I'm sure that you are all very good hunters, with very good ethics, but there is a problem with this type of post, at least in this location. There is no real useful information here. And before you reply, hear me out. If this were a conversation between known friends, it wouldn't be so dynamic, but... I'm sure that all of your stories are credible, but we are on the internet, and talking about hunting. A subject that many different people, with many different personality types are passionate about. They are either passionate about doing it, or stopping it.

I know a few hunters in my town, who can't hunt. In fact, if they had to in order to survive, they would no longer be with us. But these guys always have a good story. It is either about "super buck" who does some pretty crazy and creative stuff to get away, and no other hunter would have been successful either, thus being the reason they haven't gotten a good buck, because all the ones they see are this amazing. Or, they were able to get off a shot, but something didn't work out. Oh yeah, I remember, it is "the void". And they all love to talk about it. It is also my opinion that the people that I’m referring to, haven’t been able to even take a shot, they just need a good story as to why they don’t have this monster that they’re telling you about. “The void” is a great way to accomplish this.

SB,
This is in no way directed at you. Even though, we have disagreed in the past, I know you are a good and ethical hunter. We just seem to have a disagreement about firearms and different ways to hunt. That's all, and here is where I'm going with this - since you don't know these people (on the internet), and there is a possibility that some are just like the guys in my town that I described, and even if they’re not, they weren't there to see the shot, and no matter what they say... there will always be some doubt in your mind. Therefore, this post didn't accomplish anything, except! Providing statistics on at least one hunter to the anti's. They now know how long you've hunted, how many deer you've killed, and that you've now shot one and not retrieved it. And I'm not suggesting that you did anything wrong, its just that posting it here, didn't help you in anyway. You still aren’t sure about the future of the deer or “the void”.
Want to know about a void - next deer you shoot, take your time and dismantle it. Cut its ribs off before you gut it if you like. Look at "the void" and decide if it is possible for yourself. Have an arrow with you and hold it while you inspect all the different angles. I've done this, and it is my opinion that it does not exist, at least not if the direction of the arrow were in a downward angle, hit below the spin, and correct windage (not too far left or right) for the lungs.

VA5326,
How can you not count the number of deer that you've seen this happen to? What do you do for a living? Are you a guide for new hunters? Not that it has to happen to a new hunter, but to have so many. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but I've been hunting for a long time and have never seen it happen. But there are a lot of things I haven't seen. I just can't imagine how you could witness something so many times that I've never seen, and hope that I don't. I've only lost one deer in my life. And the reason that I lost it is because of a dispute between leased hunting land and private land. The hunt club guys were mad that they couldn't hunt our land, but we did provide written permission to track, but no firearms, was the only stipulation while tracking. They were caught hunting, and told to leave. They then tried to fool me into thinking that the written permission that I wrote meant that they could "hunt". I then educated them in a nice way, explained what it meant and asked them to leave. But when my deer went on their land, "Nope, sorry, if it were there we would have found it".

In industry there is a shared view of safety and accidents. It is, for an accident to take place, one of two things exists. They are - an unsafe act, or an unsafe condition. I like to think of wounded deer the same way. If a deer is shot and not retrieved there is a reason, and I don't think it is the mystical "void", magic, snake oil, health tonic or so on. The hunter either took a bad shot, one that he either was not skilled enough to take, or weren't ready to take at the moment for whatever reason, or there was an unforeseen, like an unnoticed limb in the way. Either way, it is the responsibility of the hunter to make certain that the shot is in fact a good one, right? I mean that is a pretty good way to describe or define ethics I would think. But accidents happen, I know that, and I will share this with you - I shot at a deer and missed with my bow this year. I hit a very small limb, and was very surprised at how much deflection there was. I'm just lucky I didn't hit it, but it was my fault that I did miss, it was my fault that I took an irresponsible shot, and I learned a lot from it.

WindWalker7,
If the lungssimply hung down during an exhale and created some empty cavity, and raised up into this empty void during inhale, why would the chest rise and fall? What would fill the void duringthe exhale when the lungs were collapsed?Something has to fill it, it isn't justempty space. Even if it were air, but where would the air in this cavity go when the deer inhaled and filled its lungs,taking up the previousempty space? I guess the only logical answer would be that it would have to leave the body, or exhale, but wait, the deer was inhaling, or was it exhaling?Maybe they have a blow hole like a dolphin, but it isn’t connected to lungs, just the void. No filter, just air and particulate, pollen, dirt, dust or whatever else, entering and exiting the void, so that the lungs have a cavity for them to work in. No, there is no void, just like you don’t have a void in yourchest, you have a diaphragmand so do the deer. Exhale, lungs empty, chest gets smaller. Inhale,lungs fill, chest gets bigger.
The fact is, the deer more often than not, go off and die when the shot for whatever reason doesn’t have enough terminal energy. I agree that there can be little or no blood on the ground, but that is what happens.
Of course some survive, but then again, some people do to when they’re shot. And a few live the rest of their lives with bullets in them, but no "void".
My post is not meant to be confrontational, I'm just trying to look out for our best interest.
Respectfully,
KP