Sorry to jump on your thread guys but I just wanted to tell Jeff not to worry about what happened. Like many have said, you did nothing wrong. I'm pretty sure I would have done the same thing. Jeff, you found your deer...you found it. I have had deer on the ground for 10 hours before recovering them. The only difference in our stories was the temperature.

If it had been cooler your story would have been one of persistence and good tracking decisions (grid search etc...) ending with a recovery of a perfectly palatable deer.

You have nothing to hang your head about...nothing.