sorry about your luck. I've got a similar story. It happened about 4 or 5 years ago. I took a shot at a nice looking buck and hit him. Well i figured it was atleast a lung shot so i got excited and went looking for him (didn't wait hardly anytime). That was my biggest mistake. Well I saw him about 150 yards away from me laying on the ground so I figured he was dead. I started to walk up to him he heard me coming and took off like a jet plane. I found some blood and tracked for about 4 to 5 miles. I shot the deer at 0700 and tracked until 1200. Then i went back to my house and got my wife to see if she would help. We got back to were i seen the last blood sign around 1330. We searched until night. Even met a couple of other hunters and asked if they had seen anything (They didn't). We never did find that deer. I couldn't sleep for a week. It made me sick to my stomach if I even thought about it. Some things in life we can not control. We are only human and we do make mistakes no one is perfect. I did learn from that shot that i need to give the deer atleast 1/2 hour before I start to track him/her. It sounds to me like your a good hunter that cares about the sport and the animals. Just learn by this experience and try to correct what you did the next time. Take tazmans advice it sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Good luck on your next deer.