Let 'em run and pay the trophy fee

I learned the hard way, taking bad advice. I will shoot until the animal is dead, regardless.

When an animal "pole axes" to ground at the shot I am always very leery.

Those are the one that tend to get up and take off after a few minutes leaving no blood trail. Also known as a high spine or horn shot.

If you are too worried about damaging a trophy to shoot again on a running animal you shouldn't be hunting.

A taxidermist can fix a horn. He can't track your marginally hit critter for you though.

If he's up hit him again. PERIOD!

If he's down reload (that should be an automatic reflex) and watch him for a minute.

There is absolutely no question as to keep shooting if the animal is not down. Taxidermists are capable of amazing feats, and not all bullets go where we think thay have been assigned. It is only a man's ego which prevents him from doing the correct ethical thing at times. Don't be counted in that number.

Most Americans are caught up in the one shot one kill thing. I believe it is a culturally learned trait. The poster stated he didnt know how meat came into this but psychologically it definitely does. Most of us started out as meat hunters at an early age and were taught to not waste meat or ammo. That is fine when hunting whitetails or small game but the equation changes somewhat when you progress to Africa. The game is larger, tougher, and has adrenal glands several times the size of what we are used to. It is hard to unlearn old habits, so we look to see the results instead of continuing to fire. Then of course there is also just the matter of ego getting in the way as well. Absolutely the worst reason in my view. As everyone has pretty much agreed keep shooting until you are 100% sure.