Ok, here goes. This morning at about 7:30, I took a shot at a very big 10 pointer. He was standing broadside at 30 yards when I released and watched the arrow hit right on the money. He ran about 30 yards, then stopped. I watched him for the next half hour just pace back and forth and lay down a few times. He finally got up, and walked out of sight. I sat in the treestand for about 2 hours, got down and snuck out of the area and went to my truck to put my treestand in. I ate, and waited till about 12:30 or so to take up the trail. When I got back to where I shot him, I found my arrow fully covered in a light, pinkish blood. I figured lung shot. I went in the direction he headed and picked up decent blood. Then, where he layed down a couple times, there was a lot of blood. I picked up blood on the other side and followed it very slowly being quiet and looking ahead. Soon, the blood trail faded to just a drop here and there and then nothing at all. I started making circles from there getting bigger and bigger when I run across a little blood again. I followed drops till I realized I was headed into a deep hollow where a stream ran. I thought, bingo, he headed for water. I got to the stream and began the search up and down it. I must have looked for him for a good 3-5 miles. Nothing.


I dont understand what went wrong. The shot looked great. How can a deer get away like this? Do you think by chance I could have hit the "No mans land" between the vitals? I hope this deer survives, I'm heartbroken right now over this. He would have been my best buck to date with a bow. He looked like a 140-150 class animal.

I'm going to go back up tomorrow morning again and look.

What do you guys think??