In fact, here is what I sent:

Mr. Piper,

I read the article, "Never Give up" by Keith Bailey online at http://www.buckmasters.com/buckmaste...0123Never.html
and I was rather displeased with it.

It seems from the article that the hunter shot a nice deer, but did very little to recover the animal. In fact, the next morning he was back on stand. I believe an ethical hunter who believed he had shot a deer would have spent more time searching for the deer. In fact he claims he found the deer a mere 40 yards into the brush, I guess from where he shot it. I understand deer can be hard to find, but searching into the night and then going back on stand the next morning is not a standard that I feel Buckmasters should portray.

The honest and effective was to use this article is a case in point to discuss how to recover a deer before the meat spoils. It sounds like with a little effort the author could have recovered the deer and been back in the lodge by noon the next morning with a little effort. The author should not be proud of this hunt as the meat was spoiled thanks to his lack of effort. Perhaps if he had spent 3 days searching before he found it I would feel differently, but in my point of view his lack of effort in recovering the deer was poor judgement.

I enjoy the articles and the website but hope to see some better articles than this in the future (as I have in the past).

--Jim Lemanek
St. Louis, MO

I sent it to Ken Piper, [email protected], on-line editor. We will see if he responds.

--Jim