slice,

I have been in your situation. I have taken shots that I shouldn' t have. I understand the feeling you have, but, the reason you are getting it from these guys is because you won' t admit your fault. The shot is a bad shot, no matter what you say. You keep defending the shot, but, it isn' t one worth taking. Like I said, I have taken shots I shouldn' t have. A rule in hunting is that Murphy' s law will always catch you. Last year I had a doe broadside at 20 yards. There was a smaller doe standing in front of her but behind her. Well, as I released the arrow on the first doe, the second one ran right into the arrow and took it right in the brisket. I had a broadside shot on a doe at 20 yards, which is perfect, but, I didn' t think about the deer standing in-front of it (even though its head was just about at the rump of the other doe. It was my fault, my stupidity, and I shouldn' t have shot. Simple as that. I learned from my mistakes. Yesterday I passed up a quartering towards me shot on a doe, to have her come in broadside and have a tiny twig on her vitals. I let her pass there also, and she walked behind me giving me a perfect 7 yard slightly quartering away shot, which allowed me to get one lung and the heart.

Another thing is that you didn' t check the grass field. Why? Because it was too hard? That is the type of thing that doesn' t matter when tracking a deer. If a deer ran through the thickest, nastiest briar patch in the world, are you gonna just say forget about it because it will be too tough?

Personally, I think you are a good guy with good intentions, but, you definetly need to think about your shot-placement and how hard you are willing to track an animal.

John Deer,

No matter what you say, that is a terrible selection for shot-placement. Simple as that. No matter what you say it is. You can defend it because it has worked for you in the past, but, next time you won' t be as lucky and you will be in the same place as slice.

Trying to tell DavidMil that he doesn' t know his stuff is like trying to tell Barry Bonds that he doesn' t know how to hit a home-run. David is a superb hunter and has killed more deer with a bow than most other hunters.

I am not saying that I haven' t made any mistakes, I have lost two deer in my life, but, I learn from them, and I won' t defend them. They were my errors, and that is something that I have to face and something that I have to change. This attitude is what you should have and you obviously need to improve on.