I've had tremendously great days hunting that I considered "successful" in calling in the deer, turkey or whatever and never released an arrow. Some of my best days never saw an arrow drawn.

However, when someone asks me if I was successful, I don't feel I had a successful season unless I killed AND RECOVERED at least one deer. I've had great seasons that would've been fun that I would have considered unsuccessful if I hadn't taken deer. I'm a bit shallow that way I guess!