HELP NO BLOOD

[Indian Summer]

I'm about 7 for 7 with the shot...and I've seen another 10 shot like that- all dead in 50yards.

Its lethal as heck if you know shot placement....

Have you seen the 12 year old kid that shot one frontal and the bull just stood there with a garden hose of blood dumping on a log?

Yes. Years ago. Videos like that will always go viral. Videos of bulls wounded and going unrecovered never even make it to the Internet though so that kind of thing holds no weight with me. None. Your personal experiences do though. Mine have knocked in the same. I’ve seen arrows buried up to the fletching in bulls chests never leaving a drop of blood and never finding the animal. I guess we all form our opinions based on experience. But for me, it only takes a couple animals going to waste for me to rule out the cause in the future. Lost bulls are enough to make a hunter sick. They haunt me forever.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Y'all keep talking about a frontal shot, that's irrelevant here IMO. I'm not trying to be critical of OP, but an Elk isn't fast enough to go from frontal to quartering away in the flight time of an arrow at that distance. I think he spun first and as he was spinning OP released, which was way too late. JMO

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Look up Clayton Coyle arrows an elk in the chest! On YouTube. 5.7M views

Right into the heart.

 

[Indian Summer]

I'm about 7 for 7 with the shot...and I've seen another 10 shot like that- all dead in 50yards.

Its lethal as heck if you know shot placement....

Have you seen the 12 year old kid that shot one frontal and the bull just stood there with a garden hose of blood dumping on a log?

Yes. Years ago. Videos like that will always go viral. Videos of bulls wounded and going unrecovered never even make it to the Internet though so that kind of thing holds no weight with me. None. Your personal experiences do though. Mine have not been the same. I’ve seen arrows buried up to the fletching in bulls chests never leaving a drop of blood and never finding the animal. I guess we all form our opinions based on experience. But for me, it only takes a couple animals going to waste for me to rule out the cause in the future. Lost bulls are enough to make a hunter sick. They haunt me forever.

Here’s the important part to me. Some things aren’t for everyone. For me whether or not a frontal shot is OK depends on the Hunter. Not so much his shooting skills as his experience with elk. New hunters come unglued when they see elk. Guys like Elknut or Jaquomo etc are a different story. They have been. at close range to elk and can keep their wits about him and actually shoot as well as they do in the backyard. For that reason these forums sometimes make me nervous because we give new elk hunters with no experience the idea that they can pull off that shot at a bull that comes running straight at them without a worry. Then we end up with threads that say “I never knew elk were that tough”.

 

[el_jefe_pescado]

Any update on your search OP?

 

[hoosierhunter11]

My son shot his first bull last week, qad exodus broadhead great shot right behind shoulder halfway up. Bull made it about 400 probably didn’t drop 20 drops of blood. Was crazy how tough hide is seems it just sealed wound right back up. Good luck hope you find him.

I shot one last week with QAD Exodus as well. Quartering to me at 16 yards. Put it right behind the shoulder on entry and exited a couple of inches forward of hind quarter. I was a bit higher than I wanted to be but no blood for 40 yards -> great blood for 30 yards -> no blood. Ended up finding him via grid search 6 hours later about 100 yards from last blood (in the opposite direction we expected). Ended up double lunging and clipper liver. The cavity was FULL.

 

[dreamingbig]

There is blood in there somewhere. Follow his track until you find it.


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[Pacific_Fork]

Y'all keep talking about a frontal shot, that's irrelevant here IMO. I'm not trying to be critical of OP, but an Elk isn't fast enough to go from frontal to quartering away in the flight time of an arrow at that distance. I think he spun first and as he was spinning OP released, which was way too late. JMO

Exactly what I was thinking. Shit happens when you got a bull staring at you and your adrenaline is through the roof. You can convince yourself of a certain shot when the opposite happened. One year I was 100 percent positive I made a perfect shot on a buck at 35 yards only to find my arrow in a tree clean as a whistle. The fever is real lol

 

[maxx075]

Just like his bull, OP is nowhere to be found.

 

[bridgerbenson]

This thread helped me so thanks to the OP and all who responded. I’ve been following it every night in elk camp thanks to Starlink WiFi (I know, it’s embarrassing but we definitely paid our “roughing it “ dues) and yesterday morning called in and shot a bull at 8 yards frontal with a QAD exodus.
The arrow completely disappeared. That bull took off on a death sprint, mowing over and completely uprooted a 6” pine in the process. Followed tracks for 150 yards until first blood. Followed scarce blood for about 300 yards that had big chunks of coagulated blood I assume coughed up. Completely quit bleeding.
We grid searched for another hour and came up with a couple more drops of blood. Followed the trail the blood was on and jumped that bull up.
He was hurting bad and laid back down 100 yards down the trail. I snuck in and put a second shot in to finish him off.
When breaking him down on the mountain, the carnage that arrow caused by going damn near the full length of his body was unbelievable. Obviously did not hit heart. The arrow got kicked off to one side a little but the interior damage was crazy. He died over 700 yards from where I shot him.
Sorry for your loss OP. It’s tough but eventually happens to most of us archery hunters.

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[ScreamingPotato]

Damn nice bull bridger!

 

[roosiebull]

Peroxide

He had enough blood on his side to leave on the brush if he rubbed against it.

on the left front track would probably show every step too, at least get you on the right track (no pun)

It is absolutely demoralizing to know you hit one and have no solid direction of travel in miles of woods, all you can do with zero sign is keep looking, put your tracker on and cover the screen in track lines (granted most are using a map app these days, and they help in this situation

 

[Customweld]

Peroxide

on the left front track would probably show every step too, at least get you on the right track (no pun)

It is absolutely demoralizing to know you hit one and have no solid direction of travel in miles of woods, all you can do with zero sign is keep looking, put your tracker on and cover the screen in track lines (granted most are using a map app these days, and they help in this situation

It certainly is. Something that you replay in your mind for many years.

 

[mt terry d]

Ive trailed a few bow-shot elk. Rarely have any of them left much for a blood trail, even the pass-throughs.
Sounds like one lung at best.
An elk can go miles on one lung.

Search till you're confident you've done all you can. You still
won't sleep well for a while but you'll be able to live with it.

There's no guarantees in hunting. Best of luck.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

If he actually got a decent hit and has not found it buy now, It's scavenger food.

 

[Beendare]

Here’s the important part to me. Some things aren’t for everyone. For me whether or not a frontal shot is OK depends on the Hunter. Not so much his shooting skills as his experience with elk. New hunters come unglued when they see elk.

Well said.

As we know, its all about shot placement. That frontal is deadly when you can make the perfect shot before the bull can move and wreck the shot location. For me, thats inside 20y and the bull hasn't made me. Many of my frontals were solo with the bull focused on my decoy.

A guy taking a 30y + frontal shot where the bull has spotted you is asking for trouble as if the bull moves even 6" it can end up outside the rib cage and in the heavy shoulder.

I had a buddy that had a bull at 6y at full draw and didn't take the frontal...he figured he would wait for the bull to turn broadside- bad idea. The bull turned faster than he thought....and he shot it in the spine right in front of the hind quarter, luckily the 2 blade cut the spinal cord and his back legs didn't work. He got it killed but that bull was a pin cushion.

 

[COelk89]

A few years ago a bull turned and I was unbelievably surprised at what I thought was a broadside shot at 20yd, arrow entered behind the shoulder but passed through guts as if it was quartered to hard. Hit a main blood line in rear leg on the way out and bled like crazy for 100yds then nothing. Found next day when I bumped a coyote in open timber about to drop down into a hell hole and starting gridding. 1000 yards up hill, 90 degrees off from original blood trail, opposite direction of water, towards a main trail.

I had a bad shot on my first archery bull at 50 yards in 2021. Hit far back and he was quartering away more than I realized. Knowing I was square in the guts we did not even search for blood. The interweb indicated wait 8 hours and start trailing so we did that after hiking out camp and driving around on a road that would get us closer to the shot. We checked for blood and did not find any and so started looking for trails. He was piled up laying on his back about 80 yards from where he was shot. It turned out that he was quartering at just the perfect angle for my shot to penetrate his body and land square into his femur on the backside, shattering it into many pieces.

He was probably dead before we were looking for answers online as to what to do, but there was no way to know. I ended up leaving the backstraps and the tenderloins since he had been sitting like that who knows how long on his back. Upon getting the meat hung in a cooler I ended up tossing the rear quarter with the broken femur as the blood had spoiled and it all smelled gross. The other 3 quarters were all fine to my delight. I learned a lot from that effort even though we got lucky on the recovery.

When in doubt, back out!!!!

 

[sndmn11]

I had a bad shot on my first archery bull at 50 yards in 2021. Hit far back and he was quartering away more than I realized. Knowing I was square in the guts we did not even search for blood. The interweb indicated wait 8 hours and start trailing so we did that after hiking out camp and driving around on a road that would get us closer to the shot. We checked for blood and did not find any and so started looking for trails. He was piled up laying on his back about 80 yards from where he was shot. It turned out that he was quartering at just the perfect angle for my shot to penetrate his body and land square into his femur on the backside, shattering it into many pieces.

He was probably dead before we were looking for answers online as to what to do, but there was no way to know. I ended up leaving the backstraps and the tenderloins since he had been sitting like that who knows how long on his back. Upon getting the meat hung in a cooler I ended up tossing the rear quarter with the broken femur as the blood had spoiled and it all smelled gross. The other 3 quarters were all fine to my delight. I learned a lot from that effort even though we got lucky on the recovery.

When in doubt, back out!!!!

This is where I scratch my head at the concept of shooting and then leaving. There's a distinct commonality with ALL of the lost animal conversations, and that is the POI is unknown. So much can happen with that animal's track in an hour, let alone 8 or a full day. I am certain some of the "didn't find any blood" stories are because the person couldn't remember where they and the animal were when they shot. I also can't fathom how a hunter expects to kill with a follow up shot when they are back at camp or in their truck (or online seeking "help").

We start tracking immediately, and would have no qualms in shutting it down if a situation dictated. However, nobody knows what that situation is until they work it out. Aside from not taking questionable shots, that has led to 100% recovery and we are moving meat within an hour after the shot. Rather than letting it rot.

 

[COelk89]

This is where I scratch my head at the concept of shooting and then leaving. There's a distinct commonality with ALL of the lost animal conversations, and that is the POI is unknown. So much can happen with that animal's track in an hour, let alone 8 or a full day. I am certain some of the "didn't find any blood" stories are because the person couldn't remember where they and the animal were when they shot. I also can't fathom how a hunter expects to kill with a follow up shot when they are back at camp or in their truck (or online seeking "help").

We start tracking immediately, and would have no qualms in shutting it down if a situation dictated. However, nobody knows what that situation is until they work it out. Aside from not taking questionable shots, that has led to 100% recovery and we are moving meat within an hour after the shot. Rather than letting it rot.

Uhh not sure if you are scratching your head at me but you quoted me. I did not lose an animal. I shot the bull over a pond while he was taking a drink and saw exactly where the impact of the arrow was and watched him scurry up the hill with the arrow sticking out his paunch. Worst thing you could do in that situation is go in immediately IMO. I am glad you always find your elk best of luck to you if you ever make a bad shot!

 

[sndmn11]

Uhh not sure if you are scratching your head at me but you quoted me. I did not lose an animal. I shot the bull over a pond while he was taking a drink and saw exactly where the impact of the arrow was and watched him scurry up the hill with the arrow sticking out his paunch. Worst thing you could do in that situation is go in immediately IMO. I am glad you always find your elk best of luck to you if you ever make a bad shot!

I am certainly scratching my head at you and similar approaches. You lost 1/3rd of your meat while wasting 8 hours on the Internet and in your vehicle.

He was probably dead before we were looking for answers online as to what to do, but there was no way to know.

No doubt he died in a quick minute, it died on its back at 80 yards, so it lost consciousness on its feet and not bedded down. The way to know what that situation is is to go learn it; walk over and mark your sign, follow it, go as slow as you want, get high to glass, change your perspective, etc. That animal you chose to shoot is either alive or dead and you cant figure out which by leaving, you are only handicapping your efforts.