High lung shot- need opinions please

[COelkaholic88]

Looking for a bit of advice. Last night around 7 pm the elk gods opened up the gates, and a beautiful 6x6 fed right into range at 55 yds, broadside/ slightly quartering to me and I sent a G5 Montec his way. I seen the arrow hit, an inch or two high up from center, but but the wind pushed it a tad forward. I know I hit this bull. I seen my blue illuminok lit up in his shoulder before he blew out. So the Bull took off, I hit the bugle and cow call, and thought I heard him crash. I waited a few minutes, then Looked for blood but didn't find blood immediately where he was standing when I shot him. So I backed out. Early this morning I found myself in the exact same spot before shooting light, expecting to have a long full day of packing. However I never found the bull. I followed his track from the point of impact through the trees where he took off up a timbered hill for 4-500 yds and found two blood spots the size of my thumb nail. Just a bit higher, following his tracks, I seen where he stopped and half assed rubbed a fir tree. Didn't clean the bark off, but the bows of the tree were all broken clean off. Then his tracks went down the hill until he hit another park probably another 300 yds down and that's where the tracks immediately cut back up hill he just came off of. With very little blood, I spent most of the dayfollowing his tracks and looking for what little blood I could find until eventually I was pushed out by evening storms. Could a high lung shot take a while to start dripping blood? Could that same shot allow the bull to live for longer than an hour? I'm really confused with my shot placement and the lack the blood. His tracks even went from prints showing a dead sprint to slow pace walk by the time he started down the hill after making the rub. Any thoughts, similar experiences, or suggestions in finding this big bull?

 

[bow_dozer]

Did you get any penetration? You might have just stacked his shoulder, especially if youre not seeing any lung blood. My dad had that same shot two years ago only at 40, let him sit overnight and same thing, eventually ran out of blood and tracks. Sounds like you have done everything you could do, hunt long enough and something like this will happen. If you have time to hunt i would go back and try to locate him again/see if you can find him still alive.

 

[backcountry_hunter]

^^^^^this^^^^ understand it's tough to judge on the internet but based on how you described it, it sounds like you caught that shoulder and maybe didn't mortally wound him. Lung blood is easy to pick out so I would think you'd know if you got into his lungs. Those are big shoulders on a mature bull to expect an arrow to penetrate into.... and the fact that he's climbing with ease isn't voting well for him dying. Just my $.02


I hit one in 2014 high and back in the lungs and it bled just the same, if not more violently than low in the lungs. It was quartering too and I must have pulled a little to the left, I thought I almost was too far back until it ran broadside from me, saw the blood and then I saw it collapse. To me what you described with the little blood and the animals behavior, it sounds like a text book shoulder shot and the bull might live a healthy life yet.


did you recover your arrow? any idea how much penetration you got?

 

[montanaelk31]

I think its real easy to shoot too high sometimes especially the way you described this encounter. To me, your story sounds like you hit shoulder bone,  possibly had some deflection and missed the goodies.  If your certain you were on his track for as far as you went, then he's not mortally wounded.  However, the last thing I would do before assuming so is go back to where you shot, make a bee line to where you heard the crash, then grid 2-300 yards there.  If he isn't there, he's gonna be fine. 

 

[COelkaholic88]

I never did find my arrow. As the bull ran away, It didn't look like I got as good as penetration as I thiught. Less than half of an 29" arrow. I was guessing around 4-6. I Went back up today and gridded the entire hillside from bottom to top hard, all  the way  down the ridge I figured he would move to. At the bottom of that steep ridge was a deep canyon with great water that was wide open. Nothing. Just more fresh track from other elk. One thing I know for certain, as soon as my arrow hit his body, the impact noise was super loud. Louder than I had anticipated. I may have even crossed his fresh track this morning about 600 yds down from the wallow where I shot him. They were just as big, and I could even see where the ground was freshly torn up from antlers. my gut instinct tells me the bull should be fine. Just gonna have stay after it, and try to even the score. Thanks for the tips

 

[lang]

Everythings pointing to a shoulder.  With 4-6 inches penetration you may not have touched one lung.