When do you give up on the track?
This questions stems from a small buck I lost last year (would have been first with bow). Long story short...didn't get a pass through, using muzzy 4 blades, 40yard shot that wasn't ideal. (I later spend several hours re-looking at deer anatomies online...one lung was done for, and the second shouldn've had an inch or two of arrow in it).
Anyways, he ran into a small patch of woods (small being about 20 acres..he would've had to cross an elevated highway otherwise). I waited an hour...then found only some cut hair and a few spots of blood about about 20 yards fromt the hit (still in a open field) and then two small spots were he jumped a ditch into the woods.
Looked for about an hour for the next sign and eventual resorted to 'combing' twenty acres the best I could. (another two hours of hiking around) a called it quits. Now granted, if I had worked three hours and still was still making slow progress on a trail you couldn't have torn me off it...it would've been my first buck with a bow.
At what point do you guys call it quits? Would you have rested awhile and then recombed? We want 'em bad, and we owe it to them if we take the shot...but when do you rack it up to "experience" and "better luck next time".