If I could see the guy who gut shot it I'd let him do the dirty work. If not I'd put it down(legal here). That's a hell uv way for an animal to go.

A slob on our farm did the same thing this past season. Gut shot a nice buck.What a mess! A gut trail all thru woods. It ran to adjacent farm and BOOOM. Same slob(I know it was him) shot at running deer(Doe) with smoke pole! Thought he didn't hit it. Two days later It walked thru woods with upper jaw shot up and tounge hanging out,gasping for air. Geeez - I did not want that deer but I put it down and gave it to another hunter on farm.

What about this one;
I had 2 bucks walk 10-15 yrds from my stand this Jan. I had already shot 1 buck in Nov and was confined to 15" or better buck. 1st buck(4pnt) was on 3 legs. L/F leg was stuck/locked under body!! He needed to be culled for obvious reasons. I couldn't take him legaly - I let it walk. What do you do in that case. Ck it in and you get a nice citation from the man! BTW the 2nd buck was 8pnt but not 15" - let him walk.