Elk advice, 2 lost in a row where am i going wrong?

[Jason Snyder]

While it is illegal by letter of the law, both for hunting hours and use of artificial light, there is certainly some nuance involved. That said, I’d still be trying to make some phone calls prior to dispatching after dark.

 

[Skerhunter]

Correct, what happens with an animal down after shooting hours but still alive?

Usually in the dark you either keep bumping them or find them dead. If it’s down but still alive is unlikely in my experience (takes a lot longer to find them in the dark giving them more time to expire). Either have to break the law or sit down for a short while. That’s a personal decision.

 

[KenLee]

This popped a question into my head about legality. Say this happens at last night and you approach in your scenario after shooting hours to the elk still moving. What would you do? I know the CO Big Game brochure doesn't cover this but maybe another statute does. What are other states putting out as guidelines in this case?

I've been close to missing the shooting window before so maybe someone has the answer.

What would I do?
Make Danny Devito look slow as I started blasting.

 

[sndmn11]

Why break the law shooting animals at night? The two outcomes are it either dies during the night, or it lives through the night. The former doesn't require your intervention, the latter is clearly illegal (we hate poachers here, right?) and is impossible to defend. Countless "I didn't recover my animal stories" support the fact that zero people know if an animal will die until it actually is dead.

Unload your weapon and lock it down to your pack, or leave it in the truck when playing after hours recovery. That's about as black and white of a violation as can be presented.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

For the cow when you say there was blood spraying on trees how much are we talking about?

I have see some hornady eldx blood trails that look like someone had a garden hose spraying trees and others where I didn’t get any blood trail to the elk. Just curious how much blood you seen.

 

[KenLee]

Why break the law shooting animals at night? The two outcomes are it either dies during the night, or it lives through the night. The former doesn't require your intervention, the latter is clearly illegal (we hate poachers here, right?) and is impossible to defend. Countless "I didn't recover my animal stories" support the fact that zero people know if an animal will die until it actually is dead.

Unload your weapon and lock it down to your pack, or leave it in the truck when playing after hours recovery. That's about as black and white of a violation as can be presented.

Perfectly legal in South Carolina, as it should be everywhere.

If you leave a deer here til morning, the coyotes will have eaten it. Even if the temps are low, you won't be eating that deer.

Elk? I'd still blast it.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

You aimed too high on the bull. And you don't actually know where you hit. You're being rather evasive to the questions about your shooting practice methods, so that's probably where you have the most potential for improvement.

 

[Short Track]

Same thing happened to me with Barnes TTSX. They simply don't expand well. No mushroom. No internal explosion. More like a pencil. However, I got lucky that my Bull stood there and soaked up 4 shots into the lungs. He finally went down. If he ran, I'd still be in the Rocky Mountains searching. We gutted him, & found 4 pencil holes, and 4 bullets in the aft side skin.

There is another forum, where they love mono's, and they love weight retention. Me personally, NO !! I'd rather have a bullet blow up internally and leave a mess inside. I have had great success with accubonds, partitions, and such like.

 

[sndmn11]

Perfectly legal in South Carolina, as it should be everywhere.

If you leave a deer here til morning, the coyotes will have eaten it. Even if the temps are low, you won't be eating that deer.

Elk? I'd still blast it.

Come on, you read his post, and he stated he couldn't find information about Colorado. I posted the information with a source and a screenshot to avoid any hearsay "well my daddy said.." made up "laws" like have been presented in a different thread. You are well-read enough to know that Colorado isn't South Carolina.

I am certain that if anyone here saw a person hunting at night for elk in Colorado, they'd about crash their vehicle trying to get to cell service to call Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Now I am curious who would be so convinced they were on the right side of Colorado law, as the question was posed, that they would self-report their own suspicious incident?

 

[mike.adams.467]

This popped a question into my head about legality. Say this happens at last night and you approach in your scenario after shooting hours to the elk still moving. What would you do? I know the CO Big Game brochure doesn't cover this but maybe another statute does. What are other states putting out as guidelines in this case?

I've been close to missing the shooting window before so maybe someone has the answer.

I know what I would do if the animal was still breathing but badly wounded.

 

[HunterGatherer]

Here’s the bullets from my last 4 rifle kills with Barnes TSX out of my old Springfield 30-06. I’ve got a bunch more somewhere. The one that mushroomed the most hit a bone. Two elk, two deer , all died where they were standing when I pulled the trigger. I usually find the bullet in the offside hide, indicating that all the energy went straight into the animal instead of the ground behind it …

Switched to these because partitions were blowing up at close range, even in my old Fudd gun . Not trying to start a lead vs mono debate - just saying if the shot placement is correct, bullet doesn’t really matter. In my experience, hunters shoot too close to the shoulder because we’re so afraid of the dreaded gut shot

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Why break the law shooting animals at night? The two outcomes are it either dies during the night, or it lives through the night. The former doesn't require your intervention, the latter is clearly illegal (we hate poachers here, right?) and is impossible to defend. Countless "I didn't recover my animal stories" support the fact that zero people know if an animal will die until it actually is dead.

Unload your weapon and lock it down to your pack, or leave it in the truck when playing after hours recovery. That's about as black and white of a violation as can be presented.

There are sometimes caveats or niche scenarios not outlined in the big game brochure that can make certain situations legal within the broader regulations since I specifically asked about after legal hours. I could not find anything and was asking if anyone had encountered this situation or has some info.

 

[sndmn11]

There are sometimes caveats or niche scenarios not outlined in the big game brochure that can make certain situations legal within the broader regulations since I specifically asked about after legal hours.

Every situation doesn't need to be minutely specified within statute; it is outside of legal hunting hours, hard stop. Just like felony 6 theft in Colorado is $2000 or more but less than $5000. No logical person is going to say thievery isn't a thing when the value is $3000.

Or that DUI Per Se doesn't apply because the statue reads "BAC is 0.08 or more" and the violator was at 0.10 BAC which is not specifically called out.

Speed Limits? "Yes, trooper I was exceeding the 65mph limit that the sign says, but the sign ONLY had 65 on it and not what my speed was. So, I'm off the hook."

I am 100% certain there are no affirmative defense scenarios to what you described.

 

[KenLee]

Come on, you read his post, and he stated he couldn't find information about Colorado. I posted the information with a source and a screenshot to avoid any hearsay "well my daddy said.." made up "laws" like have been presented in a different thread. You are well-read enough to know that Colorado isn't South Carolina.

I am certain that if anyone here saw a person hunting at night for elk in Colorado, they'd about crash their vehicle trying to get to cell service to call Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Now I am curious who would be so convinced they were on the right side of Colorado law, as the question was posed, that they would self-report their own suspicious incident?

Of course I realized the post wasn't about South Carolina...and we don't have elk. Thus the last sentence that I'd shoot the elk. If the temps was sufficiently cold and coyotes and wolves aren't abundant to eat the elk during the night, my answer would probably be different.

 

[stalkingwolf]

View attachment 949036

I would put a 124 grain Hammer Hunter right on the orange circle and this bull would be dead in its feet.

Bingo, this is where you should have aimed. Your shot may have gotten the top of one lung and shocked the spine enough to deabilitate the bull for a little bit. You needed to be further down to hit all the good stuff.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Every situation doesn't need to be minutely specified within statute; it is outside of legal hunting hours, hard stop. Just like felony 6 theft in Colorado is $2000 or more but less than $5000. No logical person is going to say thievery isn't a thing when the value is $3000.

Or that DUI Per Se doesn't apply because the statue reads "BAC is 0.08 or more" and the violator was at 0.10 BAC which is not specifically called out.

Speed Limits? "Yes, trooper I was exceeding the 65mph limit that the sign says, but the sign ONLY had 65 on it and not what my speed was. So, I'm off the hook."

I am 100% certain there are no affirmative defense scenarios to what you described.

Your analogies aren't really making sense here. There are dozens of regulations within the brochure that have exceptions and carve outs that aren't very apparent unless you take a deep dive. Its why I am asking in the first place.