Oct. 8th, 2005: I was hunting out a a stand in some tall pines when I decided to remove my left hand from the grip of my bow. After I did this, a hear a deer coming down a mowed path on my left side. I have to wait until he passes me at 7 yds before I can move to get my hand back in and draw my bow. Before he steps between the next two pines where he will give me a shot, he turns left, away from me and steps into the brush 10 yds away. He then ambles back to the first gap, just inside the brush. I think I can see enough of him to make a shot. There were a couple of small twigs, but I figured "Hey it's only 10 yds, I can punch through that." I shoot, he runs, I have no idea where I hit. Wait 30 minutes, get down, no arrow, no blood. I call my Dad and he comes down. We follow a faint trail about 1/2 mile into a goldenrod field. Call it for the night and come back in the morning. Follow the trail another 1/4 mile to a fresh bed. No blood out the back side. We figured I hit above the spine, and it wasn't lethal. We did find the front half of my arrow covered in fat. The blood was deep red like muscle blood.

That was the first deer I ever caused harm to and never found. Hopefully I will never have to go through that again.