Shoulder Shot for Elk?

[idahoron]

Two years ago ( no tag last year ) I shot a Bull with a perfect shot placement. My range was 15 yards so this is not boasting. Despite the placement, he ran 150-200 yards. He took off like a race horse after the MZ Blast. I found no blood whatsoever. We found him in a grid search, dead as doorknob and fortunately in a small clearing.

I may not be as fortunate next time, what if he had piled up in a thicket, what if it wasn't a double lunger?

I have a friend who claims " His Buddies " purposely shoot them in the shoulder to anchor them in the spot. I'm wondering if this is the way to go? I'll be shooting a 495 NoExcuse with 75 grains of T7.

Any experience from the crowd on this?

Thanks,

LB

I have considerable experience in should shots. It is my favorite most of the time. When I was shooting them with centerfire rifles I wanted them down now so they didn't go into hell holes. When I started to shoot them with Muzzleloaders I hunt close to private land. If I don't anchor them and they get on to private I am not getting the animal. Land owners here won't allow a guy to go on and retrieve the animal.
My first elk with a muzzleloader was a large calf. It was a shoulder shot but hardly a bullet test for my paper patched lee 500 S&W bullets.

Next was a large cow. This cow was within 100 yards of private land. She was coming to a call and I shot her at 60 yards. She was knocked off her feet but got up and went about 10 yards and was dead.

The bullet was found in her flank.

It was interesting to see this old wound. What ever it was didn't do the trick. And that should have done the trick.

The last muzzleloader elk I shot was with a high shoulder shot to take out the spine. This bull was under 10 feet of private land. This bull had to be taken off his feet. The shot was 248 yards

The 458 gr bullet broke the shoulder and took out the spine. My son was watching from off to my left about 200 yards away behind a hill. He saw the bulls legs curl up and it was down. Then he heard the shot. He said he knew it was a long shot but didn't expect the bull to be on the ground.

The biggest problems with shoulder shots is placement and bullet performance. If the bullet goes under the spine the animal with be very difficult to recover.
On my big cow, if that bullet would have been pure lead I don't know if it would have plowed as far as it did. In my experience pure lead will over expand reducing penetration.

Shoulder shots can and do make sense at times but the bullet has to hold up its part of the bargain. These bullets were the 410 gr Hornady great plains bullets. They went through the chest of a large mule deer.

I would never recommend this bullet for elk. It is no longer made but a worse bullet took its place. The only 50 cal Hornady has now is a 385 gr hollow point. In my opinion this is not a game bullet. Ya guys kill animals with them every year. I can't recommend them at all for anything.

There is a lot to think about when taking shoulder shots.

 

[eekjellander]

Bull elk are hard to "anchor"! I've shot them in the shoulder with 430-440 grain lead conicals over 80 VOLUMETRIC grains of Triple Sev7en and Blackhorn 209. They still traveled up to 60 yards.

I've also witnessed one shot with a 295 grain PowerBelt over 110 Volumetric grains Pyrodex that shook it off like a bee sting. He traveled around the mountain and started calling his cows back in about 3/4 of a mile away. We were able to track him that far with superficial blood and hard tracking. Looked for him the rest of that day and all the next day to no avail. The guy was sick about it and rightly so.

That's why you don't bring your Whitetail load to the dark timber for truly big game like elk. You either go big, or go home with no bone. Don't even think about shooting a pissed off called in bull elk in the shoulder with and hollow point/hollow based bullets like the Great Planes or Buffalo Bullets.

With that said, your 495 grain No Excuses should leave you with, No Excuses. As long as you can get the bullet in the boiler room. If you call bull elk in, they usually angle in to you, and that shoulder knuckle is always in play, and something to be mindful of. I try to avoid it whenever possible, but have the added insurance of a solid lead flat meplat conical with lead instead of air in the ass end as well.

Lyman Great Plains is in fact a plain based /FN (mega plate )and the BHN is negotiable depending on the critter your killing ,everyone has an opinion

 

[Bushfire]

@idahoron that's an impressive shot with open sights on the bull. Frustrating when landholders won't allow you to recover deer, no different here in many places.