Planter you have proven yourself to be totally ethical with your actions after your shot. You did not give up easily and tried your best to find the animal (many hours searching). It is very unfortunat but these things will happen once in a while, but us as hunters have to try our best to recover the animal the best that we can (which you did). Yes the deer will suffer some, but nearly as bad if it was a wolf that had almost captured it, and it got away. The trouble is that there could have been a small twig (that you could not even see) that deflected your arrow, the deer could have moved, or your aim could have been slightly off. Hold your head high, you have proven yourself ethical and did a more then admirable job in trying to recover the buck

Tom