ron3775

Well all nice to see that you are supportive. I am guessing that the Oh Well comment was about you all tearing him a new one for not knowing the anatomy of the animal, not the animal that he hit. As far as the tracking of the animal, (I left and came back in the evening to track again, but at noon there was a shower). I have had that happen to me, but got luck and found my deer laying in a field 100 yds from the shot. There is a good chance that the elk survived the shot.

jhalfhill

Would yall just stop? For christs sake, he said he tracked it until he couldnt track it anymore. You guys werent Davey Crocketts in your first year or two of archery hunting i'll guarentee it. So he lets out an "oh well" of disappointment and you guys jump on him. Those shots happen, he gave his best effort in tracking, and thats all he can do. Get over yourselves. You all act like you are godsends in the woods.

shootnmiss

If i ever have a problem with finding my deer and need any advice this is the last place i will go. Keep you chin up, good luck the rest of the year.

Xtec Shooter

This thread went exactly where I thought it would. You guys take one comment like "oh well" and just assume he's talking about the animal he lost as in it's not big deal. You guys are too much.

Shootnmiss...you'd be wasting your time if you did. PM someone, don't post it.

BobCo19-65

I would have liked to have seen a little more effort. Just becuase there was a shower does not mean give up. Did you grid search or at least look at water sources when you lost the trail? Did you find you partners animal?

jhalfhill

Its is nearly impossible to find blood after a decent rain. You should know that. And i don't blame him for not searching a 5 miles radius, the most you can do is a radius of a few hundred yards then after that the animal could be anywhere. You've just got to keep your head up high and try your best to make a better shot next time.

yajsab

Thanks for some of the support here. Yes, I let the "oh well" as a disappointment of not finding the animal. I came back and track until 7 PM (it's dark by this time), and it was a very steep hill with very thick young pines. Can't even see foot prints, you know. There were three of us gridding the hill. So, I don't know about the "attitude" comments. AND YES, we did find my friend's animal. I have tracked wounded elk in the past that went about two miles without blood and FOUND it. So, I believe I gave my best to find this one as well. The only thing I can say is that if she didn't go into the thick stuffs and there was no rain in the afternoon, I would have found her! Thanks anyway. I'm still learning.

Dubbya

Yajsab- I understand there wasn't a whole lot more you could do, and I applaud you for spending as much time as you did. There are many people that wouldn't do that.

As for the criticisms, don't take them too personally. About this time of year on this board, we get a lot of new folks whose post title is "I shot one now what" or "Shot one looked for a few minutes, couldn't find." stuff like that that is very frustrating to us hunters that do research before we go hunting and do spend hours and days to finding a hit animal.

HuntinGUS

Some of you guys are way over the top. The guy is looking for advice which tells me his intentions are good. Picking apart his post word for word is uncalled for.

I have lost a few animals over the years and it was not because didn't try hard enough to find it. Some of you guys come across pretty arogant. Who is to say how long you should search when there is no more blood to be found?
The anatomy of an animal although can be well known..............in the heat of the moment is it possible to not be for sure what you hit?

Too many varibles involved for any one person to say "you did not do enough".

yajsab: keep your head up........it happens to all of us!

BobCo19-65

Did I say you should have searched for blood or did I ask if you did any type of grid search, or check water sources? Giving up after you lost blood is not a very good excuse to stop looking for a wounded animal. And "you should know that".