ORIGINAL: GregH
If this means waiting and risking that the meat will be bad, then that's the way it should be. Next time be a better shot. You owe it to yourself, the animal, landowner and the public.
I hope this answers your question on why I feel that recovery of the animal is most important.
Thanks for taking the time to respond and for having done so in such a civil manner. Is it safe to summarize your position like this:
Doing everything possible to avoid unneccessary offence to others (especially non-bowhunters), as well as the tagging/reporting, and peace of mind that come with recovery of an unuseable deer outrank the potential useable recovery of tracking quickly enough that it might be too early?