Thread: Spooked Deer

Is it worth following/chasing a deer once you've spooked it?

Had one in my sights today but no clean shot, wind must have swirled a bit cos it got a whiff of me (20-30m away) and bolted before presenting a shot. Waited a minute in case it calmed down and stopped but heard it crashing off, followed its tracks a long way down the hill but never caught up and eventually lost the tracks. Tracks were mostly easy to find but hard(/impossible) to follow quietly as it went through a bunch of scrub and fern stuff down a fairly steep hill.

Bit of an amateur at this, was it worth me following or should I have just let it go and looked for another?