ORIGINAL: GregH
In my eyes, the right decision is to do everything you can to recover the deer. It won't go to waste, coyotes have to eat too.Not recovering the deeris a waste. Putting a killing shot on a deer, no matter how poor, gives you ownership of that deer. It is your responsibility to give it your best effort to try and recover and tag it. Whether the meat is spoiled or not, the "right" thing to do is tag it. In this day and age, with so many doe tags available, getting meat is not an issue.
I'm curious Greg, and honestly interested in learning here...
What makes the recovery of an unusuable deer any better than having not recovered it because you sought recovery in a way which may or may not provide anything usuable?
It seems to me that either way, the deer is dead and either way, I can't make any real use of it. By taking a chance of jumping it, there's at least a chance of recovering something useful. And, for clarification, I'm talking in the options presented at the outset of this thread rather than providing justification for immediate tracking on a marginal shot.