should've shot?

[kt]

hey guys tell me what you think. monday night found me up a tree about 15 yds from where i should have been. eventually i lucked out and had a deer come out where i needed her to (its a doe only season) so either way she walks she is gonna get some. well i draw back and at about ten yds she needs to take one more step. instead she turns head on and starts walking right at me still about 10 yds. she looks around and at full draw my shot would have been straight down right under the white throat spot and hopefully into the vitals. the spot i was in is thick stuff i was afraid of a limited blood trail so i let her get away. should i sent her a muzzy?
kt

[toxic111]

A frontal shot with a bow?? not good, you made a good call, there will be other chances.

[Steverino]

There will be other chances and the season is early yet. It is a very hard decision to draw-down on an animal that you would like to take but you definately made the right call if the shot placement was not there.

Last year I was at full-draw on a solid 180 class buck at a watering hole as it stared directly at me through a ground blind at twenty yards. It never did turn enough to even offer me a quartering to shot (also a difficult shot IMHO) After about 20 seconds (seemed like an eternity-I was shaking like a leaf! ) in one swift movement, it bolted straight up in the air, rotated 180 degrees, and bounded off- leaving a few, light blades of dry switchgrass to flutter back to the Earth. The move looked like something straight out of a classic Tom & Jerry cartoon. At the time though, I did not feel at all like laughing. I was tormented over those critical seconds as to whether I should have tried taking the shot, etc, etc, etc. After a few days of second guessing my decision, I was pleased with myself that in the heat of battle, I relented my own selfish desires and reverted to being a sportsman with solid hunting ethics.

I believe it truly comes down to really knowing your own limitations KT. I knew that I could not successfully make that shot-perhaps others could have. This is why it is absolutely critical to practice like crazy from whatever elevated shot angles, ground rises that you may encounter-so when the moment of truth arrives, you do not even think about it- somehow the pin got placed behind the shoulder and you cannot quite recall ever touch off the trigger that released a well placed arrow to your quarry.

Practice that close shot for next time. If you can hit that shot 9 out of 10 times from an elevated stand into a target repeatedly, you'll most likely place yourself in a position for success later should this same shot opportunity present itself. Good luck!

[petey]

Very limited blood trail on such a shoot, so you probably made a good call. I shot one once on a very hard quarting to me angle. Arrow actually clipped the ear and went through the top of the shoulder right down into the vital...Just where I wanted it to go.

Deer ran 50 yards and piled, but I never found a drop of blood since there was no exit wound. I knew I could make the shot and I knew it would be lethal and it was open enough that I knew I could watch her fall in the area I was hunting.

Good call in your situation.