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

I don’t like high shoulder. If you were starting at the top of the body cavity, and divided it into quarters, I like the third quarter as my aiming point.

There is a big bunch of major veins and arteries in this area. A bullet here produces a very quick kill.

They don't always die quick. This was the 1st shot in a 3 shot rodeo. Buck was finally killed with the third shot facing the hunter, under the chin and thru the spine at about 10 yards, 30 minutes after the 1st shot. Deer probably traveled 1/4 mile. Second shot was thru the lungs.
Berger 140 hunting vld from a 6.5 CM; 2nd rodeo I've witnessed with this bullet/caliber. I don't shoot this bullet but If I did, I'd throw every one of them in the garbage.

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The lesson that has served me best in my (relatively short) time in the elk woods is an echo of what's already been said, if they are still on their feet and you can see them, KEEP SHOOTING.

My first bull i literally stumbled into, we both stared at each other dumbstruck when we bumped into each other. He spooked out to about 75 yards broadside and I was hiking, rifle over my shoulder. Quickly shouldered my rifle, no rest and let one rip. He was still on his feet, so I quickly racked another and steadied myself and sent #2. Turns out #1 was a complete miss but #2 did the trick and put him down. Barnes TSX 180 gr for what its worth.

Fast forward to a deer hunt last year, i lost a deer on opening weekend of 2nd rifle, absolute gut punch and a poor decision that I regret still. I wounded it but a combo of buck fever and misjudging my holdover led to a wound that I never recovered. Second weekend of the season I had a very comfortable shot on a buck, took my time, was solid, and watched him get very wobbly after about 10 yards but he was still in the open. 0 hesitation sent round #2. I lost some backstrap bc i was higher shooting down, but he dropped on the spot and I have 0 regrets.

I am firmly on the side of keep shooting. "But you'll lose more meat" would you rather lose 5 lb from shot #2 or 200 lb from potentially not recovering the animal?

Sounds like a lot of factors added up but the one that rung familiar to me was not getting the second shot out. Practice the quick follow up shots and always take them. sorry about the luck, best you can do is learn from it and improve for next season!
 
Huh. Now realizing the cow (only elk ive shot, I buy my meat from the store) I shot was actually besides a high shot. The original spot i thought i was aiming was still high.
 
To OP:
For the cow (and possibly the bull) I think you need to get better at tracking. Of course it's hard to say without being there, but you can follow a track a long way between drops of blood. Sometimes blood is the tiniest speck, sometimes you have to turn leaves upside down because it's on the bottom side. Sometimes there just isn't any blood for a while, but you can try to think like the wounded animal and, based off of where it was, estimate where it "should" be headed. Rather than grid searching, keep looking for tracks/blood in all the possible directions or trails (starting with most likely). You might be surprised how far you can take it, and how often you actually find the animal.

Looks like it's already been covered, but I think you aimed way too high on the bull.

On the other subject of shooting something after dark: I've never done it, and I'm the type that reads every bit of the regulations and follows them exactly. But I lost of a buck because of it. I hit him high (archery). No blood trail, spotted him after half hour or so walking normally and saw red circle on exit side. Looked like high lung, below the spine, and thought he should be dead. Just before dark I found him still up, and shot him again from maybe 10-20 yards, but through a pretty thick bush. Couldn't see the hit, but it produced some blood which I followed. Hours later, searching around with flashlight down near town where hunting is illegal, and people are probably watching me, I spot him, right across the fence on neighbors property. Standing there broadside. I walked away, and came back in the morning. Don't see him. Got permission from neighbor, went looking in there, bumped him and watched him run away across a construction site into other neighbor's property. Could see second shot clearly center punched his guts (deflected off the bush). He should be dead 2x by now. Few more hours go by, permission from 2 more neighbors, and I bumped him back to our property, no blood other than on the fence. Kept searching but no luck. Found his head the next year. Kind of wished I'd just put an arrow in him with the headlamp.
 
I’m no elk expert so I’ll leave my thoughts and advice out of my post. I’ve been where you are with some of the shots I’ve taken on elk only with archery equipment. I come from a whitetail background and it took me a minute to realize they aren’t the same. I usually steer clear of all thing YouTube and such but found this video in the link below that breaks elk anatomy from a hunters perspective. It helped me.


 
My advice, switch bullets, those should be dead elk 100 yard or less recoveries. I am also in the camp of get up to them after the first shooting sequence, dont hang back for hours. Arrow hits yes, but with a gun I like to get up to them as quick as possible.
 
Second shot sounds like you may have hit high, shocked the spine temporarily. I've never seen recovery of an animal that went down and got up and ran away. If they do that it's not a good sign.

Edit: I used to poke fun at Newberg talking about shooting til they're down but after reading a lot of threads like this I can see why.
This.

Spot on with the second elk analysis. I’ve seen them drop like a rock from a close-to-spine hit, then get up 5 minutes later. If I see an animal drop straight down, I shoot it again to anchor it, and stay on the rifle for 10 minutes. If they don’t get up in that time frame, you should be good.

The first one, I don’t know and it’s hard to say. I don’t shoot monos after watching an oryx take 4 rounds right in the pumphouse and still take a long time to die. Chances are she died close and you missed her in your gridding, or you bumped her and she found a safe place to die and you walked by her.

I shoot until they are stone cold dead. My son shot his elk in the heart on the first shot, but I’ve seen dead elk run half a mile before they finally give out. I made him shoot that bull until it fell down. We wasted some meat, but I’m not taking the chance of losing an animal. Seen it happen too many times to other people to risk it. I shot my moose at 300 yards 5 times. I knew he was a dead man walking after the first two shots, and I didn’t care. I just kept dumping lead into him. He still managed to stumble 60 yards and die in a marsh and alder thicket, because that’s what they do…. It took my son and I 30 minutes to find him, and I knew where he was within a 100 yard circle.
 
Also, I have had more problems with my .308, than any other caliber. I believe the .308 lacks speed, and requires more than 1 shot. That's my experience anyway.
 
After watching an elk that was lifeless for long enough for a buddy to smoke a cigarette, load up the packs, hike 300 yards on the way to it through a small drainage, only to have the elk awaken from the dead when I slipped on some rocks about 50 yards away, get up, turn around and crest a hill… I will (and have) always shoot multiple times, even if they are “down”. That was an eye opening experience. It was laying head down, front leg stretched out straight down hill, with its tongue hanging out for easily 30 minutes. It looked dead as any other dead animal I’ve seen. But it wasn’t.

Wasn’t a fun day.
 
Same thing happened to me with a White Tail. Deer was on the ground, dead. So I thought. at least 20 minutes. Walk close to the deer, put my pack down, take out my knife. Get closer. Deer jumps up, and is gone forever.
I suppose I spined him, and the spinal shock finally went away. He ran off perfectly fine. But I'm sure the yotes and bears had a free meal.
 
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.
Shooting a 180gr TTSX out of my 300 win.

I have a pretty good hunch.
 
Also, I have had more problems with my .308, than any other caliber. I believe the .308 lacks speed, and requires more than 1 shot. That's my experience anyway.
Help me understand what you wrote here. Are you referring to the .308 WIN cartridge or the .308 caliber as a whole? Explain how it’s too slow?
 
I’m no elk expert so I’ll leave my thoughts and advice out of my post. I’ve been where you are with some of the shots I’ve taken on elk only with archery equipment. I come from a whitetail background and it took me a minute to realize they aren’t the same. I usually steer clear of all thing YouTube and such but found this video in the link below that breaks elk anatomy from a hunters perspective. It helped me.


That's an interesting video. It can basically be distilled into "halfway up the body, one inch in front of the crease" is the ideal spot to aim for a double lung hit.
 
My advice, switch bullets, those should be dead elk 100 yard or less recoveries. I am also in the camp of get up to them after the first shooting sequence, dont hang back for hours. Arrow hits yes, but with a gun I like to get up to them as quick as possible.

I wouldn’t wait hours (unless hit in the guts), but I wouldn’t rush right in noisy either.


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after watching an oryx take 4 rounds right in the pumphouse and still take a long time to die.
Were you spying on me?!

A "hard batch" of hammers was a rodeo on my oryx hunt.

That said barnes (mostly LRX) I've dropped plenty of critters no problem, usually one shot. BUT I shoot them in faster cartridges.
 
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