Here is my 2021 elk story warts and all. Hoping someone can learn from this. The good. I harvested my first archery bull. The bad, I hit another bull and the arrow setup failed for a second time on the second bull.
First my setup:
Bow: Hoyt carbon defiant 70lbs
Arrow: 330 spine easton hexx with 50 grain brass inserts and 125 grain QAD exodus broadheads. Around 16% FOC and 425 grain total arrow weight.
Sight: Black Gold with three pin
I will start off by saying this setup shot lights out. As my friends all bought valkyrie arrows I just couldn't drop these because of how well they shot. For one I shot better with both broadheads and without. I also got super lucky and completely nailed it with the first sight tape I tried. Last summer I was dropping 100-yard bombs with broadheads reliably. I haven't traditionally been a great archery shooter but the last couple of years have really come together, because of this I was reluctant to change. Additionally, I had killed a deer at 55 yards with this setup except at 60 pounds (broken wrist that season) and penetration was plenty adequate.
This season after several days of hunting we finally struck up an eager bull. I snuck in within 20 yards and while the lower third or so of his body was covered and he was aware of my presence it was a pretty ideal broadside shot situation. He fell twice after the shot and sauntered off. He was a big mature 5 point in a general season unit. We wait 3.5 hours. Initially, blood was pretty good. Bright red with bubbles and not buckets but tracking was a slow walking pace. Even a mile into the track he was still consistently dripping blood. At about a mile and a half, he kicks it straight up a steep mountain. It's brushy and dry in the area he does this and tracking slows to a crawl. Maybe an hour every 30 yards. Multiple times the trail is completely lost only to be found after crawling through the brush for over a half-hour. He is clearly starting to clot up now but only after losing gallons of blood. He also is still dripping but it's much much tougher to find. I shot him at 8 am and now it's getting close to dark. I send my companion back to take care of the mules. TIme is ticking but I get really lucky and find blood 200 yards from my last blood spot in the rocks. The rocks make for easy tracking to a rib of pine trees. I decide to back out as its getting dark and restart in the morning.
I replay the shot countless times. I grew up elk hunting with a rifle. I keep thinking that drawing on a bull staring right at me I must have quickly settled the pin on the front shoulder area. I hit him far forward for a bow shot. I wake up at 4:30 hike the 6 miles up from camp and glass the clearings surrounding the trees I know he at least went through. Nothing. I was hoping to see him maybe try to get out and feed or find his herd. I head up to comb the rocky slide where he would have headed to hopefully find blood where it's easy before going into the much more difficult pine duff I last found blood in. While walking around with my head in the dirt I hear a short locate bugle. I hear a bull going through the brush coming out of the timber the bull I had hit went into. I get into position and catch the bull with his head and front shoulder covered at 20 yards. Though he is mostly covered he still bust me when I draw. He is ready to bolt any second. This may be controversial but I figure I will be more upset to watch the bull run off with my arrow from yesterday in him than to shoot another bull when my chances at recovering the other bull are slim at best. I draw and let loose. This time holding plenty far back into the lungs. I am expecting a full pass-through.
When the bull emerges on the opposite side of a small drainage I see an arrow sticking well out of his side. YES! I think. its the same bull! He stops twice before going back into the timber he emerged from. I wait a couple hours and find him taking his last breaths just inside the treeline. Less than a 100 yards. I instantly see though that he is smaller. Both 5 points similar frames but smaller tine length. Upon getting to him I pull the arrow out and find it broken at 6 inches from the broadhead. Must have went through and broke when he went down I thought. However, after flipping him I find an exit out the top of his flank. He was broadside and that's a gap well exceeding my 27.5 inch arrows. It occurs to me that the arrow likely snapped on the rib with the broadhead portion ricocheting through the other side. While the fletching side of the break just barely penetrates. Maybe it was another shot? However, after fully breaking the animal down its clear that exit is from me.
Here is what I can best figure. I was slightly underspined and at those close ranges I had some flexion putting my arrows at risk of breaking on impact or at a minimum not penetrating to their potential. My setup wasn't the ideal but I would say it was also better than average but I got significantly worse performance than average. I attribute that to arrow spine. Regardless, I know for certain that had I been shooting a superior arrow setup I would have harvested that larger 5 point bull. With two holes in his hide he would have expired. The shot wasn't ideal, I surely hit bone. However, I wouldn't consider that placement bad and I don't want to shoot an arrow setup that demands perfection. I rarely find it in field conditions. I watched my hunting partner ass shoot a bull broadside at 60 yards. A god-awful shot. Only to have the arrow penetrate through both femurs and severe the femoral artery... The bull died within 20 yards. He was shooting boutique expensive valkyrie arrow systems. I am not saying that you can totally mess up and get away with it nor should it mean you don't have to make good shots by buying expensive stuff. However, what I can say is my shot a few inches forward on that first bull would have made my first archery bull all high fives instead of a complicated mess.
What ultimately happened is our cool temperatures gave way to high heat right after the second bull went down. He was 6 miles from camp and camp is 10 miles from the trailhead. The trailhead is another hour or more drive to the nearest ice. We focused on getting that bull off the mountain by the end of the next day. I never did get a chance to continue my search for the first bull. Tracking had slowed to a crawl and I had found the track already a dozen or so times more than some might. Still is hard though. I can tell you one thing for certain. My pockets will be lighter and my quiver heavier next year.
First my setup:
Bow: Hoyt carbon defiant 70lbs
Arrow: 330 spine easton hexx with 50 grain brass inserts and 125 grain QAD exodus broadheads. Around 16% FOC and 425 grain total arrow weight.
Sight: Black Gold with three pin
I will start off by saying this setup shot lights out. As my friends all bought valkyrie arrows I just couldn't drop these because of how well they shot. For one I shot better with both broadheads and without. I also got super lucky and completely nailed it with the first sight tape I tried. Last summer I was dropping 100-yard bombs with broadheads reliably. I haven't traditionally been a great archery shooter but the last couple of years have really come together, because of this I was reluctant to change. Additionally, I had killed a deer at 55 yards with this setup except at 60 pounds (broken wrist that season) and penetration was plenty adequate.
This season after several days of hunting we finally struck up an eager bull. I snuck in within 20 yards and while the lower third or so of his body was covered and he was aware of my presence it was a pretty ideal broadside shot situation. He fell twice after the shot and sauntered off. He was a big mature 5 point in a general season unit. We wait 3.5 hours. Initially, blood was pretty good. Bright red with bubbles and not buckets but tracking was a slow walking pace. Even a mile into the track he was still consistently dripping blood. At about a mile and a half, he kicks it straight up a steep mountain. It's brushy and dry in the area he does this and tracking slows to a crawl. Maybe an hour every 30 yards. Multiple times the trail is completely lost only to be found after crawling through the brush for over a half-hour. He is clearly starting to clot up now but only after losing gallons of blood. He also is still dripping but it's much much tougher to find. I shot him at 8 am and now it's getting close to dark. I send my companion back to take care of the mules. TIme is ticking but I get really lucky and find blood 200 yards from my last blood spot in the rocks. The rocks make for easy tracking to a rib of pine trees. I decide to back out as its getting dark and restart in the morning.
I replay the shot countless times. I grew up elk hunting with a rifle. I keep thinking that drawing on a bull staring right at me I must have quickly settled the pin on the front shoulder area. I hit him far forward for a bow shot. I wake up at 4:30 hike the 6 miles up from camp and glass the clearings surrounding the trees I know he at least went through. Nothing. I was hoping to see him maybe try to get out and feed or find his herd. I head up to comb the rocky slide where he would have headed to hopefully find blood where it's easy before going into the much more difficult pine duff I last found blood in. While walking around with my head in the dirt I hear a short locate bugle. I hear a bull going through the brush coming out of the timber the bull I had hit went into. I get into position and catch the bull with his head and front shoulder covered at 20 yards. Though he is mostly covered he still bust me when I draw. He is ready to bolt any second. This may be controversial but I figure I will be more upset to watch the bull run off with my arrow from yesterday in him than to shoot another bull when my chances at recovering the other bull are slim at best. I draw and let loose. This time holding plenty far back into the lungs. I am expecting a full pass-through.
When the bull emerges on the opposite side of a small drainage I see an arrow sticking well out of his side. YES! I think. its the same bull! He stops twice before going back into the timber he emerged from. I wait a couple hours and find him taking his last breaths just inside the treeline. Less than a 100 yards. I instantly see though that he is smaller. Both 5 points similar frames but smaller tine length. Upon getting to him I pull the arrow out and find it broken at 6 inches from the broadhead. Must have went through and broke when he went down I thought. However, after flipping him I find an exit out the top of his flank. He was broadside and that's a gap well exceeding my 27.5 inch arrows. It occurs to me that the arrow likely snapped on the rib with the broadhead portion ricocheting through the other side. While the fletching side of the break just barely penetrates. Maybe it was another shot? However, after fully breaking the animal down its clear that exit is from me.
Here is what I can best figure. I was slightly underspined and at those close ranges I had some flexion putting my arrows at risk of breaking on impact or at a minimum not penetrating to their potential. My setup wasn't the ideal but I would say it was also better than average but I got significantly worse performance than average. I attribute that to arrow spine. Regardless, I know for certain that had I been shooting a superior arrow setup I would have harvested that larger 5 point bull. With two holes in his hide he would have expired. The shot wasn't ideal, I surely hit bone. However, I wouldn't consider that placement bad and I don't want to shoot an arrow setup that demands perfection. I rarely find it in field conditions. I watched my hunting partner ass shoot a bull broadside at 60 yards. A god-awful shot. Only to have the arrow penetrate through both femurs and severe the femoral artery... The bull died within 20 yards. He was shooting boutique expensive valkyrie arrow systems. I am not saying that you can totally mess up and get away with it nor should it mean you don't have to make good shots by buying expensive stuff. However, what I can say is my shot a few inches forward on that first bull would have made my first archery bull all high fives instead of a complicated mess.
What ultimately happened is our cool temperatures gave way to high heat right after the second bull went down. He was 6 miles from camp and camp is 10 miles from the trailhead. The trailhead is another hour or more drive to the nearest ice. We focused on getting that bull off the mountain by the end of the next day. I never did get a chance to continue my search for the first bull. Tracking had slowed to a crawl and I had found the track already a dozen or so times more than some might. Still is hard though. I can tell you one thing for certain. My pockets will be lighter and my quiver heavier next year.
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