Gorgeous 6x7 elk dead and unclaimed in Squamish River Valley

[270WIN]

until you learn how to respect animals, you should quit hunting, because with that kind of statement you just made, shows me you are just a cold hearted idiot!

don't want to hi jack the thread but that was well said Ringo

[albravo2]

Ok, Aheny postponed the suffering of figuring out how to post pictures. I thought the facebook trick would work but I must have done something wrong. He is posting to dropbox and I'll post shortly.

So, the story:

When the CO and I approached the bull it didn't seem to be long dead. Rigor mortis had set in but there was no bloating and almost no smell. Given the hole that was visible on the rib cage I figured he had been gut shot and ran a good distance from the shooter before he died. There are two LEH winners out there, I was hoping the shooter was one of them and the story would have a happy ending. The meat looked very salvageable at that point. The CO called one of the LEH holders on his drive down from Whistler and the guy hasn't been hunting yet. He couldn't get in touch with the second one.

We rolled him over, both of us expecting to see a sizeable exit wound but the underside was completely intact. It was also a bit warm which indicated that there was some spoiling on the lower half. There was about a cup full of blood under the body. We looked for other wounds but only found a good scrape with a bit of blood on his left shoulder. At this point we are starting to believe it could have been a battle induced wound but there was nothing obvious about what would have actually killed him. Lack of smell and bloating pointed away from a perforated digestive system and there wasn't much disturbance in the ground around where he lay to indicate a big battle.

When the CO started to skin him we found another dime sized hole in the chest, just left of the brisket. Definite trauma around the wound, but not increasing in size as you would expect from the penetration of a hunting bullet. He pushed his finger in as deep as he could and the hole remained about the same diameter.

As we yanked hide off the shoulders there was a long bruise under the hide on the left side. The meat was dark red/brown and we guessed that it was the result of some blunt force trauma. All indications now are pointing to a natural death and we're starting to feel pretty good. The CO from Whistler was chatting with the other CO that showed up from North Van and was hopeful that they'd be able to chalk it up to natural causes and close the book.

Then, after we'd pulled out the guts to inspect the hole in the ribs from the inside we started to look at the organs. First, the CO noticed that the liver was not all intact. Then I noticed a hole in the heart. Drawing a line from the hole in the ribs to the hole in the chest we found bone fragments consistent with bullet damage. It seems that the bullet entered at the chest, went through the heart and exited the rib cage. It was either a FMJ bullet or the bullet failed to expand. I'm guessing the former, because there was absolutely zero sign of the bullet expanding or blowing up.

Needless to say, the mood went from hopeful to completely sour in those few seconds. Some scumbag thought it would be cool or exciting to shoot this magnificent animal for no reason at all. They couldn't have planned to poach the meat, the kill was too close to a roadway and elk of that size are hard to hide.

It was also tough to swallow the COs decision to leave the carcass for natural predation to take care of. Naturally, I was hoping to salvage some meat and make the best of a bad situation but he said he felt it best to leave it to the critters. After a few hours work in the pouring rain it was a tough decision to hear but I understand the guy with the badge has to make the call.

The only bright spot in a miserable afternoon/evening came just as we were getting into our trucks. The CO from North Van saw shapes in the adjacent field. We all brought out binoculars and sure enough, it was 7 cows, a calf and another bloody huge bull. Too dark to count with certainty, but we all figured he was 6x6 and every bit as big as the bull we'd just walked away from.

If anybody hears anything on this, please PM me and I'll put you in touch with the CO.

[Whonnock Boy]

That sucks.......

[proguide66]

damn that sucks ass real bad. Wonder if dropping a cam and vacating would have caught the shitbags.?

[BRvalley]

interesting story, thanks for sharing

so is the CO still trying to get in contact with the second LEH winner?

[albravo2]

here are the pics. would someone smarter than me please post them into the thread?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../elk/elk1.jpeg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../elk/elk2.jpeg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../elk/elk3.jpeg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../elk/elk4.jpeg

[adriaticum]

Could be the other LEH winner so we don't really know who shot it yet but by the looks of it the meat will go to waste. That's the sad part.

[Rackem]

[Rackem]

[Rackem]