Disappearing Elk

[Newdogg]

Shot a female elk at the lookout in Cheelah. Waited a while and she didn't come back, I was upwind. I went to investigate, found blood splatter that showed it was a vital shot, I'm guessing either single or double lung as she was broadside to me. I started tracking thinking I got a good kill. Found 2 of her tracks, than nothing. No blood, no other tracks, just nothing, like she never existed. I spend over an hour searching the area btw. Thinking it was a glitch I decided to forget about it and move on. North on Cheelah lake where you can build the stand, I encounter Bull Elk, a beauty of one to boot, just walked right in front of me at night while I was prone, pretty much a point blank range shot broadsided. Again, I waited, nothing, went to investigate, another vital, go searching for 2 hours this time, doing search patterns (spiraling out, and zig zaging) and he just ghosted, like he never existed, the tracks literally just stop within 20 meters or so of the shot, I checked and double checked the tracking cone, even checked that against the actual tracks, got frustrated and basically rage quit. Am I doing something wrong here? Or is something (hopefully rare) just glitching in the game? Have not had this issue with any other critter, just the elk.

BTW i was shooting the .243 polymer tips. (still very new to the game at lvl 9) 1st was at about 75 meters, the 2nd was less than 20m.

[CaptainNebulous]

Chances are she glitched and teleported through a bunch of AI-unfriendly terrain to somewhere not worth looking for. Sorry to hear that. Now you've probably lost your consec so make sure to shoot 3 more females before your next trophy shot

[Newdogg]

yeah, I lost consec, oh well, ♥♥♥♥ happens I guess

[Striker]

You were certainly under gunned for an Elk. That being said, sorry you lost it anyway. If you are new to the game you might not yet realize that tracks can easily be 30-60 meters apart and every little spot of blood, every pile of poo and every footprint count as tracks. When near water animals have been known to spirit across inlets, coves etc... and not leave a track near the water on either side. Hopefully you will have better luck next time.

[Hidden Gunman]

It happens. I've had a wildebeest stuck in a bush, fired into it three times from five metres, nothing. Had to walk up and execute it NKVD style to the back of the head. Also had an elk teleport twenty odd metres to just in front of me, soak up two shots without damage, then teleport back to where it originally was. I've lost count of the mysterious disappearances I've experienced.

That all said though, .243 is a tad light for elk. Combined with a low bleed rate could see your blood trail fizzle out, or the blood pools really spread apart.

[Newdogg]

Originally posted by Hidden Gunman:

It happens. I've had a wildebeest stuck in a bush, fired into it three times from five metres, nothing. Had to walk up and execute it NKVD style to the back of the head. Also had an elk teleport twenty odd metres to just in front of me, soak up two shots without damage, then teleport back to where it originally was. I've lost count of the mysterious disappearances I've experienced.

That all said though, .243 is a tad light for elk. Combined with a low bleed rate could see your blood trail fizzle out, or the blood pools really spread apart.

yeah, I know tagging elk with .243 was punching above my weight class so to speak, however, I think I isolated the problem just to Cheelah area on my map, just bagged 2 elk in Nordan with the .243, easy to track down, again vital shots within 100m. Haven't had any issues in the starting area either, so I really just think something is screwy with my map and elk in Cheelah. Maybe not, more testing will be done this week. If I can truly isolate the problem, maybe (big maybe) the devs will try to fix it.If not, than I will just avoid hunting elk there.

[naspa]

Yes, the .243 is too light. Single long shot and they can still run a few miles. And it happens, specially when a lot of tracing is going on, that there is some discontinuity in the tracking.
(It also happens that animals fly away or make giant steps in mountain/hilly areas).

Best change is follow the track direction and hope to pick up the track again.
But if you cannot find it- after some time tracks and animals will disappear anyway.

What I sometimes do is speedtravel back to closest tent/cabin and start again from there (might bring a ATV as well). When doing this, the game tends to rest non essentials tracks.

[Alter_Schwede_62]

Yes, you minimum have to use the 7mm Magnum Express or the .338
Then the chances of getting them down soon is very high!

If you don't have one of them, let it be, and shoot the smaller like Whitetails or Blacktails until you have the money for buying min. a 7mm Express Magnum. For Blacktail and Whitetail you will soon get much money to buy one of the bigger.

Don't go on shooting Elks or even Moose with the .243 because it will become rather frustrating!

Wait until you can buy the correct riffle.

[Confused Dragon]

Originally posted by Alter_Schwede_62:

Yes, you minimum have to use the 7mm Magnum Express or the .338
Then the chances of getting them down soon is very high!

If you don't have one of them, let it be, and shoot the smaller like Whitetails or Blacktails until you have the money for buying min. a 7mm Express Magnum. For Blacktail and Whitetail you will soon get much money to buy one of the bigger.

Don't go on shooting Elks or even Moose with the .243 because it will become rather frustrating!

Wait until you can buy the correct riffle.

I've been using the drilling for elk, moose, red deer and bison without issue.

[XLjedi]

You fail to mention if a hunting pressure point (red/purple blotch) was visible in the area on your map. Which would indicate the animals were killed.

If I see a blotch on the map, I do a radial search from the last tracking marker. ...but typically, the bodies are somewhere within that directional cone from the last tracking point. Although they can be a little further away than the typical tracking marker spacing.

I have encountered something similar to what you describe twice and I believe both were the result of game glitches.

The first time, it was a black bear very near to "Hope's Camp". I know I scored a solid hit because there was a significant amount of blood with a "vital hit" indicator. However, there was not a single track marker or directional indicator of where the bear went after the hit. The only track evidence associated with the splatter were two signs that appeared to be leading up to where the bear was sitting. One was a "very old" dropping, and the other was the last set of tracks between the dropping and where the blood was. It was as if the tracks leading away simply disappeared. In this case, it was on the first mission to Hope's Camp and the human footprints had lit up blue and the proximity storyline dialog started playing right after my shot. So wondering if somehow the blue human footprints from the mission glitched my bear kill?

The second time, had to do with the blood trail and tracks of a shot animal (Fallow in Hershfeld) not appearing at all. This occured (I think) as a result of me Alt-Tabbing in and out of the game. For some reason, this activity glitched the blood trails and all tracks of a dying animal. I had to restart the game to get the tracks of shot animals to reappear.

In both of these cases, I was using my bow. Typically a hit with an arrow kills anything, and I know these were solid hits. It was early in my hunting career though, so I didn't know enough at the time to check to see if there was a hunting pressure indicator on the map for these.

[Hidden Gunman]

It's a good practice to always check your map for the hunting pressure/kill indicator when you are tracking something. It's no effort, and can give you an idea of what is happening.

[Newdogg]

Originally posted by Alter_Schwede_62:

Yes, you minimum have to use the 7mm Magnum Express or the .338
Then the chances of getting them down soon is very high!

If you don't have one of them, let it be, and shoot the smaller like Whitetails or Blacktails until you have the money for buying min. a 7mm Express Magnum. For Blacktail and Whitetail you will soon get much money to buy one of the bigger.

Don't go on shooting Elks or even Moose with the .243 because it will become rather frustrating!

Wait until you can buy the correct riffle.

I would agree with this, except I have had no issues in the past, and even today downed 4 elk, 3 bulls and 1 doe without issue, granted, I didn't get quick kill, but I am just going after money and experience and if I see em, I take em. I am not actively hunting them, they have all been opportunity kills.

[Newdogg]

Originally posted by XLjedi:

You fail to mention if a hunting pressure point (red/purple blotch) was visible in the area on your map. Which would indicate the animals were killed.

If I see a blotch on the map, I do a radial search from the last tracking marker. ...but typically, the bodies are somewhere within that directional cone from the last tracking point. Although they can be a little further away than the typical tracking marker spacing.

I have encountered something similar to what you describe twice and I believe both were the result of game glitches.

The first time, it was a black bear very near to "Hope's Camp". I know I scored a solid hit because there was a significant amount of blood with a "vital hit" indicator. However, there was not a single track marker or directional indicator of where the bear went after the hit. The only track evidence associated with the splatter were two signs that appeared to be leading up to where the bear was sitting. One was a "very old" dropping, and the other was the last set of tracks between the dropping and where the blood was. It was as if the tracks leading away simply disappeared. In this case, it was on the first mission to Hope's Camp and the human footprints had lit up blue and the proximity storyline dialog started playing right after my shot. So wondering if somehow the blue human footprints from the mission glitched my bear kill?

The second time, had to do with the blood trail and tracks of a shot animal (Fallow in Hershfeld) not appearing at all. This occured (I think) as a result of me Alt-Tabbing in and out of the game. For some reason, this activity glitched the blood trails and all tracks of a dying animal. I had to restart the game to get the tracks of shot animals to reappear.

In both of these cases, I was using my bow. Typically a hit with an arrow kills anything, and I know these were solid hits. It was early in my hunting career though, so I didn't know enough at the time to check to see if there was a hunting pressure indicator on the map for these.

Thank, you. Yes there was definately hunting pressure, a nice vibrant purple. Though I do get what you are saying about them going off the "grid" per say where they are not even in the track cone. Just today I tagged an elk, she bolted, lots of good tracks to follow, got to the last track and the cone indicated she went south east, went southeast for roughtly 100 meters, no other sign, went back to start doing a radius search and found her north east of the last track, maybe 50m from the last track. I call that a glitch. Took pictures of the map to show what I am talking about in the one you see I am at the edge of the pressure looking south east, in the other I am north east just south of a lake.

[Newdogg]

Originally posted by Hidden Gunman:

It's a good practice to always check your map for the hunting pressure/kill indicator when you are tracking something. It's no effort, and can give you an idea of what is happening.

I always check pressure, just to make sure I did get the kill.

[Alter_Schwede_62]

I alway check pressure, to make sure that I do not overhunt the aera.
Thats important, if you don't wanna loose feed zones. ;)