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Betterluckythangood

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Join me on my Wyoming GS elk hunt and play along if you like.

Real life hunting scenario:

It took five years to draw the tag. You’re into it over a week’s vacation time. This is your fifth trip. Two short scouting trips. Two archery hunts and now three days left to hunt with the rifle. You make the grueling 2.5 mile hike up the trail again to where you think the elk might be and there they are up above you on the side hill under 200 yards away. Two rag horns, a spike and a couple cows. You would be happy with either raghorn at this point.

It’s a steep uphill angle and your footing is bad but you have an ok but not great rest against a small quakie sapling. It’s the only option for a shot without being seen. The shooting lane is basically open and the bigger rag horn is basically broadside. You can only see the one bull at this point. You take the shot but notice as the gun is going off the crosshairs have drifted off the shoulder and over the mid-body area. You DON’T hear the smack of the bullet impact but think you probably hit it but not good and the bull disappears. But did you hit it? You have no way of knowing the result of the shot without climbing up there and looking in the ravine where the bull disappeared.

Now the other elk appear and they are not spooked and just mill around. The second raghorn now steps out in the open presenting a beautiful, broadside shot. You now reposition yourself and are able to get a dead solid rest and put the crosshairs on him knowing full well if you shoot, your tag will be filled.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
 
Been there, done that. It was a deer hunt in 1999. Shot at a young 4 point in thick brush at the top of a ridge. No initial indication of a hit. Hiked up to check, and before I got over the ridge, three bucks bust out on the side hill, one a nice 4 point. Never even took my gun off my shoulder. When I crested the top of the ridge, the first buck tried jumping up in front of me, but was badly wounded. My follow up shot at 30 yards put him down for good. Glad I did what I did. I'm basically a Saint. 🤣😆
 
I'm not saying I have never missed but I rarely miss with a rifle.....I would be checking for a dead animal after the first shot.
Let’s move the goal posts here. Suppose it’s not a top pro like you and I who have never missed or wounded an animal and can usually hit a quarter at that range blindfolded but your kid or nephew Timmy or aunt Martha, and you weren’t looking when they shot. Does that change anything?
 
My wife shot right under a bull in 2022 with her bow and while we were looking for her arrow to confirm that she had in fact missed she had a great shot opportunity at 3....yes....3 bulls (2 of them actually bigger than the one she had missed).

She never knocked an arrow because she wasn't 100% certain that she had missed because we couldn't find her arrow. She was 99% certain she had missed.

15 minutes later I found her arrow sticking in a log and she had in fact missed clean.....

Thats what I can being a sportsman with ethics.

FYI - She went home empty handed that year and was 100% ok with that.

98% of hunters would have shot one of those other bulls. I'm proud to say that she didn't.

ALSO ^^^^I should also note that it took her a DECADE of points to draw that archery elk tag......So the pressure to be successful on a tag that she may never draw again was certainly present the entire trip.
 
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Need more info. Can the elk vanish into deep timber or are they in and out of vision?. I would be glassing to see if I hit the bull and hopefully he appears some where to see what happened

I will be 100% honest. Years and years ago I think I would squeeze that trigger again.
In today's world hell no. Just assume someone is watching at all times. Game wardens know where to sit and watch, people have such good glass to see things well. Hell I leanred when I was 17 miles in the backcountry a Monster muley member watched me shoot my ram. What are the chances of that. Goes to show ya, someone is watching
 
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Need more info. Can the elk vanish into deep timber or are they in and out of vision?. I would be glassing to see if I hit the bull and hopefully he appears some where to see what happened

I will be 100% honest. Years and years ago I think I would squeeze that trigger again.
In today's world hell no. Just assume someone is watching at all times. Game wardens know where to sit and watch, people have such good glass to see things well. Hell I leanred when I was 17 miles in the backcountry a Monster muley member watched me shoot my ram. What are the chances of that. Goes to show ya, someone is watching
Good question. Yes there is a huge patch of black timber 100 yards above they are headed for. A 25% chance that you will see the bull briefly you shot if it crosses the open areas.

Also, as most of us know, a poor or marginal hit on a bull isn’t going to get it done without a follow up shot and chances are good it will heal up in a while if it was hit to begin with. Again there was no thump, thwop or thwack from a possible hit. It didn’t hump up, go down or stumble that you saw. All I saw was a glimpse as it disappeared in the ravine. Near zero chance anyone is within miles of you.
 
Are there no pragmatic contrarians out there who are saying to themselves “Look, if I hit that bull to begin with, it was a bad hit and it’s going to disappear in that thick timber above forever then heal up just fine in a couple weeks?” I am going to shoot. There haven’t been any laws broken yet.

It’s also “possible” you can let the elk drift over the first ridge, climb up there and look for the “dead first bull” and catch up to them but your already beat, it’s steep uphill and catching up to elk going uphill towards their beds. Well, good luck on that one
 
Treat it like so many archery hunters do, keep shootin em until you eventually find one.
Yeah cause archery hunters are the only ones who ever shoot stuff and don’t find it. This exact scenario unfolds every day on the rifle hunt. A lot of guys don’t even go look if there is not an obvious reaction to the shot.

In this scenario the only option is to wait to check on the first bull. Plenty of elk and deer for that matter will act like they weren’t hit when in fact they were.
 
Yeah cause archery hunters are the only ones who ever shoot stuff and don’t find it. This exact scenario unfolds every day on the rifle hunt. A lot of guys don’t even go look if there is not an obvious reaction to the shot.
Unfortunately you are correct. Never said it isolated to archery. However, IMO archery has an oddly high rate of hunters hitting stuff, not finding it, therefore deeming the animal to be "just fine" and moving on to hit another one.
In this scenario the only option is to wait to check on the first bull. Plenty of elk and deer for that matter will act like they weren’t hit when in fact they were.
100%
 
Been there twice. First my son’s first shot at an animal, spent two hours looking for any sign of blood and the second was when I had the only bull tag I’ve held. Both clean misses, after that I swore I’d never go unprepared with a rifle only sighted in to 100 yards. We were lucky they were misses.
 

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