Rack...I guess I really don't mean to rip on you specifically, but I think that this is another case of someone seeing a "big buck" and then shooting when not even knowing the any specifics...just shoot and hope he goes down. You said when you started tracking him that he ended up being only 30 yards from you. 30 yards?? and you don't know exactly where you hit him? At 30 yards, you could easily taken an extra 2 seconds to let him turn broadside to you for a high percentage shot. You said he was standing there facing your tree....I believe. Well if the buck was standing there...he was calm and you SHOULD HAVE WAITED for a better shot. If he wasn't calm, and all of a sudden took off and you didn't end up with a shot, well then he did. Point is.....only take high percentage shots!!!! If you have to let a B&C or P&Y buck or even a doe walk because you don't have a good shot......then you have to let it go. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to the animal. I'm sorry, but I just have heard of so many big bucks, doe, fawns etc... running around on 3 legs, limping because of an a$$ shot, guts hangin out, found dead because a hunter couldn't retreive the animal, so on and so on because people don't have enough self discipline to take a "GOOD" shot. Don't think for a minute that I think that I am holyier(sp?) than all because of the things that I have said, but fact remains that in 12 years of deer hunting(gun and bow), I haven't lost a deer. If I don't get a broadside shot, I don't shoot. I've had to let a lot of deer go, but if that's what it takes...that's what it takes.