Deer hunting ethics

[antlerridge]

You seemed to do more than most would to attempt recovery, hunt.


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[Q_Sertorius]

We are pretty sure the buck is alive, we had a trail cam photo and it appears to be him. Continued to hunt today, but the soup is luke warm.

I’d keep hunting him. The odds that he survives the winter is pretty low. I’ve tracked deer a surprising distance - 1/2 mile or more - even after “good shots” like a high lung shot that doesn’t affect the spine. I believe in exhausting all reasonable measures to recover a wounded animal.

I am not saying this applies here, but I have also seen some really poor attempts to even look for blood by some hunters. “No blood within 6-feet of where I think he was when I fired. I must have missed.” My dad’s rule was that if we shot at a deer we walked a search pattern in the direction he ran out to 400 yards with increasingly longer legs. It took forever on the side of the mountain, beating brush, climbing over dead trees, etc. Which basically meant you were done hunting for the day unless you found him. Do that once or twice and you take shots you know you can hit.

 

[Timplant]

wound loss is factored into tags sold, if you gave your effort, go hunting.

 

[Model70]

Keep hunting. You did everything right, but to no avail, so ethically, you are good to go in my book.
I hate crippling a deer and not recovering it, but it happens. Fortunately, I have not had the misfortune of crippling one in many years. Eats my guts out.