go a long way on one lung.