I feel the same way sometimes. I actually have a spot in the woods where I can guarantee a deer sighting. I usually try to get to that spot everytime I hunt to try and protect the deer from any other hunters. about 95% of the time I let them just walk by without ever even touching my rifle or bow.Good example this year... I meet up with someone I was hunting with about 11am to see what the plan would be in the afternoon... While we were talking in the woods, a pair of doe had run straight for us behind some bushes.. My friend handed me his rifle and said "go ahead, you saw them first.. you shoot one"... I have not shot a doe in about 5 years so I took the rifle and put the cross hairs about 2" above her back @50 yards and let it rip into the tree. They both ran off and I had a feeling of sucess. I have also have the tendency of letting small bucks let walk also.. Iused towonder why I even bother to wake up at 5am to freeze my butt off just to let every deer walk by. I now realize that it is not about the actual kill but just enjoying the experience of being in the woods to see the animals. Don't get me wrong,, If I see a nice buck come out, he will be comming home with me.. I consider myself a coyote hunter and ifa large buck walks by than it's just a bonus.

B.C. at least your honest about it ... I have shot a couple that is I had it to do over again I would have passed them up .. I have 6 different familys that I try to provide some deer meat to but I still feel bad sometimes about shooting a doe or knot head by mistake.

dd

If it bothers you that much then maybe you could take up ballet ...

Seriously , it does seem to be getting to you , so maybe what you need is a new challenge . The plains indians had a practice called "counting coup" where a brave would actually try to touch his opponent with his hand or a special short coup stick before killing him , the modern equivalent of that for a hunter would be to sneak up to a deer and touch it or take and extremely close picture . Put on some ASAT , hone your stalking skills , and give it a whirl . I saw a guy on tv once who does this with turkeys , he calls the gobbler within range of his hiding place and then jumps up and grabs it . I don't reccomend doing this with a rutting buck though ...

And thats whyI quit feeding deer in my yard. Hated to do it but its not how mother nature inteded it to be.

your fine, i love to just watch deer or any animal for that matter and thats during hunting season. i would be a little causious about getting so close to the deer. i would just get worried that after a while the fawn or doe may become to comfortable around humans and it could cost them there life down the road so to say. great picture though. you should take some shots and see if you could sell'em to mags like Ranger Rick or something. or you could do what i'm doing this year and declare yourself a deer protector and go hunt yotes

I would say that you're fine. I actually harvested an 8 point this year and when I got up to him, he still hadn't quite expired. He gave me this really strange look. I kept trying to get a quick shot to finish him off and he kept spinning on the ground when I had my gun raised. It took me a little while, but I got over it. I thanked God afterwards, said a little prayer of thanks to God and to the buck himself. I definitely would shoot them with a camera until you're ready to shoot them with a gun again. Good lukc to you and keep us posted.

I think you are fine. My suggestion....take a camera and a rifle. Hunt just as hard as you ever have. Take lots of pictures and if a sure enough buck walks out and you feel the desire to shoot him then do it. If you don't feel like shooting him then grap the camera and get some good pics. Alot of the really good outdoor photographers got to be that way because they still wanted to hunt but they no longer wanted to kill anything.

-john

Thanks guys for all the posts.I really didn't expect many to understand my situation. But, you guys suprised me. I guess that is why we are called sportsmen. It is good to hear that most of us feel some remorse when we take a deer's life.

Maybe the camera idea would work for a little while until the kid's deer meat runs out. I've even thought of a paintball gun, but who would believe that I got that big 12 point everyone was after. Maybe just hunting trophy bucks would work. I watched a big 10 point at the feeder last year and he sure was a bully. He would run off the does and button bucks and eat all the corn himself. I don't like bullies. Thanks again! I appreciate the comments.

When somebody gets him and he has a bright red stain on his vitals region, I think they will know it was you. That gives me an idea for bow seasonI'm gonna shoot all the little bucks with a painball gun, HEHEHE!