[bucktrack]

I consider myself to be an ethical and enthusiastic hunter. I like to hunt hard, bag my animals fair and square or not at all, and not to take foolish chances when shooting.

Almost exactly 48 hours ago I was still-hunting across a clear-cut and jumped a mature buck, almost certainly the huge 12-pointer I had been looking for. He immediately disappeared but I sprinted about 20 yards and saw him crashing through the brush about 125 yards away, broadside. I instinctively swung on him and shot two shots. As soon as he had disappeared I had a bad feeling. There was no snow and those were very risky shots to take.

I had fixed in my mind where I'd last seen him, and found what I was fairly sure was the path he had taken. I walked out several possible trails and did a few sweeps to look for blood with no results. Then I found a large splash of blood. Rain was predicted for that morning, so I didn't dare wait. I took up the trail. It was easy to follow, with plenty of blood right on the trail. After about 150 yards I found a bed. The location of the blood in the bed seemed to indicate I had hit him forward, and low. I found one more smear of blood low on an aspen, and after a long search, that was it.

I drove to a couple of other deer camps, including one that had game camera photos of what was likely this monster buck, and we talked it over. Two guys sat in likely places and I zig-zagged through the aspens and swamps trying to drive him out. No luck. We tried doing sweeps on-line with no results. Finally we tried to make our best guess as to where he would have run. He'd been trying to stay on good trails. I found one more smear of blood maybe 18" high on an aspen another 150 yards along, and that was it. We couldn't see any other tracks or blood. And this was way back in huge country. The day was over and I thanked the other two hunters and they headed out. I walked out the trail to a big grass swamp, did a sweep and finally felt defeated. That area is wolf country, and they'd have him soon.

Of course, the big mistake I had made was shooting at all at that distance at a running buck, especially on snow-less ground. Back in "the day" in that area, the way most people, including my family, hunted deer was to still-hunt, and that often included running shots at deer. Well we have pretty much stopped doing that; the odds of wounding and losing a deer are too high. I reverted to those old bad habits under pressure with little time to think. It was my last day of hunting and here was the buck I was looking for in our old "jump-shooting" country. I made a bad choice, no excuse, and after a guy pulls the trigger there's no taking it back.

As hunters, we understand more than most that death is part of life. But clean kills are important and avoiding unnecessary suffering is really important to me. Plus that trophy is lost to another hunter or to my future self. In this case nobody wins, except for the wolves.

So just a reminder: when in doubt, don't shoot. Running shots at unwounded big game are rarely justified.

Good hunting to all.