Thanks all. I didn't gut him in the woods because I can have it in a heated shed within 25 minutes from when I shot it. I hang it and gut it in there where it's warm and dry. All the 'stuff' :blink: falls into a big washtub.
Neighbor traveled 600 miles to a special spot just to hunt deer, and came back a week later with nothing. I told him I scared three deer out of the front yard just that morning! He gave me a look and said "oh, shut up". Then he said, "I swear if I'd seen those deer on my way in, I might have shot one no matter what the neighbors say!"
One of the guys at work was recounting his only deer hunting trip to which he was supposed to meet his uncle who never showed at the stand. Thats because his uncle stepped outside to figure how he was going to dress for the hunt and saw a 12point buck in his driveway, he leaned inside the door for the gun and dropped the deer and had it in the shed before his morning cup of coffee.
My dad's boss found a small 4 or 6 pt buck w/ its rack stuck in a fence, he didn't want to waste his buck tag on a little one so he walked over it to see if it was still alive, he touched it on the back, it reared up and snapped his neck. He called the sheriff and the sheriff gave him a road kill tag since obviously he hadn't shot it at all.
I got an average eight point in PA the last Wednesday of archery season. I started archery hunting several years ago because of all the A holes who only go hunting on the first day of gun season. It got to the point where it was more important to outsmart the other hunters than the deer. Besides, the deer act more naturally during archery season since all the human scent and orange coats are not in the woods.