I shot a small buck last night. I hit him high and I think it must have hit his spine because his back legs wern't working very well and he flopped around and kinda had to drag himself off. I got about 8 inces of penatration because thats where he broke my arrow off.
Well went back this morning and followed the blood it would dribble along and everywhere he stopped there would be apuddle about 6-9 inches aroundand after about 70-80 yards it stopped. The area I was hunting is surounded by a large bottom so i figured that if he got to that bottom he certainly wouldnt try to climb the other side of it. So I walked the bottom all the way around and worked my way back to my stand. I covered ever square yard of that area and about 5 acres of ajoining cutover. No Deer.

I know this happens to every bowhunter at some point but this is the first deer that I have hit and not recovered, and it hurts. Not so much the fact that i didn't get my deer but the fact that i know that he was hurt bad really gets to me. After the shot he stayed within my view for about 3 mins. and that deer flopping around and dragging himself along was not a pretty sight, and it really got to me.

There was no excuse for a bad shot, he was 20 yards dead broadside.I keep replaying the shot over and over in my head trying to figure out what I did wrong.This hurts...