What a delemma
Been gone for a bit but had a bad situation Saturday, First I shoot the double lung shot most of the time which causes the shot to be a bit high on the kill area. Saturday dawn on a crop damage permit I had a propped up broadside at 70 yards open field shot doe standing still, it doesn’t get much better. I fired and the deer dropped in its tracks so I figured I hit high and had that devastating shoulder shot. There were some death thrones going on so I looked away and waited 15 minuets out of respect. When I looked again the deer had come towards me and off to the right towards the wooded area pushing along on its left side with it’s hind legs, the front legs seemed unusable. What a crappy predicament!! She was 40 or so yards and pushing away and to my right. I scoped up for a shot but with the poor angle and movement I held off that few seconds it took for the deer to push into the thick brush of the woods. Made the decision to wait a half hour figuring she would lie down and expire, I didn’t want to push her in the condition she was in and cause any more distress. When my 2 buddies and I a half hour later went to where she went into the woods there was a few scuff marks and then nothing, no blood no scuffmarks other than the few at the immediate entrance to the woods. We looked for signs for hours and did not find any. From this location, which is a valley funnel I figured she would head down hill and not try the steeper sides of the funnel. We tracked for miles without any signs. The next day I tried again crisscrossing a hundred acres or so and never found a sign. Any thoughts?