I wondered the same thing last season a couple of times, but in retrospect, I know I did the right thing by not taking the shot. It might take you some time, but you'll feel good about the fact that you didn't, at least eventually. Or immediately if you bag that bad boy on another outing.

I'll agree with the others in saying that the worst feeling you can have is not knowing if you hit or missed your target (i.e. no blood or hair ANYWHERE, even though you thought the shot was good).

Practice, practice, practice. Get confident in not only your shooting ability, but in your gun, scope and load. When the time comes and you have a tough shot that you KNOW you can make, you'll take it and you'll make it.

I have often wondered about the brush or small twigs affecting bullet path. I'm not talking 1/4"-thick branches, just the super-thin, brushy stuff. I have passed on shots where I could see the deer's entire body but there was a small amount of brush in the way, usually right in front of the deer. My thought is that if the brush is very close to the deer, it won't affect bullet path enough to matter, but if you are shooting THROUGH brush to get to a more distant target, that's a recipe for disaster.

Anyone have any real, actual experience with this? I would like to experiment sometime during a shooting session.