So, what does this mean? If you would have had more time to decide how big it was, you would have let it walk? The size of your kill decides if you have regrets or remorse? I understand that you want to manage the herd but remorse and regrets are big words. Every deer and every elk, that I have ever killed, I wish they would have been bigger. I wish that every fish that I have ever caught, would have been bigger. I wish that every girl that I have ever woke up with, would have been better looking. ( except my wife) Wishing is one thing, regrets and remorse are another. I wish I could shoot monster bucks and elk, all the time but I can't. I'm just happy that my hunt was successful and I get to eat some deer or elk steaks!!

That's correct if I would have had a little more time to measure it up I would have let it live. But as usual they were very tasty so I was not too disappointed.

So you wished it would have been bigger but happy, you had a deer to eat? That's how I feel.

The very first deer I killed was a pretty big horned and huge bodied 8 pt. I experienced both a tremendous high on killing such a great buck for my first and at the same time experienced a weird feeling of regret knowing that the buck would never be out there again on a clear cold night feeding in a meadow under a bright full moon in a snowy meadow.

Never had any regrets. My rule of thumb for deer is: "if it has spots it trots, but all brown is going down!" I've taken does as small as 60 pounds and never felt bad about it.

No regret for the animal's I take ever. That's what I'm doing there. A deer is no different to me than a bream, catfish or bass. They're all food. It's just a bigger, different version of food. My job is to harvest the deer in as quick and painless way as possible.
Never let the kid in you, fill that deer brain with emotion and complex thought. Stay focused. On your way home, one will most likely use that complex thought to jump into your radiator.

Now I have regret for animals that I know someone injured and didn't track because they were just plain lazy. Those deer that I have seen with heads removed, and the carcass dropped on the side of the road. Those that are killed, and processed, then the meat just ruins in the freezer until its thrown out. That's just a shame.