Friday am day 8,
We climb up behind camp. Stop at the bowl where the big herd was the night before. We wait until sunrise, glass and listen. Nothing.
We discuss our next move and in the far distance we hear a bugle. So, we make our way down into the bowl and back up the other side.
We arrive at a rock outcropping on a ridge. Down below in the flats we glass up some elk coming out of a creek bottom. I decide to rip out a locator bugle and one fires back immediately. He sounded close enough to play with. We move to the opposite side of the rocks looking below us. I mimic his bugle and ask OldFussnFeathers how far he thinks the elk is, no sooner than I say that elk fires back with a long chuckle and a squirrelly type bugle. Poor dude must have had a long night chasing the single ladies.
We look at each other and the same thought comes to us "that close!"
I drop down and take my pack off, knock an arrow and range a pine tree in front of me. As soon as I get the range I see the bull rounding the end of the rock outcropping we are tuck in. Wind and sun in his face and coming right at us!
Our vantage point from the rock outcropping where we glassed the elk down.
The bull is coming in and following the path I was suspecting. Just like a turkey, these dudes can pinpoint the exact spot they hear you from.
I have a pine tree in front of me a few yards off the outcropping and a dead tree and the lone pine is 35 yards.
As soon as the bull walks in front of first pine tree, I come to full draw. I wait for him to clear the dead tree and to me, it appears he slows his walk and sorta bristles up. I release.
At first I think I smoked him, it felt great. Then after the follow through it looks like it sailed right over his back. If I'm missing, I'm missing low 99.9999% of the time. I just wasn't positive if I had missed or hit but I knew it wasn't the double lung I had imagined happening, I'm surprised the bull didn't spook from my potty mouth after that shot.
He trots out and makes a half moon, stops at a slightly quartering away 60 yards out. I had already knocked another arrow and settled on him. Everything just felt perfect so I released.
I was blocked by the wind while I was tucked in the rock so I didn't consider it. With a quartering shot I put my pin a little back. Those two factors sent the arrow way far back and I knew it immediately when I seen the impact.
I picked my bugle tube up and started bugling at him. He trotted about 70 yards and stopped in view of OldFussnFeathers. He said he just stood there a few seconds and walked off.
I knew then my hit was far back and my first one was a miss
Such an adrenaline rush. I've trained hard core all summer. Shot my bow more than I ever have, played through every scenario I could imagine, yet at crunch time "getting caught in the moment" won.
Fortunately, OldFussnFeathers had pulled his phone out and recorded it from his angle. Everything I thought that had happened was confirmed from his angle. I had even released the arrow as the bull was walking the first time. Rookie mistake.
Here is right before the first arrow release. You can hear on the video a loud noise, my arrow or limb hit something. Apparently I wasn't clear like I had thought.
I cussed myself internally for a while and made a decision to back out.
Once I made my decision I sent the video to "the team" for them to give me their opinions. I also sent it to fulldraw, because you know, we used to be besties and all
Screenshot of second shot. Notice arrow in top right screen and the bulls angle. The angle is a little more from my shot location.
Everyone of us pretty much came to the same conclusion on the second shot. BB was able to play it on his TV and circled where he thought the impact was.
We discussed the possibility of me hitting an artery. I was convinced stomach/intestines with a slight chance of liver. I just didn't think the angle was enough.
I went back to camp and did some chores. Talked with full draw and "the team". I made a decision to wait until the next morning to go looking. Temps would be fine but coyotes and bears are a possibility, so is bumping a gut shot elk and never finding him. Tellico was brining his pup who could help.
I watched that video a million times and fulldraw told me he couldn't just leave without examing the shot sight. I had almost convinced myself I missed the second shot. Talked with BB about possibly missing too.
Before we came down the mountain we briefly looked for my arrow and blood. It was a Quick Look because if the elk was bedded I didn't want to risk it. I didn't see anything.
So back up we went, 3.5 hours after the shot. This time it was hands n knees and OldFussnFeathers guiding while he stood at shot location.
No arrow but we did find blood. Dark red. Definitely not artery, no signs of guts, but the possibility of meat now existed. I followed it for 75 yards to the exact spot OldFussnFeathers last seen him, that was the last blood and the timber started to get thick.
It was time to pull out and give him 20 plus hours. If it was liver and nobody/nothing bumped him, he would be dead in the timber.
The limited blood I had to work with.
The drive home is long but this one was longer. I had to leave camp, I don't trust myself to not go back in looking for him. I needed something to keep me busy and we needed a shower and laundry day badly.
Needless to say I didn't sleep but the homemade enchiladas my wife made that night and shower helped.
Off to sleep I went, knowing full and well what I would dream about. Me f'n my first elk….
I missed the first and had time to fully digest, I might have not taken the second shot. Still, I felt solid and confident, I wouldn't have released if I didn't. 
Sorry, I keep it real. You know you love me. 
