SW Iowa, thank you for the kind words. I was raised to be an ethical hunter. I am still fairly young (27), but so far I have lost only one deer that I wounded (this might make it 2). This is only the 3rd deer I have had to bloodtrail over 50 yards as I have been primarily a rifle hunter in the past. I plan on becoming more of a bow hunter this coming season. What motivates me to look for a deer is that I took the responsibility to shoot it, and I took the risk of not making a clean shot.
Call me crazy but I feel some kind of spiritual connection to the woods and feel hunting is almost a spiritual activity. I say a prayer over the body of every deer I kill. I know an unfound animal will not go to waste as other critters will eat it, but as the killer of that animal I have a moral duty to seek it out. The anti-hunters will never understand this, but I am more in tune with the natural world and nature then they will ever be.