PSE, no matter what your father did, it appears to me that you have the ethics to become one standup hunter. Continue to hunt with your father and reiterate your thoughts, it could rub off on him. Also, in the excitement of the moment, he may have shot when if he'd thought about it for a moment, would have held off. Either way, keep hunting, keep learning, and stick to your ethics and some day when you take your own child hunting, he/she won't ever be in the same predicament you are in now. Good luck in the future.

YUP, stick it out on these things. For one thing, you'll learn a heck of a lotif you only ever recover one of them. I take such things as a personnal challange. I'll hunt for someone elses deer long after they give up. On two occasions I found a buck that others had given up on. BOTH people were genuinely grateful and appreciative. One I found within 200 yards and the other about 600 yards. The one I found after 600 yards had been shot by a dog hunter in Georgia with buckshot. Even the dogs couldn't find him. I was especially proud of that one. You should have seen the commotion when I ran the gang of dog hunters down and delivered the 6 point to the guy. It was a lot of luck...but you have to keep trying. I don't think that some people are necessarily better at finding a wounded deer but they're more persistant and patient. You got to slow down. When you see nothing.... don't move. Don't hurry when the trail is obvious. It's not going anywhere... take your time and learn.

Dave,
That's a great piece of advice for ANYbowhunter. Every blood trail has a story to tell, and if you read it along the way the animal at the end will help you put it all together. That's valuable experience that will help when things aren't as simple as point A and point B with a clear blood trail in between.
Well done.

A friend of mine called me Sunday evening about 7:30 to tell me he hit a doe and was tracking it (not sure why he called while tracking). Anyway, when I got in from hunting (about 8:30) I called his cell phone to see if the doe had been found but he didn't answer the phone. About 30 minutes later he calls me back on his way home saying that he couldn't find it. I asked him if he needed me to come and help him, he said "no, I gotta work tomorrow and IT WAS JUST A DOE". Now, I've only hunted with him a couple of times and never seen how he reacted when he killed/wounded something... but I was in shock. The result of this is that 1) I lost TONS of respect for him 2) I won't hunt with him again and 3) he just lost the chance at ever getting to hunt on my land.

Now, I know its your dad and you can't react the way I did, but he must know that the way he handled the situation is a slap in the face to EVERY hunter who does the "right" thing.

BTW, this is one reason I prefer morning hunts... much more daylight with which to track...