Leaving an Elk overnight

This is a judgement call we had to make last year. My buddy shot a cow at last light , watched it run off and saw it stop for a few minutes . came back to camp to get me . We found a 2 foot wide spot of lung blood, and just knew we would find it, we tracked that cow for 5 hours and lost blood, we decided it may have been 1 lung hit and did not want to push her into the next zip code, so we backed out , found her early the next morning, dead about 200 yards from last blood. She must have lived mostly thru the night, not alot of rigor and lost no meat.
Every elk is different but we have to do our part and piece it together from what ever the sign is after the shot.

One other thing to consider here: moisture. There are two things that spoil meat. Heat and Moisture. If you are hunting in a marshy area (think prime moose habitat), do not let the animal lay overnight. It's highly likely that the meat will spoil, regardless of temps.

Bar said:

If you're going to shoot an elk late in the day. You should be prepared to work in the dark.

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Exactly!!!!

Elk hunters require a different set of skills than whitetail hunters. What I mean is that where I grew up, I would never think of trailing a whitetail overnight and risk jumping it if it did not fall within sight. They can go a long way too if jumped. I'd come back the next morning, find it, butcher it, get it home. No issues. However, since I've been elk hunting for a few years now, I've come to realize that if an elk is shot at last light you are in for a rough go regardless of what happens or what you do. Tracking an elk at night is very very hard, especially if blood is minimal. I don't care if you have a bazillion lumen headlight and flashlight, it is very tough to track a wounded elk in heavy timber, dead sticks, rocks, deadfall, dark as ink, super steep conditions. It's borderline dangerous if you are solo. Then, if you make a marginal hit, you risk jumping the animal only to never find it. It's always a judgement call for me to track at night or not. If you do find it and it's dark, you're in for a long night in the dark, cold, steep mountains. But, would any of us trade the experience? LOL, no way! I just watched a little DOW infomercial on hunting bison in Montana. Not only do they recommend finding and processing the animal right away, they emphasize that a bison will spoil even if you find it, start butchering it, etc right away. You must get the hide off, and make some special cuts to the bone in the larger pieces of meat in order to ensure that it won't spoil...and do it fast. An elk is not quite the same but it def made me realize that meat can and will spoil if not taken care of in larger animals in a timely fashion. Always be prepared to at least gut it and, better yet, quarter and hang it ASAP. Good luck.

Well, i just did this Monday night. I shot a cow at last light, in hind sight i probably should not have shot because i made a bad shot. I had her at 15 yards and well i was anything but steady. Crap happens and i hit her in the liver. She ran out to 78 yards and stopped. I could not get a good shot at her as she was facing straight away. I guess i could have flung some arrows but I'm only sighted in to 60 with 40 being my confident threshold. I stayed until i could not see anymore and then snuck out. The herd was still there not 100 yards behind me mewing and talking as if nothing had happened. I came back early the next morning and she was not 30 yards from where i left her the night before. It was only getting down to the low 40's at night so i was super afraid she was going to spoil. BUT, i just had some steaks tonight and wow I'm glad i took the chance of leaving her instead of pushing her and not finding her again because the steaks were awesome! Call me lucky but i feel this is a case by case scenario, had i made a good shot you bet your ass i would have done whatever was necessary to get her taken care of that night. But with a marginal hit i feel i made the right choice and would so the same thing if i had to do it over!

2013 we took a new guy with us to Wyoming, hours before dark and shot a Bull and made no attempt to find it, we discussed it and camp after dark and he was to locate it and begin work on it while the rest of us hunted the am, instead he went out the next morning and Hunted until noon,(didn't even look for it by himself) met us at camp (where we all gave him a WTF) then helped him locate it, that year it rained every afternoon so we found it just in time for the afternoon downpour... it was quartered put in a contractor bags and hauled out of there not before realizing almost every bit of it was bone spoiled 3 miles later as we got to the trailhead, temperatures were in the high 30s at night and in the 80s in the afternoon

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules when it comes to this situation. You have to use your head and make the best decision at the time, unlike danarnold's acquaintance.

If you try to track and elk in the dark, and it needs another arrow, you likely made the wrong choice. If you don't track it, leave it overnight, and lose meat to spoilage, you likely made the wrong choice.

I hunt right up until dark, no 8 hour hunt days here. I know each and every time I am taking a risk, but I am prepared to physically and mentally handle the situation. I had to leave a cow overnight several years ago. I shot her in her bed the next morning at 0800. Had I pushed her, I never would have found her.

Use your head, your past experience, and some common sense.

I get on it ASAP. If I have to wait for an hour or so in the dark so be it. I have worked and packed an elk out by myself shooting it in the evening hunting. I finally got the last load to the truck at 2 AM. No meat was spoiled.

I wonder how much of the meat in the TV shows are lost. I know most do not take the meat home as the meat is donated.

I left mine overnight, it was fine