elknut1

Elktracker---THere's nothing wrong with your hunting advice, other than I personally would never suggest a hunter especially a newer one to hunt the bedding area. But that's another issue!!

It was your ethics on shooting them in the spine purposely and then running in and finishing them off. That is if you don't cripple them first & have to track them because of missing such a small target, again, especially for a new hunter who may have a bit of excitement to contain as well. Plus I would personally never reccommend a spine shot, bow or rifle!! Way toooo risky!!

Have a great day!!--------ElkNut1

121553

Elktracker, if a hunter uses a call to sucessfuly bag a bull he's not a hunter?
I have been hunting ever since 69', I have never heard of anyone intentionally aiming for the spine. I'm not even going to make a comment on that one.I don't know what book your reading but I think you read it wrong. Give me a break.
Bobby

muley69

The two most effective kill shots on any animal are the spine and the brain. However, they are such small targets that the possiblity of wounding the animal makes these shots marginal at best to intentionally take. I have honestly never heard anybody recommend a spine shot over a broadside shot.

RobinHood36

Elktracker, you say alot of times you don't have the shot for behind the shoulder, so you aim for the spine, and have consistently taken elk in this manner,--hunting to me also is being patient and waiting for your shot, and in my mind the right shot should be behind the shoulder, being the largest portion of the vital area. I can't see any hunter in there right mind trying to shoot an elk year after year aiming for the spine (LOL). I am curious of the elk you bagged all them years from spine shots, how many got away form you, that you did not find? You have to learn to be a responsible and ethical hunter, and sometimes that means you have to let that elk walk if the shot is not there, ...RobinHood36>>>============<>

elktracker

I have been hunting since 1956 and your comment about my ethics bothers me.. I have seen many an animal that I shot, or someone else shot, in the heart that was able to run up to 200+yards. The last one was a big elk (375) that was shot from 15yds with a bow. The aluminum arrow went through the heart, bounced back out and the last 12" of arrow snapped off when it hit a lodgepole pine, snapped like a twig. That had to hurt, yet the elk ran 200+ yds. uphill before dying. I have known good hunters to aim behind the shoulder and end up hitting the shoulder and losing the animal- didn't find or missed completely- I don't know. I'm not saying my method is better or trying to be a wisea--. I 'm an excellant shot and I don't shoot unless I know the animal will be going down and I eat what I shoot. The ethics part bothers me as I look at myself as an ethical hunter, which some of you take exception to. I have never lost an animal that I spine shot, the animals did not suffer (paralyzes them). I can't say the same when I have shot a deer/elk in the heart and they ran off 100-200yds and neither can you. That to me borders on unethical and is why I switched to a spine shot versus behind the shoulder. I don't like to see the animal suffer. I never take long shots- over 80yds. I have enough confidence in my woodmanship to get within 75 yds of most elk. My advice to a newbie might not have been on the mark as I don't know how good a hunter or shot he is. I was just trying to help him get his elk and I hope he does.

HuntElk4Fun

I'm ONLY replying to this so that other "rookie" Elk hunters or just "rookie" hunters that read this, know this IS NOT normal practice.

Now I can say I've heard it all. A paralyzed animal isn't suffering? Yet hitting them in the heart is unethical? Let's do some simple math, with some simple logic here, ONE arrow through the heart they run and DIE. Your method requires TWO arrows. First, you paralyze them so they lay on the ground, helpless, nervous, full aware that you are walking up them, then you put another arrow in them to finish them off. Anytime an arrow or bullet enters an animal it's going to hurt or do damage. Why not kill it the right way the FIRST time?

Never take long shots... over 80?? 80?? With a BOW?? I'm very confident to 50 and think 50 is a long shot. What's a long shot to you?? 100??

Sorry, in all respect, you got it all bassackwards in my and 99% of the rest of the hunters book.

gleninAZ

I figure ethics are between you and yourself. I figure 40 yards as my limit and have let nice animals walk that were over 50. There is no way that I consider 80 yards with a bow a reasonable shooting distance for 99% of bowhunters. I always take a lung shot and if I get heart then all is good. I might buy the spine as a rifle shot but certainly not for a bow. JMO.

Dirt2

I've got to jump in here, better late than never. I give elktracker an "A" for his general hunting technique, it's real close to my own. However, I give him an "F" on his shot recommendation. For most shooters, a spine shot is just not a reasonable option.

I really wonder where this "stay out of the bedding areas" mania began. Actually, I already know. It's borrowed straight from the whitetail hunting world. You watch hunting mags over time and they invariably bend any whitetail hunting rule into an elk hunting rule given enough time. Whitetail hunters have long touted the dogma of staying out of bedding areas, and now we've got that dogma infecting elk hunting.

I've just got to ask, how the blazes do you stay out of elk bedding areas? Maybe some of you guys are hunting elk on a different planet than me. What do you do, stand out in the middle of a meadow all day? No? Then guess what? You're in a potential elk bedding area.

In country I hunt, about 70% of the total land form is good bedding habitat - that's virtually all the north and east faces, and good portions of the south and west faces. Calling any particular localized area a "bedding area" may work for writing articles or describing a hunt succinctly, but in the elk world it's just not that simple. They can, and do, bed all over the place.Again, unless you're standing out in the open all day, you're doing your hunting in bedding areas.

In some, not all, whitetail situations I can understand staying out of bedding areas. That's true when you've got one or two 20-40 acres woodlots per square mile. Obviously, the deer are going to bed in those limited areas, and if you only have access to a smallish hunting plot, there's no real percentage in blowing deer out of their hidey holes.

While I haven't seen every block of elk habitat in America, I have yet to see one that even roughly correlated to a whitetail situation where you should "stay out of the bedding areas". (I have backpacked and observed elk in NM - Gila Wilderness, CO - Weminuche Wilderness, UT - High Uintas, WY- Bridger, MT - Bitterroots, Big Hole, Clark Fork, Front Range, Missouri Breaks, Bob Marshall, ID- Frank Church and Selway, and WA - Cascades.) Notice also, that I'm talking about bow hunting, everything I've said is magnified 10 times if your hunting with a rifle outside the rut. In rifle season, unless you burrow smack into the middle of bedding areas all day, every day, you probably ain't going to see an elk, let alone shoot one!

In short, the saw about staying out of bedding areas is one that needs to stay in the whitetail lore, it has little practical use in elk hunting. I realize I'm crossing swords with some pretty formidable elk minds on this website, and I nod respectfully to them, knowing I won't change their minds anyway. But for those of you relatively new to elk hunting, if nothing else just keep my minority view in mind, someday you may see what I mean.