I think you are correct. The one thing I would have done in your shoes, was press the worst thing that could have happened would have been the same outcome. I have 30 plus kills with a bow, more in total, and all I can say is press
I listened to the elk but seminar on YouTube on the way home. Goodness it’s a must listen to I think, even if you don’t agree with his view on everything. There is a lot of info in there. One thing he talked about was how that bull was reacting and how I probably could of just come in with some cow calls and he’d have been more than happy to let me come up and shoot him.
Wife’s giving me Saturday morning if everything goes to plan. I hope to use the calling tactics I learned from that hour long video and ns yesterday to get it done. Just drives me crazy, I’ve got 4 bulls in the area on camera from this summer, a super solid 6x6 a 6x5 and some 5x5s and my gut tells me he wasn’t a spike. Wish I could upload videos.