Its all about the shot placement. Hitting a deer in the ribs doesnt always mean that he is going to die on the spot. Sometimes you will blow up the heart and lungs, sometimes just the lungs which allows the deer to go a ways before croaking. And when you are 300 yards away it is pretty tuff to find the exact spot at which you hit the deer which makes for very hard tracking. I dont much like having to track a deer so therefore I am not a big fan of long distance shooting. So I keep my shots limited to 150 yards which makes it much easier for me to track my deer if I make a bad shot and gives me a much better chance to get off a second shot. I am not knocking all of those people out there who do take long range shots, by all means if the terrain permits and you have the skills then great, but some people dont have the skills and take the long pop shots anyways. At least you found the deer man. One thing I am curious about though, if you know you killed the deer but wherent able to harvest it, do you have to punch your tag anyways?