Great White, I feel your pain and know firsthand the frustration as I hada similar thing happen to me this past weekend.

I hunt public land that is adjacent to my family's private land, the landowner to the west of my family's private land has a big hunting party every opening weekend - a few of whom are teenagers.

Anyway, I had been watching an 8ptr since late September but never got him within bow range during bow season (wind conditions, etc.). Rifle opener was this past Saturday and knew this buck's normal routine. Sure enough as soon as the sun peeked over the tree tops, the 8ptr came walking out of an area that was clear cut 2 years ago.

I had my crosshairs on him and took the shot as soon as he cleared some of the new growth. I tagged him behind the shoulder (admittedly a tad high), knocked him down and watched him run and lay down. Another guy in my party (hunting the private land) immediately walked to my stand, which causedthe buck get up and run again.

We waited a bit longer to track him and while tracking him we heard 2 shots directly in front of us. My buddy decided to stop tracking because of the shots, but I trudged on, found the standand the hunter (one of the teens calling his dad on the walkie-talkie ecstatic). I did not approach him and went back to my stand. Later, Isaw the deer hanging in the neighbors garage.

My take, my shot was high and was not immediately fatal so it was rightfully the other guy's deer regardless of the "fair chase" doctrine.

What I learned, I need to shoot my rifle more during the off-season,wait longer to track, and setup a few stands for bow season to account for wind conditions so "my buck" doesn't make it to rifle season.