RE: Hit deer, knocked deer down, deer leaves
That's hard. I had that happen on 2001 while I was holding a muzzleloader. The one I shot was a nice8 point though. [:@] I wasn't aiming anywhere near the spine. I had a powder problem (Clean Shot now American Pioneer). I hit him, he went down and started crawling toward the treeline. When he got to the treeline he got up and walked off. I got reloaded just after he got into the trees. I looked for 4 hours tracking him drop by drop until thetrail dried up.