Oldsmellhound - I have never, with almost 40 bow kills to my credit, seen a lung shot (single or double)deer "walk off" into a thicket or whatever within 100 yards of the shot. Even the single lung shot deer I have taken have bolted, ran, trotted etc. for some distance if they didn't expire right away. A deer that walks just after being shot is either dead on it's feet and doesn't know what happened, or it's hit in another area, such as the liver/diaphragm. Liver shot deer act funny, they'll walk slowly, often right after being shot, and head for a place to lay down...if they make it there. They often don't follow a deer trail. If a wounded deer get's on a deer trail, you're in trouble ifyou don't find it within 100 yards or so. I cannot for the life of me figure out liver shot deer. I've killed 12-15 of them with solid liver shots; some went 50-75 yards and collapsed after a couple minutes, some have gone 200-300 yards and I jumped them out of a bed nearly 2 hours after the shot. Liver blood has a distinct/almostoffensiveodor to it on the arrow, it will be dark red, and "splat" when it hits the leaves. It sounds to me that this is what happened to you. You tagged the liver, maybe caught one lung, just by your description of what the deer did after the shot. A rule of thumb for me personally: if I SEE an animal fall, and it doesn't so much as flinch for at least 15 minutes, I'll climb down. If he runs out of site, I don't care whatthe helI hear the deer do, I wait 30 to 60 minutes, look for my arrow, figure what kind of blood is on it and the ground, then decide what to do: persue or wait.

Wis bow hunter - you don't lose deer to "perfectlygoodkilling shots" unless someone gets to him before you. It's that simple. I'll dispute this with any one on the planet.....if you put a so called "perfectly good killing shot" on the deer and don't find it, you either A) didn't try hard enough, B) can't track worth a dam, or C) didnt' put as good as a shot on the deer as you think. Please understand, I'm not attacking you personally with this comment, I'm just using your quote as an example to follow up on what I've read from loads of hunters on here and in local bow shops with the same stories. It just doesn't work that way. There are no doctors in the woods, deer aren't any tougher, and they simply cannot live with holes in their lungs, liver or heart, which to me are "perfectly good killiing shots". I'm sorry you and anyone on here has lost deer, and I'm glad you were successful this past week,but I just don't believe in some of the phrases I'm reading here.