This bit about having an unwritten law about, "if the chance presents it's self..blah blah blah" is jut that... blah blah blah. You set up there with every intention of taking such a shot and put yourself in position for such a shot. It's called poaching everywhere I know of. As far as the "Idiots" tagging along, they didn't run you off. They said go ahead. You gave up on the deer with evidently very little effort. Since you had permission to go ahead ..... you should have gone ahead. Now sure, you can be a jerk if a deer they shoot comes on your land, but that's only going to make for a bad neighbor situation. But as I understand it, you don't own the land either. You're telling us you're going to play landlord wannabee and run them off like they did you, but they recanted and said go ahead. You were wrong. THey may have overstepped their authority, but they did consent to a search. You can't blame them for your failure to find the deer. You want to get over it. Realize your flaws and errors is the first step. Quitting the search because it's hard to track with when someones asking you questions? Give me a break. You had a confrontation, they said go ahead and you quit. Put the blame where it lies. It may be a certain way where you're from but where I'm from, poaching is poaching and we all usually hope they get arrested. Grow up would be my best advice.