Tonight while leaving the woods I saw a pathetic sight. It was a basket rack buck that had it' s left hind lower leg shot off and seemed to be in great difficulty. I watched him for a couple of minutes trying to decide whether to shoot or not. He was just outside of my confidence range (30 yds) and I was having many conflicting emotions while watching him hobble along.

Normally I would not even consider taking the shot. The deer seemed to be in distress and I could see that he was missing his lower leg. He was broadside and hobbling slowly along. I decided to try and end his suffering. At the shot he gave a little kick and disappeared into the darkness. I looked for my arrow or blood but found neither. Tomorrow I will be back to search in the daylight.

What would you have done? I really have a problem with people trying to shoot beyond their ablilities and now I think I might have done it myself. I keep justifying it to myself as the " right" thing to do but I am not so sure?