Greetings. Just had my first hunting experience. I know I made a whole bunch of mistakes, but am curious at how common my experience was.

Quick background. Wife and I bought a house on 20 acres in Northern NH. Surrounded by a few hundred acres of conservation land. Pretty remote.

I've never hunted before. Ever. I have a 30-30 that was Dad's he bought used in the 70s. Spent a couple weeks out there. Had one sighting.

This morning, try a new spot further out back. Sat for 45m. Got up to stretch. Turn back, 30' in front of me is a buck smelling the doe piss I sprayed.

I'll try to make this shorter than what actually happened in the 7h of tracking the freaking thing.

I took a shot. Jumped up and bolted. No blood. Thought for sure I had missed. No idea how, thing was 30' in front of me. Buddy said to follow the tracks for a little bit. I did. Bam, blood. Followed it straight up a mountain. I'm not talking a small hill here, either. A granite mountain laid with downed trees. Blood spatter ever 20'. But between that 20', I had to differentiate between the other 10 deer tracks.

I lose the blood trail. Discouraged, I turn back. Buddy says don't give up. I head back out. Find the tracks again. I follow them for about two miles. And no, that is NOT an exaggeration. Two brooks, a swamp, a field, a smaller mountain, and another field.

This is the WORST part, right here. I'm staring at the ground for blood, and what the hell do I stumble on? The deer. Bedded down.I could touch it with my rifle. It was facing away from me, with it's head down. Like an old dog next to the wood stove. I even texted my buddy that I got it. I thought for sure it was dead. I saw the exit wound too; a little high. Not on the ridge of the back, but a few inches down. I ask myself if I want to shoot it again. The work I put into this, I didn't want to mess up the skull because I'd like to mount it being my first. I also didn't want to smash the meat either. I think about this for 2.2 seconds and what the hell happens? Thing twitches, and bolts. Gone before I could even swing my rifle around.

I sat down. I couldn't believe it. I'm miles from home. In the middle of freaking nowhere. Surrounded by brooks, heavy forest, and swamps. This was the first time I have ever gotten lost; and I've done a quite a bit of outdoor exploring. (looking back now, I don't even know how I'd drag that thing back to the house; so it was probably for the best anyways)

So, I push forward. Cross a swamp following the tracks. I spot blood again. This goes on for another two hours. Woods get DENSE. I'm 6'4 and am squeezing through the thick trees. I see a blood spatter, neat. Then, a field with tallish grass. The field must have 100 deer tracks. Loaded. I get turned around and totally lose my bearings.

A little note here. I have two knee replacements and am a severe hemophiliac. That means my joints swell up within minutes of an injury. Both ankles are fused solid at this point. Knees are painful too. I've been in the woods following this deer for about five hours.

I give up. I circled that field three times looking for blood. Impossible to find anything. Its noon, I'm beat, broken, no food, no water, and a three mile hike back home. Its raining and I'm sweating away. Absolute miserable.

Takes me about 2h to hike back home.
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I feel like ****. Like a total failure. I'm completely embarrassed at myself. I can barely walk. My ankles are totally locked up, My knees are all swollen. I just want to toss the rifle away and never do this again.

So is something like this normal? Having the deer run for miles and miles? Losing the deer knowing 100% you shot it; hair at the site of the shooting and seeing the exit wound from 3' away?

How bad did I mess this up?

-Hell of an introduction, eh?