As much as I'd like to think they could live through it, they can't. Once the integrity of the intestines is broken, bacteria quickly invades the body cavity and multiplies causing massive infection and eventual death. It's not a pretty sight. Sometime predators will capture these deer before they succomb hastening the inevitable, but finding them is difficult because they are able to evade us for quite a while and leave little to no blood trail.

Today's small bucks are tomorrow's trophies.