Patience!

[cpsandman]

Just wanted to mention this as a reminder. I know most the bow hunts are over but thought it a good reminder. I had two friends this year draw archery elk tags in AZ. One on unit 1 and the other on 27. Both of them shot mid 300 scoring bulls last week. Both bulls were shot in the late afternoon. I have never had the opportunity to hunt with a bow yet so I'm not trying to be preachy or a know it all but both of them did not give the bulls enough time to expire. With the light fading they both opted to start tracking a little early and both jumped their bulls out of their beds and both were never found the next day. I hate to think of them losing 2 personal trophies. Now both of these guys are great people and good hunters. I'm not sharing this to pass judgement on them but to remind everyone to be patient, even if that means tracking the next morning. Give that bull time to bed down and die before you start chasing em. Good luck to all those still climbing the hills.

CPSANDMAN
"The Buck stops here...I hope!"

 

[garth]

Thats too bad for them, but if they had double lunged them, they would not have to wait very long, and the bulls would not have been alive to run away. My bull traveled less than 20 yds after the shot, and I videoed a friend shoot a bull last year that was down in 6 seconds. It can be done and actually is very common.

 

[cpsandman]

You're definately right on that one. I know a good shot can drop them pretty quickly my thought is just unless you see it drop, better safe then sorry. I just feel so bad for them, especialy after waiting so long to draw out.

CPSANDMAN
"The Buck stops here...I hope!"

 

[quickdrawkinker]

Excellent post Sandman, this is something that happens far to often--with any game animal. When I was fairly new to bowhunting around 8-10 years ago I shot a nice buck about 45 minutes before dark and ended up jumping the buck out of his bed never to be found because I started trailing way to soon. If I would have came back first thing the next morning he would have been found easily. It made me sick to my stomach for a week knowing that a nice buck was wasted.