ORIGINAL: mobowhuntr
Dude, I've been there, and it sucks bad!! I feel for ya. I'm not gonna pick you apart, but as soon as you thought "paunch" I wouldn't have taken another step for 8 hours. But that's neither here nor there now.
All you can do is all you can do. When it's over, just make sure you can tell yourself that you did EVERYTHING you could possibly to do recover that deer. Sorry man.
Ditto