wounded elk - what would you have done?

[uplink5]

I was 16 or 17, was driving my grandfathers old F-100 in Washington, he and I both had been trout fishing on the queets river, we both had the flue and I hit a elk cow at about 45 mph just north of Aberdeen. My grandfather cut its throat. He was a retired Sheriff and Prison Warden and said something about it being illegal for us to shoot it, just before he bled it out, and that it was our only option.

Driving back and forth from Pinebluff to FT Bragg over the years I hit one more and a woman in front of me hit a Whitetail and both times I just bled them since again it was my only option. I kept both of them though......jd

[bost1751]

Big Jim Calhoun was correct with minimal corrections as far as Colorado statutes go. There is so much poaching of elk DOW does not much of a sense of humor any more. Most western states are very similiar. Legally you did the right thing. To answer the other part of your question, yes the 9mm will do the job. I was a trooper in CO after I retired from SF and ran the mountains. I used the 9mm we used to carry on a lot of injured elk in northwest CO