Thanks guys, this deer had a slug hole through the backstraps, high hit, I could tell he had a wound so I dumped him.Although he was getting along just fine walking through the woods, morally I felt I had to shoot him.I had set my sights on a 3 1/2 yr old, but this was a nice 2 1/2 yr old anyhow, still got late season for a brute.Twenty minutes after I shot an old friend came along tracking the deer in the snow, he was glad someonehad knocked the buck down. I told him no less than a dozen times that he was more than welcome to have the deer since hemight of at some point caught up to the deer in the snow, but he was insistent that I keep the deer. I did what I felt was theright thing to do, first, shoot the deer, and second, offer it to the first guy that had a hit on it.I told him "I never would have seen the deer if you hadn't hit it", and he said "I never would have seen it again if you hadn'tshot it". We both laughed and agreed we needed to get together again and catch up after years of absence.