Long range elk "mistake"

. I watched for about twenty minutes and the cows never even stopped feeding, but the bull never reappeared so I was quite sure he was down.
We left our rifles in camp

This type of behavior got a 1Lt killed one day in RVN. Assuming something is dead when you cannot see if it is in fact dead was fatal to him. You are lucky it was an elk not an enemy soldier.

I make at least my share of mistakes so I am in no way casting stones at you, but merely pointing out that caliber of rifle and bullet choice was not the critical mistake based upon my experience.
 
Was talking with an aquantance last night who constantly gives me a hard time for shooting such large, high intensity rifles as he says his 270 Win will do anything the bigger guns will do and last longer as well. I told him to come to LRH and read this post. He is not a member here but comes and visits now and then.

Anyway, had an e-mail from him this morning where he simply attacked long range hunting and all of us being ego bound for the reason that this elk was lost.

And that his 270 would have done as well or better then how this story turned out......

I looked at the time of his e-mail and noticed he had JUST sent it and that he was marked as on-line with G-mail so I sent him a chat message to see if he was around. He replied and the debate started......

Asked him if he remembered loosing that big 6x6 bull elk two seasons ago during the Montana archery season? He replied that he remembered but asked what that had to do with anything. Well, when I heard about his situation, he was down at a local archery shop owned by a friend of mine. I had stopped in to talk with my friend and there was a group of guys talking about archery hunting stories. I was just hanging around listening to the conversation as my friend was working with a customer. I was amazed to hear story after story from these, "self proclaimed archery elk hunting experts", about elk being lost. Of the 6-7 guys in the group, I heard 5 different stories of hitting and loosing elk during archery season.

When they talked about each story, each and every one of them had an excuse as to why the elk had gotten away, bad broadhead performance, elk took a step (no fault of their own for the bad hit!!!), bull jumped the string. After hearing just about enough of the crap I walked over and asked if what I was hearing was true, that 75% of the hunters flapping their jaws had lost a bull elk in the past 3-4 years and not one instance was because of a bad shot from them?????

They just stood there stupified that someone called them out on it as it seemed this was not unusual in the bow hunting crowds. Just something that happens and is part of bow hunting, thats why its "SO DIFFICULT".

One guy spoke up and replied, well, we do not feel that we need to shoot cannons to harvest our big game animals. My only reply before I left the crowd was "ya, your archery gear is doing very well for you, isn't it!!"

My point for this post is simply this. IN my 15 years of long range shooting and 10 years of long range hunting, I have never lost a big game animal that I hit at ranges past 500 yards. Now, I did not say I have not missed animals, there have been a couple of misses for sure but I have NEVER lost a big game animal that I hit at long range.

More to that point, I have spoken with and had reports from HUNDREDS of customers of their big game hunting results at long range and over the past 10 years I can count on one hand the number of big game animals lost from long range hunting.

My point is this, lost wounded game happens but it is actually a very rare thing in the long range hunting community. Even more then that, when it does happen, most long range hunters, just like Elkaholic, are humble enough that they blame themselves before thinking up a list of excuses as to why they lost the game animal when in most situtations, the reason the animal was lost was about 95% on the shoulders of the hunter.

I have heard reports of dramatically more big game lost from conventional rifle and archery hunters then anything coming from the long range community. Yes there are alot more conventional hunters which could mess with the numbers but in my way of thinking, its more likely that we as long range hunters GENERALLY are much more perfectionists when it comes to our equipment and what shots we are willing to take.

At times we make poor judgement calls. In the case of Elkaholics situation, as he mentioned, had he approached the elk with a rifle ASSUMING it was still alive it likely would have been shot in its bed, who of us have not made the same mistake approaching game. How many of us have stormed up to a dead animal that would have jumped up and ran like hell because of our approach to the animal but we were just lucky that the animal was dead or we would have had the same result.

Hell, a couple years ago I punched a decent mule deer buck through both shoulders at a bit over 700 yards with my 7mm AM. Fell on his nose. It took me around an hour to get to the buck. Knowing the buck was dead I decided to go light for the hike to the buck and just took my 1911 handgun and left my rifle at the truck.

Got to the buck, reached down and grabbed the antlers to pull the buck down to a flat spot so I could dress the buck out. Grabbed the rack, started pulling the buck down the hill and felt something odd, the buck was pulling back on me, HARD!!! He then stumbled to his feet, kind of, and flopped and stumbled down the hill about 100 yards away from me..... Obviously I had a fully alive 300 lb buck that was wounded and it was getting very dark and I only had my **** handgun. Well, things worked out, got a bit western to finish him off but my point is I did the same thing Elkaholic did, assumed the animal was long dead.......

Generally long range hunters blame themselves for these situations, most conventional hunters and bow hunters I have talked to generally blame their equipment or something other then themselves for this type of thing but most hardcore conventional hunters will call us the ego bound ones.......

There are several good points made by elkaholic to help all of us remember how to do things correctly. 1. Use enough gun with the right bullets for the job. 2. approach big game as if you expect it to jump up and run away.

Very good points for ALL OF US to remember and I commend him for having the humility to tell us this story more for a reminder for all of us.
 
I had to tell this story being the discussion has steered to what to do following the shot. 2 years ago was my sons first year of hunting. We took him out on a mule deer hunt. It was my wife, son, my friend and myself. We only had a few hours of daylight left on the last day of the season so we ran just out of town here to hit a few spots where we know there are always deer but not usually anything big.

we soon found a nice 3x3 buck. I have to say this buck was the stupidest deer I have ever seen. It was definitely meant to be his buck. Anyhow, my son set up for the shot and and did, then shot again, and again, and again, and again. the deer just kept feeding. Finally he he had to hand load the gun as it was empty, we settled him down and made him concentrate on the shot and BOOM the buck dropped like a brick. We loaded up in thruck and headed down to retrieve him.

This where it gets good. We pull up to the deer and instead of grabbing guns, we grab camera's! We walk up to the deer and he jumps up and runs 5 feet and drops again. I turn to run to the truck to get a a gun when my buddy yells to throw him my knife. Now this guy is BIG! Body builder and strong as all get out. You know the type. Well I throw him my knife and he jumps on the buck and stabbs the deer in the throat then slices as much as he could. the deer jumps up in a whirl and bouble barrels my buddy right in the chest (2 hind foot kick) and he goes flying. The deer runs about 20 feet, spraying blood, and goes down for good. My buddy in the meantime is back there gasping for air. LMFAO!! We laughed for 10 minutes how that deer whipped up on him. Unfortunatly my wife had just stopped the camera to get a better angle on the approach when the whole fiasco unleashed.

Now I only bring this up because had it been a bull Elk, we would have been ummmm up the creek without a paddle per say. The buck had been spined near his hind quarters but some how wasn't totally done for. The next year when my son shot his Antelope he had his gun at the ready as we approached the buck. I think that was a lesson learned for us all.
 
Any man who has the courage to openly disclose a mistake like this on a public forum has my deepest respect.

Anyone who has hunted any amount of time has made mistakes. There are people better qualified to shoot game at 1000 yards than some are qualified at 100. We all take calculated risks. Once in a while it goes awry. That's life.

Thank you for posting this. It causes us all a little humility.
 
GENERALLY are much more perfectionists when it comes to our equipment and what shots we are willing to take.


I think the key component to long range hunters having low lost game numbers is the above statement along with the fact that LRH's practice far, far more than traditional rifle or bow hunters. And because of this they are much more proficient despite the longer ranges being shot.

Heck, when I was younger I could hardly get my hunting buddies to even re-verify zero before going out for the season let alone putting in some practice. Same with a lot of bow hunters unfortunately. And with bow hunting you have got to practice to stay conditioned and accurate. Needless to say I don't hang with those gents any longer.

There have been a couple posts in this thread about the large number of game animals lost with varying methods of take. Like Kirby mentioned, I would submit that the reason this happens has very little to do with bow or rifle or even bullet choice or which cartridge is chosen. By far the biggest percentage is caused by not doing due diligence in practice and preparation. Sure there will be a small percentage cuased by errors in judgement, poor caliber choice, etc. but the large majority is due to guys not respecting the animals and the sport enough to get off the couch and put in some time practicing, and learning their limitations.

Good Post Kirby and great thread!
 
Scot E,

I agree, getting the job done during hunting season is a result of the shooting and field practice done in the other 11 months of the year. To that point again, that same friend that has the archery shop goes CRAZY business wise in July and August and then once September arrives, its a ghost town and it remains that way until late June early July of the next year.

Same with conventional rifle hunters, you guys would not believe the number of guys that call me up after the opening weekend of general rifle season here in Montana that say they missed a big game animal on opening weekend so there is something wrong with their rifle, as it shot perfect last fall when the rifle was put away.

My comment is genereally, go sight your rifle in to confirm your zero, if there is something wrong, get back with me after the first of the year.

Poor planning on their part does not an emergency make for me!!! LOL

We spend 11 months a year loading, shooting, practicing, studying everything needed to be proficent. Long range hunting is not a 2 or 3 month a year hobby. That is why there are so few wounded animals and generally when there is a miss, its generally because WE make a mistake either on hold over or dial ups and the miss is generally DRAMATIC resulting in very few missed animals.

Compare that to 80% of conventional hunters in the US that see no problem taking a shot at a big buck or bull running through the timber at 50 yards with a rifle they shoot once a year......

As mentioned, have a little humility and respect such as Elkaholic has shown on this post.
 
Now I know why I decided to run this thread. You guys have REALLY come through with some very important points that will make our sport better and I completely agree with 90+ % of the responses. I would like to make one more point which I neglected to say in the initial post. (COMPLACENCY) I have shot a 6.5 for MANY years before getting in to the really long range stuff. As I have stated in previous posts, I have probably killed over 25 bulls with a 6.5, most of which were in the 400-600 yard range and mostly with Nosler partitions (none got away). This was the correct bullet, and in my opinion, a reasonable range. I didn't need a high b.c. bullet at those ranges and a partition will ALWAYS expand and yet ALWAYS retain the back 60% making it a pretty lethal combination. With all this success over the years and having my 300 go down, it was easy to get over zealous on the cartridge, even though I have posted previously as to why this shouldn't be done and especially with a bullet that has erratic behavior at those velocities (expansion wise).
One more point that was so eloquently stated: We (long range hunters) probably practice longer, harder, and are more particular than ANY other group of hunters that I know, period! Here is an example of the kind of people we are being judged by. I have a friend who takes his rifle in EVERY year to get bore sighted because "of course" that makes it DEAD ON to near infinity (in his mind). Mind you, he doesn't do any more sighting in himself because this is perfection. You can't argue with him. I rest my case!
While I'm on a roll, I have a bone to pick with some (most) of the hunting channel archery hunting shows. While I completely understand giving an animal a chance to expire when shot with a broadhead, as often as not, I see them wait until the following morning to retrieve it! Who eats these critters?? I'm not picking on anyone who might be an archery hunter here on this forum, but maybe someone could explain this to me?
Again, I thank all of you for your very insightful and positive response to this thread...Rich
 
Who eats these critters??


I do! Nothing wrong with them.

Microcystis's Channel - YouTube

Microcystis's Channel - YouTube

Microcystis's Channel - YouTube

I will tell you once again you don't have a clue what actually happened with the bullet because you never recovered the elk to see. You make a guess and call it a fact. That's what got the 1LT killed- making guesses.


Shawn related a story about a bear four or five years ago that should have been dead but wasn't and Kirby has retold a story he told once before of a very well hit animal that should have been dead but wasn't. I had the same thing happen with an antelope which I broke both front shoulder on. What happens with these animals is fairly easy to figure out if you ever see it yourself. Usually the bullet passes through both lungs making a large exit hole but when the animal falls, it falls on the wound and mashes the exit wound closed because it is underneath it and on the ground. The entrance wound closes as the hide moves to a new position and seals the small entrance wound. The animal lays there for a few hours and the internal wounds clot and the external wounds clot. This allows it to re-oxygenate the blood and it is good to go again if the limbs are not broken. When I was about 44 YO and running marathons I collapsed a lung but still managed to run 5-8 miles a day for several days until I went into the hospital and was put on a chest tube. So if you do not collapse both lungs by keeping the chest open to the atmosphere or hit enough blood vessels to get it to bleed to death internally it is very easy for the animal to recover sufficient strength to run for a good long distance.
 
Bob.....you are correct. I don't know for sure because I didn't recover the animal! I think I mentioned that in the original post. What I was eluding to was, I DO know for sure that through a LOT of testing the same bullets at different velocities in various forms of media, they do perform erractically which I knew ahead of time. That was the point I was trying to make. Thanks for your comments.........Rich
 
Now I know why I decided to run this thread. You guys have REALLY come through with some very important points that will make our sport better and I completely agree with 90+ % of the responses. I would like to make one more point which I neglected to say in the initial post. (COMPLACENCY) I have shot a 6.5 for MANY years before getting in to the really long range stuff. As I have stated in previous posts, I have probably killed over 25 bulls with a 6.5, most of which were in the 400-600 yard range and mostly with Nosler partitions (none got away). This was the correct bullet, and in my opinion, a reasonable range. I didn't need a high b.c. bullet at those ranges and a partition will ALWAYS expand and yet ALWAYS retain the back 60% making it a pretty lethal combination. With all this success over the years and having my 300 go down, it was easy to get over zealous on the cartridge, even though I have posted previously as to why this shouldn't be done and especially with a bullet that has erratic behavior at those velocities (expansion wise).
One more point that was so eloquently stated: We (long range hunters) probably practice longer, harder, and are more particular than ANY other group of hunters that I know, period! Here is an example of the kind of people we are being judged by. I have a friend who takes his rifle in EVERY year to get bore sighted because "of course" that makes it DEAD ON to near infinity (in his mind). Mind you, he doesn't do any more sighting in himself because this is perfection. You can't argue with him. I rest my case!
While I'm on a roll, I have a bone to pick with some (most) of the hunting channel archery hunting shows. While I completely understand giving an animal a chance to expire when shot with a broadhead, as often as not, I see them wait until the following morning to retrieve it! Who eats these critters?? I'm not picking on anyone who might be an archery hunter here on this forum, but maybe someone could explain this to me?
Again, I thank all of you for your very insightful and positive response to this thread...Rich
Rich, I have a bunch of hardcore archery buddies and I've asked them the same questions. Some of them tell me they salvage what they can, some of them tell me they salvage parts, and some of them (especially the E. Nebraska hunters) tell me there's nothing that can be saved because the meat has begun to rot by the next morning in the humidity of the river bottoms. They're up-front with me and atleast they're honest....they tell me its edible if they find it right away, and something if not everything will be wasted if they wait. In Colorado, Nebraska, and Southern Wyoming day temps on most archery hunts are in the 60-70 degree mark during the day with temps rarely going below 50 at night. Depending on if the shot introduced bacteria into the bloodstream, or how severe the wound is into any surrounding tissue, rotting begins within a few hours. Twice I have been called in to help retrieve animals shot by bowhunters...once on a huge bull elk, the other time on a white-tail. The bull was shot at 3:00 in the afternoon (74 degrees at 8600 feet), and was still walking pretty good, though my friend got a good shot. He chased him and bumped him out of his bed twice, and decided to pull out at dark and let him die, and come back in the morning. As soon as we got good tracking light in the morning around 8 a.m. we eventually found the bull dead as a hammer (double lung and the off-side shoulder). He was bloated up like a roly-poly. We began to skin out the hinds, and cape him for a mount. I thought the hind quarters would still be good as they did not appear to have any odor (though they were still steaming that morning), but the loins and front quarters already stunk of putrefaction. Long story short, even though the meat did not stink that we took, the meat gave the family food poisoning, and the hair ended up slipping on the cape that's in only about 15 hours.
The whitetail was skewered real good...an arrow out and out (double lung), but it got too dark to track him, so I agreed to help him find it in the morning....never dropped below 56 degrees that night. On the course of its death run it ran across the north platte river, and died in a cottonwood grove. Every piece of meat I attempted to remove from it at daybreak made me gag it was already so spoiled. No way you could have paid me to eat any of it. My buddy said for me to not waste my time because he said they have to leave them lay because its too hot and they spoil that quick all the time. Maybe those are some extenuating circumstances, but I always notice these guys bringing home way less meat than they should be, and they're always citing rot loss as the cause.
 
On the note of bowhunting and leaving animals. I absolutely love to bow hunt. In my opinion bow hunting is a lot like long range hunting. You have to practice A LOT and know your equipment and only take high percentage shots. Yes mistakes still happen but not very often. Just like rifle hunting the guys that put in the time and effort make better shots more frequently and wound less animals. I have never left an animal over night for fear of meat loss unless the temp was to be around or below freezing. Also same as with a gun If you put a good broadhead through both lungs the animal will die very quickly.
 
Rich - Don't take this the wrong way. But, I'm glad it didn't work out for you this time.

Had you closed the deal like you very nearly did, you would have rightfully and proudly posted a very different story. And I'm afraid some of us would've taken that example as proof positive that 6.5mm is the ideal weapon for 1000 yds on Elk.

Hopefully the sacrifice of this one animal will give a few guys pause before they attempt the same feat.

We've all made mistakes or haven't hunted long. I'm confident you will prevail as you have many times before.

Thanks for sharing.
-- richard
 
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