Whats the longest youve left an Elk in the field

[idgaf]

2013, 2nd to last day of season at last light, I shot a bull with my muzzle loader facing me. Bullet cut the wind pipe, jugular, and many vitals. In my brilliance I did not have a flashlight. Bull died within yards of where I shot it. I backed out finding it at 730am the next morning. Total spoilage. Temperature that night was low to mid twenties. Meat processor, said sometimes it's where there shot and the position they die in can determine if it will spoil

[Phil Beavers]

i just drive to mine anyways so idk why I'm even worried about it

LOL..

 

[Zeke-BE]

Great information. Been on elk hunts but still no luck! I thought you could because most elk hunts are really cold. Never had to worry about deer because it was always warm and I gut and skin ASAP and put on ice. This will make me think twice about my shots on an even hunt now

[AZ_SAWBUCK]

There is one in every crowd! I know the OP asked about early hunts.....but. On a late hunt in 2014 I shot a bull at dark and didn't get to it until 9 AM the next morning. Broke the bull down boned out the meat and packed out what we could that day. Went in the next day and packed out the remainder of the meat. Elevation was about 5K daytime temps in the 60's and nighttime temps below freezing. Didn't loose any meat and didn't get sick............that was until the kids left the freezer cracked 6 months later and I lost 1/2 the meat, but that was a different kind of sick and a different story. Figured this post needed a little opposition.

 

 

Don't get me wrong. I agree with everyone on here about gutting / skinning and cooling as fast as possible!

[trphyhntr]

 

i just drive to mine anyways so idk why I'm even worried about it

LOL..

 

 

im 4/4 lifetime lol.

[GJMauro12]

I hit a bull last year with 2 out of 3 arrows just before dark. I was 2 miles from the road and by myself. I was confident I made a good shot on the first two hits and threw up a prayer as I watched it walk away on the third arrow. Then i watched that bull for almost another hour until it got dark and he never went down. I questioned my shot but had a lot of good blood at the beginning of the blood trail where I sat waiting for him to tip over. I decided to hike back to camp instead of accidentally pushing him. The plan was to have some dinner with grandpa who was waiting at camp and head back in the dark to break down my bull. Grandpa couldn't make the hike and was worried about me going back in alone. I let him talk me into waiting for first light and it ended up raining all night and the next morning. I didn't find the bull until almost 10 when my help finally showed up. We had him back to camp before 1 but ended up cutting away a lot of green meat. Never got sick eating the rest of it though.

 

I won't wait until morning on anything anymore unless I know it's a bad shot.

 

First shot was the arrow and the one below it was the exit from the second arrow. Wished he would of tipped over sooner

[5guyshunting]

I guess for you trphyhntr, it depends on how far you parked the truck.😏

[trphyhntr]

I guess for you trphyhntr, it depends on how far you parked the truck.

haha, ive just always been able to get a quad or truck to them luckily.

[5guyshunting]

 

I guess for you trphyhntr, it depends on how far you parked the truck.

 

haha, ive just always been able to get a quad or truck to them luckily.

We have got a truck to 6, and it is bigly the bestest way.

[Rag Horn]

This has been an interesting topic to follow. At times I have felt like if I didn't shoot an elk standing in a walk in freezer and the guts out out, hide off and processed in 5 minutes the whole thing would be a waste. Interesting the seemingly very different experiences with meat spoilage.

[trphyhntr]

This has been an interesting topic to follow. At times I have felt like if I didn't shoot an elk standing in a walk in freezer and the guts out out, hide off and processed in 5 minutes the whole thing would be a waste. Interesting the seemingly very different experiences with meat spoilage.

Seems like the vast majority are in the skin asap crew

[BOWUNTR]

I arrowed a bull in September in the morning and didn't find him for 8 hours... long story... I didn't lose one ounce of meat. I was real worried and paid close attention and looked for spoiling. I consider it unusual and lucky. Ed F

[Swivelhead]

I've abandoned blood trails at night when it became obvious a nighttime recovery was unlikely. Of the elk recovered the following day (no later than 10 am), I lost no meat. Suspect most of them expired in the early morning hours, less than 8 hours before discovery. Some of those were nasty bone outs. Even on short blood trails, early season meat recovery is an emergency situation IMO.

[Red Rabbit]

The longest has been about an hour before tracking and photos were finished before field dressing commenced. Get the hide and guts removed asap, or do a gutless method. If mounting, be sure to get ALL of the neck meat out and the hide off to the jaw ASAP if you cannot cape yourself.

[Alpinebullwinkle]

I've been involved with harvest of at least 40+ bulls for either myself, family or guiding others in the last 45 years. Luckily we've only had a few bulls that we did not recover until the following day, but unfortunately in every one of those cases the meat was spoiled after being unprepared and left overnight. The good news is every bull recovered the same day there was no loss of meat. Once the bull is located on the ground the hide is always removed as quickly as possible, either by the non-gutting method (preferred) or conventional gutting method. We usually try to hang the meat in a tree overnight if short on time for a long pack out, but on occasion just had to find some big rocks to lay the meat on in the absence of good hanging trees. I always try to leave a shirt with human scent to keep the predators away. We've only lost two deer out overnight to predators, and each time unfortunately we did not leave human scent to detract predators.