I made a rookie mistake today while deer hunting. I don't consider myself a rookie since I have put 14 deer on the ground in the last seven seasons with 14 shots. And I have watched hundreds of deer while deer hunting.
I first spotted him on the wrong side of the fence. He looked like an eight pointer. In a few minutes he jumped to my side. It was a 200 yard shot (I have the range marked at every 50 yards with markers on the fence posts). He was partially obscured by brush but the vital area was exposed. It was a do able shot. I have a solid rest in my shooting house and have a Nikon Buckmasters 3-9x40 on my '06. I decided to wait for a better shot. Wrong decision! He faded into the brush and I never saw him again.
Moral of this story? If you get a do able shot on a nice buck, you better take it. The big bucks don't get that way by giving hunters easy shots.
I'm only a year from the half century mark, and not that I am close to being Danial Boone, but I have had been hunting since I was old enough to keep up with pop as he made his way into the woods, and I shot my first deer at 6. I can't even remember how many deer I have put in the freezer over the years. I do however very well remember the one I thought to myself, bang, I got you, and I win, see you next year, and walked away from.
That said, I know MANY folks who have hunted a LONG time that I still feel are "rookies". What you have posted here, is a clear sign that your knowledge, and patients have taken over, and you are maturing as a complete hunter. There is nothing in the world that makes me more sick to my stomach, than when I make a shot I know in the back of my head is questionable, and the deer disappears from view. I have found 99% of them, but those I didn't left a VERY lasting impression on me. Like you said they don't get big giving away easy shots, but they also don't get bigger being put on the ground just because you can either.
My grandson(11) and I sat in 26 - 32 degree weather weekend before last. He didn't say a word about his shivering or anything. Where we were hunting on a 10 acre plot, 35yds would probably be the longest shot we could get even if we tried. We saw nothing but two squirrels from 6:00 until 8:45 when a nice 8 point appeared only 25yds from us. He had a hole to shoot through, but the deer was facing right at us, and I told him to wait. As it turned out the deer made his way along a clear cut we have along the fence, then went behind some brush, and turned away from us and headed up the hill to bed down. He mentioned something similar, "I should have shot him through that hole when I had the chance".
I explained that this is hunting and not shooting. Worst case we got to see up close and personal a VERY nice buck, and he didn't have a clue we were even in the same universe, and we had a chance at getting him later on, or possibly next year if he makes it through the season, and he would be even better.
Best case, we didn't shoot, possibly hit a limb, or gut shoot him and he high tailed it out of there and over the fence. He understood that, having had to track one he shot previously and we ended up loosing on a MUCH bigger piece of property.
So I congratulate you on your decision. Nothing wrong at all with it, and nothing "rookie" about it either.