Trails

Today was the first day of the MN gun deer hunt. My face is on fire, both because it is horribly sensitive, and because it was a very windy day on the bluffs. It was sunny. There were deer.
Southeast Minnesota has a four-point restriction regulation. One antler must have four points. I am really bad at seeing this and counting in my adrenaline-pumping state. A buck came, the first I've actually seen ever the woods as I've only been deer hunting for three years now. Anyways, it came and my eyes were too watery and blurred from sleepiness and constant wind. I couldn't tell, so I didn't even raise my gun (regret). My dad, sitting in the tree stand above me (two stands in one tree), took the shot. Then we watched it lope away.
We looked for blood and finally we found some...until we trailed the crimson red splotches to a dead end and a chunk of deer coarse white fur. We decided to let it bed and come back later. Unfortunately, when we met up with my sister at her separate stand down the hill, she informed us that she saw a buck run through (a nice buck). And we saw the trail continue...and continue...onto someone elses land. A dying deer wouldn't run that far.
My dad doesn't think it was a kill wound. We just hope that another hunter gets the buck and stops its suffering. I just wish I wasn't a dope sitting numbly in a tree stand, watching a wounded deer run away when I could have shot it (my dad has a muzzle-loader, so it takes civil war finesse and time to reload). May tomorrow bring faster reflexes, better eye-sight, less wind, and early morning vigor-perhaps also a fancier blog post!