Free: Contests & Raffles.
Getting back to Bob's questions.Looking back on things, if I could go back and do it all again, I would make the same choices. I don't regret sticking with the search and not moving on to another deer. It's a personal choice. Lots of guys said get back to hunting and lots of guys said punch your tag and be done. After hearing about the other spike in the area, I was nearly convinced it was the same deer and was close to moving on. I was going to give it a few more tries and bring the dogs in (yep, whole other topic) one last time before letting it go. Had I done that and not found him, I would have continued hunting. But as it turned out, it wasn't the case.I regret having wasted the meat. I feel bad about it and will never forget seeing it rotting away when I finally found him 4 days later. I didn't need the meat but it was a downright shame it went to waste nonetheless. The little bit of solace I took from this was getting the antlers (small as they were) and learning a lot along the way.This was my first tracking job. Needless to say, I made mistakes. I looked back on everything I did immediately after the shot and later on. I won't get into it specifically, but I made a list of things that I should have done better and committed these things to memory for all future hunts.As far as advice to hunters, I don't think I am really qualified to give advice. I am a rookie bowhunter and an even bigger rookie tracking wounded game. I will say this though - I think we as hunters owe it to ourselves and the game we pursue to make every reasonably possible effort in locating a wounded animal. We shouldn't give up and move on until we feel there is no further option in locating an animal.