basserman, Believe me, I was astonished as well. I shot the deer in the evening and spent a few hours tracking it in the dark before losing the blood trail (which started off great but dwindled after 250 yds). I remember the next day very clearly...11:00 am to be specific, sitting on a log with my head between my knees on the verge of giving up with temps in the low 70's. My wife commented that she smelled "deer", then followed her nose and found it laying in a thick patch of scrub brush two minutes later. The butcher commented that if I had gotten the deer to him an hour later, he probably wouldn't have been able to salvage the meat that he did.

Animals are resilient creatures. With adrenaline (and perhaps a slightly delayed lung collapse), they can apparently travel a fair distance after being hit. Thinking about it though, a deer may be able to cover that amount of ground through dense woods in under 2 or 3 minutes time perhaps. Viewed in that perspective, mabey it shouldn't be so surprising. (?)