RE: I missed...or did I??
Anyway, whether the original poster has learned a lesson or not (and I'll bet he's learned a couple by now), his original point is a good one.
Last weekend, I shot a buck that sure *looked* like he'd been hit; my guide said the same thing (he even called out "Good hit!" when I fired); but we didn't find any blood where we thought the impact site was. A couple of dig-outs where he'd taken off running, but that didn't prove anything, especially since he started off in one direction and did a 180.
After looking around at the presumedimpact site, we followed to where we thought he'd run to, and sure enough, there he was, dead as a doornail, behind some brush maybe 75 yards up a game trail.We backtracked his bloodtrail, and it wasn't easy; he left only tiny drops of blood, and even those we lost after about 10 yards.
All's well that ends well; he's in my freezer right now. But he sure gave me a good scare--I thought I'd missed him, or my real nightmare, which was wounding him but not seriously enough to kill him quickly.
So, sometimes, you gotta look, then look some more, and then keeplooking. I had exactly this same thing happen to me on a pig hunt. Not a drop of blood anywhere around, but a dead pig 40 yards off.