I have been killing deersince childhoodand I find it very hard to make these kind of decisions - especially on the fly. My early hunting transpired on a farm where the deer where regarded as a nuisance so my default is to shoot.

Nevertheless, I would recommend that you promise yourself to only shoot underrock-solid circumstances. For me, the only real tragedy would be deciding to shoot and then not killing him cleanly and efficiently because of an imperfect situation. The only time I have ever regretted a decision to shoot is when I wavered/debated at the moment of truth with bow in hand. There is no extra space in my small mind at these crtical moments.

I say: Decide now, kill him (or not) when able and feel good about the fact that you are far enough ahead of the game to be able to make the decision beforehand.