I was 20 feet upand thedoe was 10yds out and quartered away at about a 30 degree angle. By this I mean... imagine the deer being perfectly broadside then rotate it quartering away for 30 degrees. What happened wasthe arrowhit it 1/3 the way down from the top of its back right directlyin the creasebehind the shoulder blade. And by this crease I mean... imagine a straight line from top to bottom of the deer right where the back of the front legs join the body. -that is what I refer to as the "crease".

Anyway to reiterate, I hit this crease about 1/3 the way down from the top of its back with it quartering away at 30 degrees. I saw the arrow sticking out ofthe deer right in that very spot but did not pass through. It appeared to have only penetrated about 10 inches and the deer fell over on its right side then quickly got up and darted away in a straight linefor 60 yards. It stopped and looked at me for a few secondsthen with only a slight limp, slowly walked away and out of sight.

I waited3 hours before even getting down to investigate. When I did though, there was no arrow of course but also no blood!? I walked to the spot I memorized in my mind where it stood to look back at me from 60 yards and still no blood. It was a very bright day and I pretty clearly remembered the straight line that he initially took his 60 yard dash. I circled over and over for 10 yards either way of that straight line whereit madeits getaway just in case I remembered it wrong. No blood. I know these woods pretty well so atthe 4hr mark,I pressed forward with 2 other people helping me lookfor about 500yds passed the spot I sawit last which was 100yds from my tree. This means I searched a 300x600 grid. Hours and hours of searching turned up nothing.

What do you thinkhappened? In my limited, not so experiencedvision, the arrowshould've pierced to top middle of its left lung and hit the bottom front of its right lung. Before anyone goes nuts let me say this: I am here to learn from whatever mistake it is I made. I obviously don't know it so please teach me without too much of the ripping off of my head. However, if that's what I have to endure so I don't make this mistake again, I will. Furthermore, I take full ownership of the mistake you determine me to have made.

Thank you.