Congrats on the cow and sorry to hear about losing the bull. I have seen it happen with every weapon and it's an unfortunate part of hunting. Sounds like you gave it a solid effort to recover him so you should feel good about that. Thanks for posting!
2015 Success
My brother and I were able to go on our annual Uintas archery hunting trip the last week of the season. The first day we called in a small 5 pt to about 20 yards but I just couldn't get a shot. Every time he stopped his vitals were covered by a tree or something, way cool though. The second day I was able to harvest a cow, the shot was a bit high but she only went 200 yards. There was maybe 10 drops of blood the way from where I shot to where she expired. We were only about 1.5 miles from the trail head and wheelers so we decided after quartering the elk we would just take all the meat in 1 load. We were both exhausted by the time we got to the wheelers.
Since I had tagged out I was the full time caller for my brother. Over the next couple days we had close encounters with lots of elk but just couldn't close the deal. The second to last morning we finally heard a bull bugle that was close enough to try to make a play on him. A couple soft cow calls and this big 5 pt was coming towards us with his cows. There were a couple other small bulls around following this group. I was set up about 50 yds behind and to the right of my brother. Instead of coming to the sound of the calls this bull headed right for my brother, screaming the whole way in. He didn't have a chance to draw his bow and this big bull stopped about 7 yards from him and they had a staring contest for what seemed like an hour. Finally he got nervous enough to go busting out of there without ever giving him a shot. We talked about this bull even after we got home, its an encounter I will never forget.
The last evening we made our game plan and got where we wanted to be early enough to sit down and cool off well before the elk started to move. About 2 hours before sunset we found a small bull still in velvet and made our stalk. At 27 yds the bull gave my brother a shot; the arrow hit solid and great penetration. We found first blood and sat down for a bit to give him some time. About 200 yds into tracking this bull we found 3 piles of blood that were about 12 inches around and frothy. We tracked him for another 100 yds until it got to dark; the blood trail was thinning out so we decided to back out. We went back in the morning to pick up where we left, we tracked him for another 1/2 mile before losing all blood and tracks. We did several circles and found nothing. After about 6 hours we decided to call it, we were both feeling very defeated after not finding this bull.
Since I had tagged out I was the full time caller for my brother. Over the next couple days we had close encounters with lots of elk but just couldn't close the deal. The second to last morning we finally heard a bull bugle that was close enough to try to make a play on him. A couple soft cow calls and this big 5 pt was coming towards us with his cows. There were a couple other small bulls around following this group. I was set up about 50 yds behind and to the right of my brother. Instead of coming to the sound of the calls this bull headed right for my brother, screaming the whole way in. He didn't have a chance to draw his bow and this big bull stopped about 7 yards from him and they had a staring contest for what seemed like an hour. Finally he got nervous enough to go busting out of there without ever giving him a shot. We talked about this bull even after we got home, its an encounter I will never forget.
The last evening we made our game plan and got where we wanted to be early enough to sit down and cool off well before the elk started to move. About 2 hours before sunset we found a small bull still in velvet and made our stalk. At 27 yds the bull gave my brother a shot; the arrow hit solid and great penetration. We found first blood and sat down for a bit to give him some time. About 200 yds into tracking this bull we found 3 piles of blood that were about 12 inches around and frothy. We tracked him for another 100 yds until it got to dark; the blood trail was thinning out so we decided to back out. We went back in the morning to pick up where we left, we tracked him for another 1/2 mile before losing all blood and tracks. We did several circles and found nothing. After about 6 hours we decided to call it, we were both feeling very defeated after not finding this bull.
