Worst Case Scenario - Bad Shot

[tmitty]

I'm relatively new to the hunting scene, been at it for 4 seasons now, archery elk. I drew a LE Bull tag this year. Up until this season I hadn't drawn my bow on an animal. This season, I have been blessed with many exciting encounters, lots of early rutting action, and overall a great experience. Until yesterday.

My brother and I hiked deep into a hole that not many other hunters get to. Long story short, we were able to bugle in a herd bull to broadside at 20 yards. I had a perfect opportunity and screwed it up. I hit him high and back. I've put what I thought was significant practice with my bow on a target, but its a different story when a screaming bull is coming at you. I thought I was aiming at his vitals, but as I'm looking at anatomy diagrams today and replaying the image in my mind, I misjudged where to put my pin. I should have put more study into elk anatomy. I should have taken an extra second before I released that arrow.

We tracked him for 6 hours, a couple hours into the dark. The blood was never very good. It wasn't lung blood, and no visible guts. We tracked him about 500 yards, decreasing blood the whole way until we were down to pea-sized drops every 30 yards, until eventually nothing. He went down the hill, over a creek and back up another ridge. My brother is confident he will survive the shot. I sure hope so, but I feel awful. This is not the way I envisioned my first shot on an elk to go.

I have next week scheduled off work to try and seal the deal, but I have to admit this has taken the wind out of my sails a bit. If I can't make a clean shot on an elk broadside at 20 yards, what business do I have hunting elk?

Not sure what my point is in posting this, just felt like I needed to get it off my chest. I'm sure I'll feel better about everything in a few days, but this sucks.

 

[KHNC]

Happens all the time on elk. Tough animal and will probably survive that hit. Getting this in before some fool says you "probably hit the void" . Get back out and hunt while the action is good. Doesnt happen often.

 

[BFR]

Adrenaline can do strange things. Even at 20yds a quick peek, a difference in anchor or torqueing the bow slightly. Sounds like you may have hit the void, behind and over lungs and liver below the artery.
Yeah, there is a void that has no vitals.

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

Welcome to bowhunting. If he's gut shot he'll bed up on water. If not he'll probably live. Even a cut single lung high back is survivable. Impossible for us to say. You're the only one who can make a judgement on this.
Anyone who has bowhunted elk long enough will have a story like this. And if they don't they're probably a liar.

Not a believer in a "void" you can single lung a bull and he could live. You could shoot a bull high and get lucky if your arrow severs the spine. Severing arteries luck as well.
Could've clipped liver and he'll die slowly somewhere. Liver blood is dark and often doesn't smell very gutty.

Elk spines sit a lot lower than people think. Plenty of bulls are found with old broadheads lodged into their vertebrae.

The only "void" is missing the animal. And the void in your head you never fill from f'ing up. Lol

 

[bsnedeker]

I agree with Kenny...if you hunt long enough EVERYONE will eventually put a bad shot on an animal. You learn from every experience so just try to put it in that context. Sounds like you most likely hit him through the backstrap which is not a fatal hit. You may even get a chance to redeem yourself on that very same elk...that has happened to me on a whitetail. I hit him in the middle of the backstrap on a Saturday. The very next Saturday he came back into my setup and I knocked him down.

 

[grossklw]

Shit happens man, we've all made bad shots on chip shots, nobody's perfect. I drilled a gorgeous bull at 55 yards and 12 ringed him and watched him die 30 yards later. Came home and blew a 7 yard broadside shot on a whitetail out of a treestand, riddle me that? Heat of the moment things change.

What helps me is having the same draw routine. Mine's simple, draw, pick a spot, settle the pin, take a breath, and squeeze.

If it was high enough you hopefully hit above the spine and that bull is still bugling in a canyon somewhere. Below the spine and he's dead, maybe not yet, but he's dead, above the spine and he's sore but is likely chasing another cow. There's no such thing as a void, anatomically impossible. @KHNC you got in just before a void believer. It didn't take long for someone to chime in with the unicorn "void". Just busting your balls @BFR , but seriously...the void's not a thing, has been debunked plenty of times.

Can't shoot another one sulking at home, grab your bow and go kill something!

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Was the blood dark, with a bit of a metallic smell? That area can be a liver hit. As others have said, could also be above the spine. It's a lot lower than you think it is.

You mentioned needing to study anatomy, so you already have a next step. Go back after them and let the memory of this one keep you honest at the moment of truth. Remind yourself to do it right, i.e pick the right spot, execute your shot like you practiced, and follow through without peaking.

 

[KNASH]

A terrible feeling for sure, but time and the next shot will start to heal your feelings.
As my uncle used to say, "hitting the target is easy, it's not missing that's hard".

 

[KHNC]

Adrenaline can do strange things. Even at 20yds a quick peek, a difference in anchor or torqueing the bow slightly. Sounds like you may have hit the void, behind and over lungs and liver below the artery.
Yeah, there is a void that has no vitals.

This is stupid and is not true. There are areas of an elk and deer that arent vitals. They are described as meat and bone. Inside the actual "body cavity" , there is NO VOID.

 

[tmitty]

Was the blood dark, with a bit of a metallic smell? That area can be a liver hit. As others have said, could also be above the spine. It's a lot lower than you think it is.

You mentioned needing to study anatomy, so you already have a next step. Go back after them and let the memory of this one keep you honest at the moment of truth. Remind yourself to do it right, i.e pick the right spot, execute your shot like you practiced, and follow through without peaking.

The blood was dark, but I didn't notice a metallic smell. The arrow didn't pass through, it got about 16" of penetration, from my recollection. I'm thinking I must have hit a bit of vertebrae to stop it. I imagine a pure liver hit would pass through pretty easy.

It would be great if I could redeem myself on the same bull. I plan to go back to the same canyon and give it a shot.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'll definitely learn from this one. I realize this happens to every bow hunter at some point. I guess I just got mine out of the way right off the bat.

 

[eagle_eye]

I had the same type of experience. I shot in what a neighbor called "No Man's Land".
The neighbor said the bull had a high likelihood of death, but might take quite awhile.
The bull never bled as far as I could tell, just deep tracks for a hundred yards or so, then all sign just vanished.
I searched and searched. No blood, no luck in finding him that day.
I continued to hunt in the area. A few days later the crows found him for me.
He ended up going up and over the next ridge further than I had searched and into the next valley.
It definitely was a sick feeling. Keep at it.

 

[Buglebrush]

Go back in a few days and look for Ravens. Just in case.

 

[Ross]

It happens and I’ve met super good shooters who have lost animals, you Hunt long enough it happens to everyone as no one is perfect, simply learn and do the best you can. sounds like he may live.

 

[Mike1187]

It happens, like others have said...learn from it and grab your bow again and get after them.

Its hard to know exactly what happened in your case without knowing exactly where you hit him but a lot of times, a high and back shot with no pass through can be deadly, especially with 16” of penetration. The lack of blood on the ground doesn’t necessarily mean the animal isn’t bleeding...it is just staying inside the animal. It takes a lot of blood to fill the cavity of an elk or deer and the only way out is through a hole that might only be 1”-1.5” in diameter, high up on the body of the animal.

Again, shake it off and get back out there. Good luck!

 

[JLane330]

If you hit high, you may not get a blood trail at all. The fur soaks up the blood and the trail can be weak/non-existent. I hit a bull a touch high two years ago and their was zero blood trail. Luckily I hit him in a way that incapacitated his back half and he didn't go anywhere so I got follow-up shots.

The only time I've seen a bull hit and not die is when a shoulder is hit and penetration is weak. I saw a guy hit a bull in the guts once (way back) and the bull was dead the next day...took A LOT of looking to find him. He went a long ways after the shot, we tracked him by foot prints.

 

[CougarBlue]

That's a tough break. They are tough critters and I've seen plenty that get cut open only to find old broad heads stuck in funny places. I think you're doing the right thing by going back and see if you can get back on him.

Poorly placed shots are a reality of hunting. No one wants to live it and it should be the goal of every hunter to make as each kill as clean and ethical as possible. But there are too many variables to ensure our best of intentions are realized each time we let an arrow loose. It's just the nature of activity that involves fallible humans and animals with a will of their own.

As much as it sucks, and it does sting, take the experience as a lesson and move forward. Keep after them and enjoy your next week out there chasing bugles. Don't let it get in your head. That's when it becomes easier to make mistakes. Trust your equipment, your preparation and get some more practice over the next few days to get the confidence back up. Best of luck!!

 

[roosiebull]

it sucks, but it's a thing any experienced hunter has/will deal with (not just archery hunters) you have to have a short term memory with things like this.... absorb the lessons that can be learned and be that much better the next time.... now you know what it's like in the heat of the moment.... that weapon you feel one with in the back yard is all of a sudden a foreign object, nothing is the same when flooded with adrenaline.

you have to stay cognitive in the shot, follow the shot process, focus on that rather than the bull in front of you and the outcome of the shot. shit goes awry in real life if you let your brain run the shot in autopilot... your brain will tell you that you need to just get an arrow off.... NOW!

slow things down, you have time, even though your mind is screaming "he's gonna bolt! shoot now!" this is all of course easier said than done, and all you can do is stay present in the heat of the moment, and it gets better with more encounters.

i feel your pain man, don't let your confidence slip or you're screwed.... shoot some arrows, reassure yourself you have the ability, and when it happens again, remind yourself that it's an easy shot (any reasonable shot on an elk is easy, they have big vitals and are usually pretty close)

keep after it, enjoy the season and make the next shot count.... redemption will feel good

 

[The Ri Guy]

As @Buglebrush said, go back and look for ravens. Meat might be spoiled but you may still be able to recover it.

They are tough, TOUGH, animals...my ol' man shot a big bull through one lung cleanly, and it still took us over 16 hours of tracking and ~2 miles to find him, with several guys on the trail, and it took two more arrows to put him down for good. I shot a cow way, way back on accident and there wasn't much blood, turned out I hit the femoral artery and my arrow stuck in her hip bone...she bled out internally and piled up in the brush. I've also killed a mature buck that had a broadhead lodged in the meat of his hind-quarter that was completely healed over and you'd never have been able to tell if you hadn't cut him open. If it wasn't vital, he'll survive.

It happens to all of us -- shake yourself off and get back out there, you'll get it done!

 

[rclouse79]

If I said I had never fallen apart with an elk in bow range I would be lying. Don’t beat yourself up too bad. Try to learn from it what you can.

 

[rclouse79]

A terrible feeling for sure, but time and the next shot will start to heal your feelings.
As my uncle used to say, "hitting the target is easy, it's not missing that's hard".

Good quote