Its your buck..That's all there is to it.. You don't need to feel the least bit sorry.. If the tables were turned he would have done the exact same thing.. I would have done the exact same thing..
My Regs state it who kills it is the one who tags it..
Not the one who draws first blood..When you shoot you shoot to kill..
I did that to my sister.. She shot a buck down below me, I heard the shot, she was with my Dad, so I meandered down the mountain toward them thinking I could intercept animals walking up..After 5-6 minutes I saw a big 4x4 rack in front of me just standing staring at me just under 100yrds from me.. so I shot him.My Dad than radioed me to see if I got one, I said yep, he then mentioned my sister wounded a monster but it ran down..She had help so I just tended to gutted when I sensed maybe this was the buck..I left what I was doing and followed it's tracks, sure enough I found blood.. Radioed my Dad and told them I'm pretty sure I killed Kates Buck..
They followed the blood trail from their end and met my deer..
Well as it turned out I shot the one she wounded.. It went down and
circled back up. It was to be her first deer, I still bug her about it..