Two SEVERE GAME VIOLATIONS Made By Honest Elk Hunters 

Cliff was my guide 6 years ago on a deer hunt. I shot a nice buck with a fatal shot but the deer ran almost a mile before expiring. Cliff insisted that we keep looking for it and would not stop until the animal was found. Finally after two full days of retracing the animal we found it under a bush. I couldn't believe Cliff's persistence. No other guide would have ever done that for me. He's the Best and the buck is on my wall today!

Another great video Cliff. Just last year I was deer hunting in Colorado. I was sitting on a narrow ridge and the deer came up from behind me. They were only 10 yards away. They saw me and ran down the hill in front of me, stopped in the bottom and turned to look at me, only 100 yards away. I fired and it felt good. Crosshairs right behind the shoulder. The animal I was shooting at had no reaction and they all ran off. I lost sight of them through the trees. I went down to where they were standing and could not find blood. I made circles but I only went about 40 yards. I was scratching my head, how could I have missed? Long story short, about an hour and a half later I decided to move up the ridge roughly 200 yards, which is the direction the deer went. I was sitting down having a cup of coffee, looking around, still frustrated when I noticed a group of magpies bouncing around in the grass 150 yards out. I thought that was odd so I was checking it out with my binoculars when I noticed a large pool of blood in the grass! I took a closer look and could see the magpies were bouncing around on my dead deer! What a relief! Walking over there I found the blood trail and backtracked. The deer did not leave any blood until about 100 yards from where I shot it. I was shooting down hill and hit the deer high lung, which is why it took so long to show a blood trail. I never had this happen to me before and it was a valuable lesson to do a better job next time.

I was hunting white tail with my uncle in northern Mexico, each went to a different spot in the morning. When we got back to the ranch house he was dejected and said he shot at but missed a nice buck. He said he saw a puff of dust above the deer, and he thought he may have bumped his scope getting into the blind, and that the deer ran away and didn't look hit - he also checked and saw no blood. The shot was within 150 yards. Another hunter in the party heard the story and said, "I bet that deer is dead right there" and convinced us to go looking for it. First we checked if the rifle was still sighted in. Shot a target at 150 yards and hit it dead on. We went looking for the deer and sure enough it was perfectly hit, dead in a ditch just a bit out of sight. No exit wound and very little blood. Learned an important lesson that day! Thanks for always putting out such great content!

Two things I do that can help. Take a compass bearing and hang a piece of trail tape from a bush where I took the shot. Then I can check on the other side of the canyon to be sure I am in the right area. The second thing is to take a picture across the way and find the spot where the animal was on the picture. This makes a good reference point to back up my memory.

Passing this video on to all my hunters. I’ve seen all these scenarios happen in my 55 years of hunting. I always carry a roll of surveyors tape to mark where I shot from and where I’ve already been. It can get confusing fast. Thanks Cliff

My grandpa told me a story one time he was hunting deer. Nice 4 point pops up behind a slash pile. He shot and it fell. Started walking up to it. Pops back up ,takes another shot , falls again. Starts walking towards the slash pile again. Deer pops back up. He takes another shot and the deer falls again. He walked up behind the slash pike and found three dead 4 point bucks.

My dad once "missed" a bull while archery hunting in the snow. He looked for an hour for blood and could not find any. He also figured he would have no chance of finding his arrow in 4 inches of snow. His brother found the arrow the next day stuck in a dead elk. It was about 400 yards from where my dad had taken the shot. Even after finding the bull, they could not find blood on the ground. It is crazy what kind of things can happen even when you believe your are being careful.

Whenever possible, I try and take a quick photo of the animal pre-shot. Even if it moves between the photo and the shot, it helps me piece together a track. The photo taking becomes much easier when hunting two-up. I used to think I could capture the location in my mind... I discovered that when I get to the supposed impact site, things often look very different than they did from where I took the shot. Cliff, I appreciated your content ...stellar!

Good job on this one Cliff. One point that I might add with elk: If there is no blood trail it could be due to the fact that the popular trend right now is the high BC bullets such as Berger and Hornady ELDX. There are very accurate bullets, but have a light construction and often times will NOT exit on elk sized game. For example there is a RU-vid video of the tech guys from Berger stating that their hunting bullets were not designed to exit. They clearly state that you should not expect an exit from their bullets and as you know, the exit wound is the larger hole that bleeds more and leaves the blood trail. For this reason I prefer bullets with heavier construction for elk sized game. The Barnes TTSX does not have the BC of a Berger or ELDX, but almost all of my shots are at less than 400 yards and the BC is not a critical at the shorter ranges.

I was hunting elk once and had a bull walk through an opening at 300 yards. I shot and it looked to my guide as if I hit as it staggered it but it continued to walk behind brush. I waited for the bull to come out another opening but he did not. Then he he came from the same direction limping and staggering. Just as I was ready to shoot my guide said wait, waits…that’s not the same bull. And sure enough when we eventually walked up to the thicket where we saw the first bull he was dead. Both bulls were 5 x 5 type bulls. The other must have been shot across the mountain and lost. Thankfully I had a thorough spotter with me.

There has been at least twice with a traditional bow, the arrow zipped through so fast I thought I had missed. But I always follow up. Once the arrow went through a couple wet corn leaves after the deer. There was blood on the leaves and that was it for 60 plus yards, the deer was only 75ish yards and yes I recovered it.

I was late season archery hunting whitetail. I had a nice buck come by, I released an arrow and misjudged the distance and was disgusted at what looked to me, the arrow skipping over his back. The buck bolted 50 yds stopped and turned around. There was no blood visible and the buck walked off seemingly unscathed. The next day I went back to the same area and to my shock I saw the buck with some other deer. There was a blood spot above the vitals in "no man's land" and the buck seemed no worse for wear. The buck recovered fine, but at the time I was adamant i had missed. Even though I was thorough, looking for blood and the arrow after the shot (which I never found) it was a good lesson to do everything in your power to be certain of the shot

Outstanding video Cliff! Fortunately I haven't had to deal with these issues personally (knock on wood). However there have been a couple of occasions where ALOT of hours were spent tracking downed game to make certain that it didn't go to waste for lack of effort. That was an awesome tip on taking a quick photo after shooting an animal by the way! Definitely gonna add that one to the arsenal 👍 Thanks for another great share brother!

Cliff, as usual your topics are on par. I can't say I haven't experienced, heard of, or witnessed any one of these situations. They are worth bringing to light. Hopefully we can all be honest about with ourselves. And be better hunters for it

As always, another solid video. The one time I’ve shot and missed, I spent 5 hours looking for blood and sign of any hit.

I love your knowledge! Thank you for the Videoes! We enjoy them all.

Awesome video. Thank you. About 12 years ago my hunting partner and I were on an archery Moose hunt. Had a beauty bull called into 45 yards. My buddy shot, bull dropped. He got excited and started to move in on the bull. Well, it wasn’t fatal and the bull got up and ran. We spent the next 3 days tracking that bull. Called in additional help to grid search and still could not find that bull. There was good blood trail, but he slipped into a swamp and that was the last we ever seen of him.

I can't speak for hunting out west, but it sounds like a good strategy would be to have the spotter sit behind at the point where you fired from, and watch while you move out to where the animal was to start the track. Walkie-talkies would probably be quite handy there. Another idea, if you're solo, put some sort of marker where you shot from, shoot an azimuth to where the animal was, and then at least you can tell if you're on the right plane by reversing the measurement back to the marker.

This doesn't happen often anymore, but there's another not-well-known violation that used to be pretty common. Leaving parts of the harvested animal behind, because the hunter couldn't physically carry the weight, and knew of the scavenger presence in the area. While this is not technically a violation of law(in some states and countries), it's still unethical with the technology that is now available to hunters. This being said, the above is in the respective viewpoint of a sport hunter. Nowhere that sustenance hunting laws are still adhered to, will throw you to the DOJ wolves if you're unable to afford a fancy deer trolley or a wagon. However, if that's the case, then learn how to make a trevalle. You can actually carry 4× your own weight, with the correct construction.

One that I teach in Hunters Ed. Be sure if your target and what is beyond. As bullets have gotten tougher, seeing more pass thru shots. Make sure when you shoot that your bullet will not pass thru and either wound or kill a 2nd animal.

Great points Cliff! I Harvested a 5x5 non typical with my bow this season Elk this season… I didn’t have blood for the first 80 yards first Elk first thing I did was flag off the tree took the shot from, three hairs on a fence and a couple drops. Of blood were all had to go off then the flood gates opened up and found the elk 50 yards from my first blood. 130 yards from where I took my shot turns out I hit him in the boiler room.

Before cell phone apps I used a compass and a rangefinder. Reverse azimuth and the range to the place I shot from which was marked with surveyors tape.

Thanks Cliff, love your videos. My friend and I are gearing up for our first bow elk hunt (and first hunt ever) in Western Washington. I was lucky I was able to order a new hoyt rx7 ultra and get almost all of my gear together but now I'm definitely feeling lackluster in the knowledge department. Your videos have definitely helped a ton, but I still want to know more to one day be one of the 5 percenters. Do you have any books, podcasts or anything else you feel might benefit a few novice hunters? Appreciate the content you put out man, keep it up.

Shot a cow elk last January, CO late season private land hunt. She was standing broadside at 80 yards. Made the shot. When we walked over to where she was standing, there was no blood that I could see. I expressed how I couldn't believe I had missed. My guide said "Oh, it was a great shot. She's lying dead about 50 yards down right on the 2-track." There was no blood in the track between where she was hit and where she went down. Even where it was lying, there was very little blood. Plenty when we opened her up though.

Last year on a cow elk controlled hunt I set up 2 friends in a situation that ended up leading to a situation where multiple elk were killed without tags to put on them. I dropped off one friend at one location on private ground and another on BLM land above the private. I'd killed a cow in this spot the day before and had watched this big herd the day before that so I had a really good idea how it was going to go down and felt confident they would both have an opportunity to fill their tags. It all worked out as planned and the elk went up onto the BLM and one cow was downed and they turned and retreated back to the other hunter and he also bagged his cow. What we didn't plan for was a pair of other hunters who were shooting at this large herd of 400ish cows and calves from the adjacent public road. The elk got panicked and balled up. While we were cleaning the cow on the private ground the land owner called me and reported that he'd found a bull across the road while feeding his cattle and had called Fish and Game. The officers showed up and checked in with us and the other hunters, they took everybody involved guns and ammo. We loaded up our cow and headed up to the BLM to pick up the other and found another dead cow along the road on the way so went back up and reported that to the game officers. Bullets were recovered from the bull and the un tagged cow. It took months but eventually my hunter was cleared and his gun returned. The other hunters were charged with multiple charges including shooting from the public right of way and 2 untagged elk including an illegal bull. Just be honest with the officers. If you made a mistake learn from it.

commenting in my wife's account: I was hog hunting in Florida, sitting alone in a box blind. a group of 3 hogs showed up and I identified the biggest of the bunch and waited for it to give me a good shot. The hog was all black, the other two were a much smaller black hog and a slightly smaller white and black speckled hog. The hog was on the far side of the feeder and turned to give a nice broadside shot. I got a solid sight picture and took the shot. As I came out of the recoil I see three hogs, large black one, medium black one and white and black speckled. My immediate thought is "How could I possibly have missed that shot?" So I waited for the big black hog to present a shot again. Same animal right? sound like the video?? Second shot opportunity come and I dropped the hog in it's tracks with a bullet through the shoulder blade and lungs. My buddy comes from his stand and we go to collect my hog and there are two hogs! As we studied the situation we realized that the first hog which had been behind the feeder was standing in a slight hollow spot and it went down and out of vision when shot, there must have been a third hog that I had not seen before who showed up as the "missed " hog. Fortunately there is no limit on hogs in Florida so my mistake was not a violation, but I learned a valuable lesson and Cliff just gave us the same lesson.

Thank you for sharing such good advice. A couple things that have helped me locate an animal: I have strung marking tape from the exact point where the shot was taken and strung it in line, 15 - 20 feet or so, pointing directly towards the animal. {Ya just gotta note the place the animal was before going anywhere! You can imagine why I know.....) It's very likely when getting to the point of impact, things will look different. I can look back at the tape and it will guide me to the left, right, even up or down, the direction I need to go. Saves a lot of time particularly in tall brush. When I find a small amount, a drop of blood, I mark the spot with tissue paper. If the trailing becomes difficult, I can use this as a reference point and search for clues I may have missed. Marking each blood spot indicates direction and when it becomes difficult is when the animal has turned. Thanks again for your willingness to share your knowledge!!

Great info Cliff, this video should be shown at hunter ed. I generally hunt alone muzzleloading, waiting for the smoke to clear has left me uncertain on a hit. I felt good on the shot but could find no sign looked for 4 hours till dark and nothing, next day looked again and no sign. Tracking class should be taught, maybe a good video idea! Enjoy your content thanks

Don't lie to the warden. You make him prove something, and you are more likely to get a ticket.

Always appreciate your content Cliff... For me its my impatience. I am always the guy who says, "I'm gonna give him 30 minutes", then as I finished a meal bar, rehydrating, or checking messages, I decide , "well I think I will go search for my Arrow", and I end up searching for "just a little blood", and then As I am glassing I move forward a bit , you know, just to look down in that draw or over that hill. Before I know it, the bull has been bumped. My initial "wait" time is dependent on where my shot hit, but it's usually in a place I feel good about.

My best advice and has helped me at least twice that I can think of is first as soon as you shoot or release an arrow try to take a mental snap shot of where that animal was second drop tagging where you shot from and if you come up dry on blood go back relook where you shot from and like you said I was searching the wrong area. Last is grid searching very useful mentally tough but great way to find game

I have a Garmin GPS that can project a waypoint. I think most of them can do this. When I watch an animal run away after a shot I always pinpoint the last spot I saw it and use my GPS to project a waypoint in that exact direction. Then I enter the distance by best guess or range finder. Now I have the spot locked. Then while I'm walking over to it and everything starts to look completely different, it doesn't really matter. 2 years ago it got me my deer that I likely would never have found otherwise.

I wasn’t raised around hunting. But my parents moved me out to Oregon at a young age. Seeing and hearing about it from others as I grew up I eventually grew an interest. But having no guidance. I was deathly afraid of the rules and regs as a lot of them are vague and have large penalties. I’m 25 years old and this is my first year officially hunting this season. My confidence has grown, and my skills and knowledge will only grow with experience. Thanks for the helpful video!

Great stuff. I have not been around the situations you describe was a life long stickbow hunter and always shooting alone. But certainly had to think through some ‘what if’s’ stuff to stay sound ethically. Not connected at all to your talk but it reminded me. Early 90s I’m up on Hudson Bay bowhunting Caribou Group of rifle guys comes in late afternoon The pilot says he just flew over a bunch be ready tomorrow morning I was gone before light to a funnel When I get back early afternoon with a bull quartered packed out I hear a guy shot FOUR caribou???!!! Evidently a herd migrated literally through camp even running into the lake swimming where I had been getting cooking and showering water for some time Anyway guy was way too fat and liked to play cards said he just “lost it” and shot 4 by accident??? OK then he buys the camp caretakers tags and a camp cooks wife’s tags Camp was basically legal everybody went on to have a great week fishing hunting cooking all good The last night after dinner the guy was a little buzzed He accidentally I think says yeah that one time we hunted Moose I shot THREE!!! ???? W T F!! I was bummed out Not everybody heard it Looking back on it everybody probably knew but me Unbelievable some of the guys that are out there

Talking about getting a good mental picture of the area after the shot I like to pull out my onXmaps and use the line tool and also look at the elevation band I’m on and know in its higher or lower this has helped me recover a lot of game and also knowing what the distance of the shot was will also get you really close to the general area on the line and most of the time I’m able to walk directly to the down game

Excellent video as usual Cliff! A few comments that may help others which I had instilled in me from my Dad and Grandfather when I was kid which I preach to all of my guided hunters as it relates to shooting at game. After the shot, pay close attention to the animals reaction. If the buck or bull immediately bolts after the shot and they had no idea you were there, generally that is a fatally wounded animal! If they take off and stop after a few jumps looking around to locate you and eventually sneak off , it could mean you missed (certainly not always the case though as you mentioned, so always spend the necessary time following up on the shot regardless). I also tell my hunters, as you stated mark the spot in your mind / take a picture of where the animal was standing for the shot and also do the same for the last spot you saw them before they went out of sight! Lastly, listen after the shot given elk make a lot of noise when they go down or you hear them running and then things go silent quickly, it also likely means they are down or bedded. A couple other points I like to preach are unless circumstances dictate different, I like to wait at least 45 minutes before going to look for blood unless the hunter sees or hears the animal go down hard (in these cases I still will give it a little time). Depending on where the hunter thinks he hit the animal, I may give it even more time (i.e. shot back on the animal and / or not in the vitals likely means waiting a lot longer before picking up the track). My feeling is there is no rush as if you wounded them and kick them up out of the bed, tracking can be a nightmare without snow on our dry ground so I like to take my time unless starting to rain, other hunters in the area or some other circumstance where waiting would be the wrong call. A final point I found with my hunters is reminding to stay out of the blood trail so not to kick it up. I prefer having them on the side of the trail slightly ahead looking head for the animal while I stay with the blood. One final comment on blood is animals general bleed out of the exit wound. Therefore, if the bullet doesn't exit, blood could be limited and also game up hill from you where the exit wound is higher then the entrance will take longer to bleed out too!

Good content cliff And it looks like your in my spot from your background. LOL

I have a suggestion to add. When you take your shot, or I should say, I take the shot, if the animal doesn't go down immediately, and runs off, I then choose another target a big rock, or a tree, and fire another shot at the rock, or tree, this will help, mark the spot where the animal was standing, when I took the first shot.

True story, shot a doe that was broadside from an elevated blind. It was anterless deer only season. There was a drop off on far side and knee high prairie grass where the doe was standing. The deer went down where she stood. Much to my surprise there was an 8 point buck flopping on the ground 10 feet behind her. Had a hard time explaining it to the ranch manager. I guess the buck came up the hill with his nose down and directly behind the doe was standing.

Took my first archery deer with a bow several years ago. I was too confident and felt solid at 60 yards. She had a heightened awareness and when I took the shot (60y) she ducked and turned. My would be perfect shot looked like a miss. I found my arrow with a tiny drop of blood on one fletching and that was it. After looking for 2 plus hours and were turning around to go back, my friend found fresh blood high on a sapling. Found the deer 30 yards away. I cut her windpipe in half. It was a clean kill but scary to see that it was such a close call. I’m a much better archer now and am shooting more draw weight, heavier arrows, etc and will not shoot past 50 (in absolute ideal conditions) because of this. Too many variables. Loved the video Cliff! Thanks for putting out relatable content although sometimes we wish it wasn’t 😅

The big mulie buck i shot last season was a head scratcher. I expected to see him tip over, or take off running if i missed (i shoot for the neck or head, i use a .223, crucify me) and i saw absolutely nothing...so at first i thought i missed and he ducked into the brush and ghosted me, but the shot really felt good, so i hiked up there and i found a weird sled mark where he collapsed and slid down the hill and piled up in some dead logs. I was looking at about 300 yards, because thats where he was, but in reality he slid down to about 150 feet above where i shot from 😂

Last year I made BOTH these mistakes. A cow and calf came out into an oat field I was watching. I shot at the cow and they trotted away. As a very inexperienced hunter, I gave up after less than an hour of not finding blood, assuming a miss. Later, the calf came back and I shot it just wanting some meat. Two days later I was back with a friend who wanted to fill his tag. We went to check out what some crows were on about and found the cow - totally spoiled by scavengers - only 80 yards from where I shot it. I had given up way too easy. I still feel sick about it.

Oh boy...Ok storytime! I will leave the shooter and location nameless. I was only 12 or 13 and was on a hunting trip with a group of older guys. We were sitting on a hillside eating lunch when a huge herd of elk walked out into a large meadow about 450-500 yards away on the opposite hillside. I was the first one to see them as all the other guys had finished their food and were taking naps. I woke them up and in what seemed like seconds to my adolescent mind, one guy shot. The cow elk he shot at ran off, to which he says "Shit I missed!" throws his rifle back up to his shoulder and pops of a second shot at a completely different cow elk. By this time, the other guy in the party has just excepted he's not going to get a shot as the elk are scrambling around on the hillside, like ants on an anthill after it's been kicked. I told the shooter that I seen him hit the second cow and I heard a lot of crashing in the woods after the shot. He responds to me with "No, I missed! I didn't see her fall down!" He start looking at the hillside again and spots a Spike bull standing still trying to assess what is going on. He shoulders his rifle once more, and as I see him doing it I say "I don't think you should shoot anymore!" but the words from me essentially a little kid didn't mean much. He ignores me and shoots again, this time he drops the bull in his tracks. He gets really excited like most people do once the know they've had a successful hunt. I however couldn't celebrate because I had a horrible feeling in my gut about what just happen. So I said "Congratulations you just killed two elk!" He denies me again. Once we get over to where the elk were standing, we Immediately spot a dead cow elk. So after I rubbed my I told you so in his face, He goes to confirm he killed the bull. Which he did. After all that the other adult suggests maybe we should check to see if he hit the first cow. After less than 10 minutes of searching, guess what we found? Yeah that's right elk #3. From that moment on I told myself that I would never be like that guy when I'm hunting. Always follow up on every shot, even if you think you missed! You'll be able to find the elk again. Maybe this story will help guide someone else away from making the same mistake. As a point of note: this story took place 17 years ago.

Always good and usable content.

As a new hunter......priceless information Thank You!!!!!!!!!

Do you have any videos on proper hunting etiquette and also some unwritten rules that people should respectfully follow. I would be very curious to see what you would have to say because you are an experienced hunter n all.

One of the main “ game violation” is “ long range” shooting with 6.5 Creedmoore or similar small bird cartridges!!!

I’ve got three examples for you. For the first one, my stepdad was the shooter and I was the spotter. Antelope buck was at 568 yards and we distinctly heard the bullet impact, but the goat took off as if nothing had happened. My stepdad was swearing at me because I wouldn’t give him a new dial up for a second shot on the wounded animal. All the while I was trying to reassure him that it was a good hit. It wasn’t until the buck tipped over dead from a punctured heart that my stepdad realized he had the wrong buck in his scope. Second one was my bear hunt two years ago. Rolled a bear over with my 300WM, but it got up and made it’s way into a swampy forest before I could get another round in it. Found the exact spot it was sitting (it was eating willow shoots) and never found a drop of blood after searching for two days. The part about bears not bleeding is no joke. Last story was a buddy of mine on a solo mule deer hunt in Montana. At the shot the buck ran down into a ravine and when it came up the other side it didn’t seem like a fatal hit so he shot it again and it went down. When he got to the animal he discovered a second dead buck at the bottom of the ravine. Called the game warden and got off fairly light since he reported himself.

We had this happen to us, my buddy spotted an buck and fired off a shot; there were a few young bucks and does in the group. We went up the hill and found a buck down, but I heard another deer thrashing around in the nearby brush and it had a broken shoulder, so we put that one down. The first shot was a pass through, that essentially killed one, but wounded the second buck that was standing behind it, but due to the deer scattering, we didn't know that until we heard the second small buck in the brush kicking around.

Great advice. I had the two at once happen white tail hunting. I fired, my buddy called a miss, i shot another deer right next to it. I didnt miss the first one and found it 100 yrds away. The second dropped right away. Luckily it was MLD property and i had 2 tags so it was legal.

These are great tips. When you go out to the field to hunt. You should always do everything you can to make sure weather the animal is hit or not.

I've watched a lot of guys hit elk they didn't have a clue they hit. A big issue is everyone is trying to kill one instead of one shooter and everyone else watches and once one is dead then look for the next opportunity. Watched three guys kill 5 bulls and they didn't thing they hit one, even watching them walking around looking for elk the sage brush was tall enough they weren't experienced enough to find them. We pointed out all their dead elk to them through a spotter. Two of the bulls they couldn't find so we went back in during the spring and found both dead heads, they made it over a mile but in the terrain there was only one trail they were getting through there and just had to walk it and watch down hill.

Im from Wisconsin it makes me so mad when a guy says. They missed a buck because its tail was up after they shot. So they didn't look for blood!!

I have seen all that you talked about, but have a good tip on tracking. I have found 3 elk that were chalked up as lost with this. While one was sure he hit the bull the other 2 had missed. Wait an hour or maybe 2 then systematically search. What for the magpies, When you see a half dz fly up there will be your elk. Works pretty well where I hunt in NW CO. Those birds are some of the best game trackers I have seen.

Show and angles is tricky that’s why hunting is fun and setup for meat for the couple of months

This is so helpful

Very steep downhill shot at dusk, about 100 yards. Group of elk, wanted a bull (any elk tag) but was worried about pass through hitting two elk, so I shot a cow that was apart from the group. First hunt, man the adrenaline was intense. I thought I shot over top but the shot felt perfect, and i had been practicing a lot. Gave her time to expire just in case, then it was pitch black. No blood trail, many many prints. Couldn't find the elk. After an hour gridding, returned to camp. First thing in the morning hiked back in and found the elk immediately. Full pass through, right through the vitals, and broken front leg. Good thing I didn't shoot one of the grouped up bulls! And very happy I returned at day break instead of hunting a different elk after wrongly thinking I missed.

Always have the best background

My son’s first buck. He was 15. We had spotted a bachelor group of 5 muley bucks while glassing from the road about 1/2 mile away. We had to drive back to an adjacent canyon, so that he could hike up and come out above the deer. I stayed at the vehicle due to health issues. It took about 2 hours for him to get into position for a muzzleloader shot. Sure enough, here come the bucks, single file on the trail about 80 yards below him making for a super steep downhill shot. He said that he took a good rest on a boulder, put the crosshairs right behind the front leg just like we’d practiced and fired. He said the deer never even flinched. They just kept walking down the trail like nothing happened. He said that he missed and began reloading his muzzleloader for a second shot, but by the time he got done, they were out of his comfortable range. He said he stood up to go check, but he spooked them and “all 4 of them bounded away like Mule deer do.” He figured it was a clean miss. He decided to head back to the truck and told me the story. As I sat there listening, I realized that he’d said “all 4 bounded away.” He’d forgotten that originally there were 5. I immediately said, “You hit that deer, I’ll betcha.” I drove him back around to the area that we’d originally glassed them up from and sent him back up the hill to retrace his steps and re-enact the shot scenario. I started picking apart the hillside with my 10x42’s looking for the deer. I watched as my son kneeled down next to the boulder and began to replay the events in his mind. I watched as he got up and started walking down in a slightly different angle than he’d originally said the shot was. I was getting very discouraged as I’d glassed the open hillside very closely and hadn’t seen a thing, when all of a sudden I hear “DAD!, I FOUND HIM!” I literally have a tear running down my cheek as I type this, because that was in the top 5 of the best moments of my life. The point of this whole story is that it’s very important to listen to the hunter’s story and pay attention to even the tiniest of details and go with that “gut feeling”, because it’s there for a reason.

The hunter tracking the animal after the shot reminds me of the antelope scene from no country for old men when josh brolin found the dog

One from my own personal oh shit library! Deer hunting in a 3 point or bigger unit. 150 yard shot on a perfect broadside 4 point mulie. Pulled the trigger and it dropped in its tracks, but the antlers didn't drop with it. It was a doe standing perfectly still in front of a tree that was lined up just right with a 100% convincing branch. Lesson learned. Make sure the antlers are in fact antlers! That was about 40 years ago when I just started hunting. Rookie mistake, but a lesson that I will remember the rest of my life!!!

I know a guy that made one of these mistakes. 10 year old kid took a head shot on a bedded black tail that was bedded behind a stump. The kid had a solid rest and plenty of time to compose himself for the shot. The Dad whistled at the bedded spike buck and he looked over his rump right at them. The kid made a beautiful head shot that snapped the deers head out of sight. They watched him for a few minutes and he wasn’t moving at all! Looked like a clean kill. They had to circle downslope around the stump to avoid blackberry bushes and they couldn’t see the bedded deer as they approached the stump. Thirty yards from the stump the spike jumped up and bounded away. The Dad whistled again and the buck stopped at fifty yards broadside. In a rush the kid shouldered the rifle and made a free standing shot on the spike! Dropped him in his tracks with a .44 lever action marlin. Father and son couldn’t believe it, exchanged high fives and cheers! Perfect shot! Unfortunately as they walked past the stump to approach the downed spike they realized the first spike was also down, bullet hole right between the eyes… two twin spikes were bedded together and now both were down within fifty yards of each other! Everything was done with the best of intentions but it was still a sore lesson for them both. Fortunately they had cousins hunting nearby that were able to tag and pack out the second animal but it blemished what otherwise would have been a beautiful moment.

This is how I filled my tag. Found a bull a few hours after a hunter flock shot at a group of bulls. The bull was just over a small hill behind a big sage. It was only about 80yrds from where the first bull was gutted. I found it by starting at the fist gut pile and followed blood and saw where it split off.

made a mistake with 3 extra shells duck hunting and my damn phone alarm being a duck sound and it going off for lunch lol 😂😂 talk about a big ticket

I shot a buck with 180 grain, ballistic tip Nosler, three times, thinking I missed because he didn’t react at all. Eventually I shot him in the head and he fell. I was amazed to find three perfectly placed heart lung shots. I believe the ballistic tip went through so clean, not hitting bone, that it didn’t cause enough damage to kill the animal. I have not used them since.

Eastern mountain whitetail hunter here. On long shots I always take a compass azimuth and range the spot before I cross a canyon to find a animal that ran off. I hang my orange vest or hat at the shooting position. Then when I get over there I use the range and the back azimuth if needed. Keeps me from fooling myself.

Montana Game and Fish did a study on wounding loss every season. It was projected that 15 to 30 percent of big game shot during the season are lost to wounding. So if 100 animals are harvested, another 15 to 30 percent are lost to wounding……. This is one of the reasons no one should be shooting game at ranges over 500 yards, and that is pressing it….. People complain pf declining opportunities and this is one of the main reasons….

It happens. Mule deer in the mountains shot at 350 yards. Watched it jump three bounds and collapse. I watched, took my bearing on a bright yellow bush and a brushy stand behind it. I had to drop down over a ridge to move up and came out about 300 yards uphill. Found the bush and brush and went directly to the downed deer. Not there. Searched for 30 minutes. I couldn’t figure it out. I hiked back down to my shooting spot and absolutely realized my mistake. There was a smaller yellow bush and a small brushing area about 100 yards down below where I was looking. I climbed down to it and instantly found my mulie. Exactly where I saw it fall. I ranged my hiking pole with jacket left at my shooting spot. 347 yards. I was searching identical markers too far up the mountain. I guess my scope made that first bush and brushy area look bigger. Had I ranged my shooting spot (left my range finder with my jacket) I would have known immediately that I was too far up the slope. Great video. I appreciate your experience and story telling ability. It’s how we learned before RU-vid. You speak like an elder.

Shooting to far leads to the first senecio pass through is another thing folks forget. Of knowing your target and what is beyond

Examples/tips: hunted 36 years 1. Eastern woodlands, two buck moving through, first one the biggest, look ahead pick opening, watch opening, first buck in opening, boom!, smaller buck dead. They swapped position moving 50 yards through woods where I couldn't see them. Could get you in trouble in a point restriction area! I hate looking at heads once I decide I'm gonna shoot I look behind the shoulder where I wanna shoot but a slower look would've prevented the event. 2. Eastern woods, snow on ground, flintlock season patch and ball ammo, deer standing in herd of deer 100 yards away. Clean shot, flash! ,boom!, Felt good, pretty sure saw deer flinch as hit. Kept eyes up walked directly to where deer stood no blood, follow track of deer in snow absolutely no blood, 150 yds one small speck, 10 yards dead deer. Perfect quartering shot, right in front of the ham, through guts liver and chest no exit BUT lead round balls don't produce alot of hemorrhaging and the fat and flesh blocked the entrance hole. 3. Western mountains, elk, 150 yds 30-06, 180 gr partition, elk, boom! Shot felt good, elk soaked it up, and trotted, boom! Elk reared a little, wheeled around ran downhill, ran passed lone pine in park, walk directly there after waiting, no blood, walk to area of first shot, no blood, found where he stood, no blood, tracked him on dry ground from running tracks 150 yards in timber, dead bull. Lung shot. Can't figure why no blood other than bullet may have penciled but that didn't make sense either because he was so close, who knows. 4. Tip after the shot. Stay calm, do not look away from area of critter and last sighting, hang ribbon at your location, walk 30-50 yards straight toward where you last saw animal, doesn't matter if flat, up or downhill hang another ribbon on tree, bush or stake, do the same thing for the area of last sighting. You now have aiming stakes to line up when you get to where you think the animal was when you search for blood. Just line em up walk on that azimuth and search.

All good info Cliff, i would say a lot of hunters need to learn to track better, they should require courses to teach hunters how to do it better.

Close violations- I’ve hunted a couple times where people thought mule/whitetail doe was both legal in a district and it ends up being one of the other. The same group also didn’t bring binoculars and used a scope to view. I don’t hunt with them anymore. Also- my son his second year- set up to shoot too close to a road- I made him move and then he took too long to get set up again and the time expired probably 30 seconds before he was ready. A week later we both took shots on a group of deer- I thought we both missed- we chased them a mile or so and I got a hit on one. Son said he wanted to look over a rise where the initial shots took place- and he found his deer…

Another scenario was a a buddy shot a bull at close range and we looked for a solid hour and found no blood. It was a downhill angle Vito we thought he missed. We walked out about 100yds and I said man I know how this plays out and said we gotta go back. And grid search a totally different area where we didn’t see any elk go and we found this bull. Bullet did not pass through and we even backtracked a ways and found no blood. Lessons learned. We always step back a little and look at it from a different angle because when they are hit they don’t always follow the herd.

Great video!

When I first started hunting elk, we all had spike tags and would've been about 15-16 years old. Someone in our group (I don't remember who) shot what they thought was a spike but what turned out to barely not be a spike (very small raghorn). We boned the animal out and busted up all the horns into tiny pieces, and burried them all over the mountain. Took it home only in backpacks and went and ground it up and were all done hunting for the year, nobody ever spoke of it again and we told nobody until The statute of limitations was up

I'm wondering about dropping a pin in the gps based on rangefinder information.

QUESTION. Kind of related to the discussion but if you hit your animal, how long do you usually wait before tracking down the animal? As a newbie, I’m trying to learn as much as I can before going on my first (rifle) hunt as a tag bearer and I was listening to some bow hunters who said they will wait 30min to an hour before tracking to make sure the animal is dead. I get not wanting to spook the animal part but wasn’t sure if that risked spoiling the meat… What is your advice on tracking a hit animal?

The shooting to elk thing happened to my uncle while I game warden was watching his hunt. He shot a large bull elk with a dropper at about 350 yards. It ran into the trees and came back out about 5 seconds later. From his viewpoint it was the same elk with a unique dropper. He pulled the trigger and the elk dropped. My uncle is an experienced and very successful hunter. The game warden from his vantage point watched the first elk drop and the second elk drop. Several other hunters also watched this take place. Has my uncle approached his kill he was very disturbed to see two elk down within 30 yards of each other. There was a crowd gathered as the game warden and other hunters approached. Many hunters argued with the game warden that this was a total crazy mishap. With the two bulls side by side they almost looked exactly the same. Drop tines are not very common in elk. Due to this common knowledge the game warden let him keep the first elk he dropped. He also did give him a $2,000 fine for killing the second one. Another hunter in the crowd offered to take the second elk. The game warden got upset at that and informed her that he could write her a ticket for even offering. It was a crazy experience and a lot of hard knocks learning for quite a few hunters that day. I found your videos only a couple of days ago. I have watched many and I appreciate you sharing your great and hard-earned knowledge with the rest of us. I believe they will increase my success and for that I cannot thank you enough. I truly love hunting and I am trying to get my oldest son his first decent buck. Thank you so much.

I was in Colorado walking by myself from camp to my spot and 3 bulls came over the hill behind me . Two of the bulls stopped at 90 yrds in front of me in a small group of trees . I got a decent shot at the last bull in line and I was pretty confident I hit him solid . I pulled up for my follow up shot and though the scope the bull looked a little different in color from the first animal I shot at (darker brown to lighter brown ) Trying to be quick on a 2nd shot I took the follow up shot when I had an opening . With the 2nd shot, I hit the 2nd bull 😢. What had happened is the bulls switched places after I hit the first one and I didnt see them move . I got really lucky as there was another hunter real close to me who had showed himself after the first shot . He a bull tag and after we looked and found the first bull he went over to the shot spot and cleaned up the 2nd bull I had hit . Happy ending to what could have been a bad situation . The skinny of this story is when I looked for the 2nd shot the bull didnt look the same and I should have taken a breath to make sure my 2nd shot was at the correct animal . Love the videos Cliff !! It is all me and my hunting buddy talk about is your videos . Thanks for what you do !

I was on a Elk hunt with my son and miss counted points. I told him to take the animal. When we got to him he was not legal. I still beat my self up over that one to this day.

This happened this year deer hunting I took my son in law out a new hunter. I put him in a stand I went to mine. I heard a shot and a minute or later heard another. Now on a previous hunt he shot a coyote 3 times. Thinking he has done that again, then I get text that he “ got one”! When recovering the animal I found two dead deer. He believed he shot the same deer twice the 2nd was after he thought it got back up . We had fresh snow so it was easy to tell the deer were about 40yds apart when shot but in line with each other. Fortunately my state allows up to 3 deer per day so no laws were broken but a lesson was learned!

when it comes to blood trailing, I arrowed a buck at 61 yards, I don't shoot Luminocks, and there was no blood any where near the impact, and I couldn't find my arrow. Only evidence I found was a black mark on a sapling on the trail I thought the deer went through 20 yards from impact. Gave the deer a few hours to be safe, returned and grid searched, found blood 60 yards from impact, tracked down the buck for about 70 yards and he was stiff as could be dead, died within seconds. What happened? I hit him (quartered away) right at the 3rd to last rib and the arrow went all the way to the chest with no exit so there wasn't a drop of blood until the buck filled up. Just make sure you always have paper tags on your person, even if your state allows online checkin, I love the total assurance of a sheet of paper confirming I'm legal.

Even on something so small as looking for brass on open ground can show how inaccurate your perception of where things went. "I know it landed over here!" lol

The cow elk I shot was in a group moving through blow down timber. I was close and the shot felt good. But after I shot it disappeared from view when they all started jumping around because they didn't know where the shot came from. I could have taken another shot but knew I shouldn't since the shot felt good. Sure enough, found her down barely 20yds from where hit.

I have hunted my entire life and I consider myself a very ethical hunter. A few years back I had an either sex rifle tag and a left over cow tag so it was legal for me to shoot two animals. I shot at a cow elk, maybe 225 yards, in some foggy conditions. I knew the first shot hit her, but I wanted to put her down so I shot her one more time. When I got to the downed cow, two other hunters came down the hill and informed me that there was another cow elk down about 40 yards up the mountain. If they would not have told me, I would have had no idea that I shot two. Fortunately I had legal tags for both. It was a humbling experience.

When I was a younger hunter, I had a buck tag and shot a small elk who had been rolling in the mud and looked more grey than normal. I called the fish and game and asked them what to do. They came up and helped me pack the meat off the mountain and we donated it to a shelter. It was a stupid mistake, but they were so glad I called them on it they didn’t even take my tag.

Inadvertently killed two bucks 5 year ago after scoffing at my neighbor that had done the same thing. I spotted a Buck trailing does at 150 yards in thick brush. I was 30 feet up in a climbing stand. Made a good shot with 30.06 and 130 Barnes copper hunting bullet. Started to unchamber and snap rifle on rope to lower after marking where Buck was last seen and decided to look back. Buck is up and standing so I put another bullet in it. When I got to the spot my Buck is laying there but why is a blood trail going from this spot on down the trail? After trailing blood 80 yards I found the first buck, the sire of the second buck. Identical racks and the only diff was a 20 lb. in weight that I did not notice at 150 yards!

Watched a guy shoot & miss at 3 different cow elk in SW Montana 20 years ago. He climbed off the ridge and headed back to his truck. Well, we heard three impacts. Two of our guys went over to where the elk were and found 3 Dead Elk! I was able to catch up to the guy when he got to his truck. He didn't even know that he was shooting over the top of us or that we were even there. Thank goodness we had radios and were able to communicate amongst ourselves. Luckily for him, we tagged two of the downed cows. Shoot at the same cow until it is dead. Follow up your shot(S) to find blood!

I had this happen on an elk 2 of us shooting at the same elk. 1st shots by him turned half the herd including the bull when they turned I had a slightly quartering to. When I squeezed the trigger it felt perfect and the bull back around and followed the herd. We tracked and followed every track we could find and no blood. Gave up after about an hour or so. And I guy come up behind us on the trail and said he heard the shots. So he backed off and went a different way. Went back for lunch and then went back up because I felt so good about the shot. And with the sun at a different angle we found a little blood. Tracked it out and found the bull but he had been broken down with the head back straps and one hind gone. As we were walking back that same guy walking back up the trail said he shot a bull. Turns out he took my bull. Which at first I was pissed because he knew I shot it and didn’t come back to where we were sitting and tell me. But I was relieved it didn’t go to waste.

Forty five years ago, my wife tagged a buck someone else had shot. We were on a ridge watching over a timbered pocket with several small ridges running down through the pocket. Two other hunters, who we knew, were on a knob about five hundred yards away on the side of the same pocket. We heard them shoot and watched as they just sat there. About ten minutes passed and I saw a buck headed our way and told her to get ready. I saw the buck stagger and wobble, so I said hold off. The buck dropped dead ninety yards in front of us. Ten minutes later those two opened up with two or three shots. We watched as they dropped off the other side of their knob and into the timber. Fifteen minutes later we saw them dragging a deer back out they way they had originally come into the area. At no time did they follow up their first shot as they were sure they had missed and the deer did not fall within their sight. Another ten minutes and we claimed the buck, cleaned it, tagged it, and dragged it the direction they had gone. We later talked to them and they said they had shot at a buck, but had missed. They had seen us on the ridge, but never heard us shoot and congratulated us on our buck. All I could do was shrug. The moral of this is to ALWAYS follow up after a shot, regardless if you think you missed.

I follow up on every shot but ive met multiple people that think if they don't see it go down they think they missed

That last part started to happen with my mule deer this year, saw one deer, my deer up untill the shot, i saw mine go left, then saw simalr size take off to the right, then all hell broke loose with 5-6 more good sized deer i never saw. Couldnt find blood at first and the narrow rear quarter shot i had made me all scatter brained and i started to track right where i had seen movement, and wasnt absolutely sure the shot was fatal (i still feel it was a shit shot) but had my friend and my nephew slowing me down, i went back to where i was standing when i shot, my nephew stood in the area he last saw him and i had him step into position where i believed i hit him at, he was two steps from the start of a beautiful thick blood trail, about 30yd away lay my dead buck in the thick brush, but i originally feared we'd be looking for hours in the dark and the snow.

Spotting the wrong animal! God have I been there. Me and my nephew...I was spotting for him right before legal shooting was to end. We had a whole whispered conversation in the blind...he takes a shot, I call a miss. We had a whole 'nother angry argument in that blind. Sure enough, he put down a little buck DRT maybe 40 yards from the similar sized buck I was spotting on the tree line. He still gives me a hard time about it.

In TN my buddy shot at the same doe 5 times in a clear cut.... yep 5 doe were down!!! That was one full Ford Explorer.

In Montana we were driving in 2 trucks through a coulee on a ranch. We spotted 3 or 4 cow elk on a ridge in shooting distance. A Hunter in the lead truck got out and took two shots. The elk ran off. We went up and found blood and trailed it to another ranch and were met at the entrance by a game warden. He called the ranch manager and got permission for 2 hunters to trail the elk. While they trailed, we went back to our ranch for lunch and later returned to the other ranch entrance where we were met by our two hunters. They said the trail petered out and they never saw the elk. We decided to go back to the spot where the shot was taken. After searching the area, we found a young cow elk dead under a cedar tree were it had slid down the hill. We also backtracked the small group of elk and discovered blood on the trail prior to where the shot was taken. So, one of the elk we were trailing had been shot by someone else before we ever saw them.

A few years ago my brother and I ran into a group of hunters from out of state that had just shot a cow elk during archery season. They were attempting to find the animal following a limited blood trail. They had been searching for a couple of hours when we ran into them. Two days later we saw the same hunter that had shot the cow packing out an animal. When asked if they had found the cow he was searching for, he responded that they gave up after searching after 4 hours and started hunting again. This hunter shot a different cow, essentially killing two animals. We know this because we found the first cow an hour later not more than 20 yards from where we met the hunter the days before. Had we been in cell phone range, CPW would have been called. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do about it.

I ALWAYS look for signs of a hit and track game when I shoot. I’m not a great shot but animals often run into my bullets!

30 years ago, I was told by a friend that I could hunt on this ranch land and he dropped me off. I spent the next four hours hunting and spotted a doe out about 300 yards and I had a doe tag so I set my sights on her and pulled the trigger and she ran off as I had missed. I walked up to where she was standing when I shot and there was no blood and I noticed where my bullet had hit and there lay a young deer just out of it's spots laying in the brush. I followed where the doe had run off to and spotted it looking in my direction unharmed and it jumped a fence. I went back to my kill and reluctantly field dressed it and carried it back to the road when the rancher showed up and wanted to know who I was and that I was about two steps from jail. It seems my friend was given permission to hunt the ranch but wasn't given permission to tell anyone else they could. The rancher was mad as hell but didn't blame me when I told him of my hunt and the fawn I'd shot. Two mistakes on one hunt taught me two lessons that day.

Traditional magnum cartridges pushing copper monolithic bullets at high muzzle velocity with high sectional density will provide a higher probability of full penetration and better chances for stronger blood trails from exit wounds. The increased probability of recovery that results from having to manage more recoil is a good return on investment IMO. It seems the popular trend these days is to hunt long range with smaller cartridges and long high BC cup and core expansion bullets… but does this not prioritize novelty over successful recovery? Cheers.

Last year, I was able to spot and stalk a big herd and took a shot at a cow. I was borrowing a friends rifle with a much higher magnification scope than the one I was used to and felt like the elk were at roughly 100 yards when they were actually at 360+ yards. I took the shot and the elk shuffled, so I couldn't tell which one I had taken the shot at and proceeded to wait. I didn't want to take another shot and risk wounding a second elk if I had hit the first one. Eventually, the entire herd moved to directly below my position on the ridge and proceeded to chill there, roughly 80 yards from my location. After a few minutes, they broke for the timber and I went over to where they were when I took the shot. There was no sign of blood anywhere, so I followed their path into the woods and was unable to locate any evidence that I had made a hit. I didn't fill my tag last year, but I definitely learned some valuable lessons. Never take a shot based on a hunch of distance. It is really hard to estimate in wide open spaces, especially when elevation and adrenaline are thrown in, and I will no longer be relying on the range finder in my brain. I do wonder if I made the right call to not take another shot. In a situation like that where I took a shot, saw no evidence that I had wounded an animal, and they were just hanging out for several minutes after the shot, would it be safe to assume I didn't make a hit? I still got the satisfaction of a successful hunt because I absolutely hustled to nail the spot and stalk, but it was a major bummer to miss out on the freezer full of meat. What are you thoughts?