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.

 

[mtnbound]

I'm looking for advice to improve my ability to kill elk, I have just lost my second elk in a row over the last 2 seasons and the feeling is sickening. Any and all advice is welcome and I'll do my best to go over both shots for you all you analyze.

Elk 1 was a cow broadside at 200 yards. Shooting a 180gr TTSX out of my 300 win. Aimed for the crease halfway down and shot felt great I was steady on my bipod and confident I punched both lungs. She immediately turned around and ran into the bush, I heard her run in breaking branches then stop and cough blood. Wait about 30min and begun tracking. Blood trail was very strong spray on trees and plenty of blood on the ground there was so much blood I expected to find her any step. We even found where she had stopped coughed up a few piles of coagulated blood, after that the blood trail got smaller and smaller eventually down to drips every 50 feet and then nothing. Tracked for around 500 yards total and no elk, tried grid search after loosing blood and no elk. Tried looking the next day for birds or any sign and nothing

Now shot 2, bull elk quarting to at a very slight angle. About 80 yards. After my experience last year I turned away from the Barnes and was using standard federal blue box ammo, 180 gr again 300 win mag. I aimed just infront of the Shoulder facing me on the line of the tan and black hair aming to exit just behind the offside Shoulder. Bull went down hard almost as if spined, dropping in his tracks. I could see he was trying to stand but none of his legs would work and I was sure he was done. So much so I failed to chamber another round. Huge mistake. He managed to get himself turned broadside to me still unable to stand and I thought I had better give him another one, by the time I chambered around he was on his feet out of there. Waited about and hour and started trailing not tons of blood and no spray but enough drops to follow easily. Went about 400 yards and decided it was best to back off and come back in the am. Tracked the bull all the next day for about 2 miles, he traveled mostly downhill but jumped a 4 wire fence like nothing. Got on some very fresh still wet blood the next morning leading me to believe he made it through the night. Eventually lost blood but continued to follow what I think was his tracks for another mile and no elk. Returned a 3rd day and no signs of a dead elk.

I can't believe centerpunching him so close with a 300 win wouldn't be fatal. My guess is maybe I missed and had a heavy bone hit or the bullet exploded and didn't penatrate?

I also don't understand what happened with the cow, I used the exact same round and lung punched a bull the year before who didn't make it 100. What am I doing wrong here? What am I missing? I pride myself on ethical hunting and this last bull I shot is killing me. My decision to not make a follow up shot until it was too late haunts me and I want to do everything in my power to make sure it never happens again. I'm not proud to share these experiences but I'm hopeful I will learn from it and perhaps some of you all will too.

Did you use the Federal Soft Point or the Copper on the bull?

 

[Conrad101st]

1. Shoot them till they drop. I’ve only killed 8 elk so I’m no expert but I almost always get 2 or 3 shots into them.

2. Yeah right, if I’m tracking a wounded animal after dark and he stands up from a bloody bed I’m gonna put him down. Get real.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

The vitals...

There's a common theme among lost animals threads in that shots "felt great" followed by a sensational story. Somewhere down the line it usually comes out that their certainty of shot placement was a subjective assumption, and objectively, they don't have a clue where the bullet hit, sometimes no idea where they aimed.



Shoot a lighter recoiling cartridge so you have a better chance of putting the bullet where you intend.

Well said.

To add to these to very common points…

Every story is “perfectly broadside”. Animals in the field are almost never perfectly broadside despite what folks see in their binos and scopes.

Reading up on shot placement for different animal positions would be beneficial.

 

[sndmn11]

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.

PM me if you need more explanation, I'm 100% certain on the answers I've provided you.