I once dispatched a deer at midnight with my bow. It was my first bow kill, I had made a bad shot, and also made a bad decision in following too soon resulting in pushing a wounded deer. The shot would have been fatal, but when I finally caught up with it it was nearly paralyzed and stiff with the poisons in its system from the gut shot I delivered. when my buddy and i came upon it and realized it wasn' t going any further, we decided I would go back to camp and get my bow to deliver the coup de grace. I would do it again...the coup de grace that is......the following up so soon and continuing after I heard it ahead of me.....I' ll never do that again.
BTW, I was entirely ILLEGAL by the letter of the law. But in retrospect I did the right thing to deliver the final shot. It was the impetuos tracking that was the mistake.