More to the story:
Shot this buck yesturday just before sun down. Shot twice, definitely hit onceand we think twice. We thought he fell within 40 yards of the second shot. Went to look for him before it got dark. Hindsight we should have waited. He wasnt in the field but had a great blood trail comming out both sides, but not far apart (maybe 5-6 inches). Makes me think I may have hit him low in the chest. He went 200 yards and laid down twice and it looks like he fell over once. (wasnt really a bed but he definitely hit the ground) He then traveled 200 yards still with good blood and bedded twice more.Each time he got up there was less and less blood in the bed. He kept going and had to jump a small creek. Bleed a lot after that and then it got thin again. Headed up a steep hill and the blood really startedgoing. Almost spraying out of him. We found another bedand backed out to get more lights and give him more time. At this point we had gone probably a mile and hes bedded 4-5 times and fell atleast once. This has been roughly 3 hours since I shot him. We went and got lights and dinner and came back an hour later. We picked up the trail and there was less blood when he got up out of the bed. We could pretty easily track him in the 1-2" of snow. I think the snow may make it look like more blood then it really is. We tracked him another 100 yards from the bed that we left him in and he bedded again long enough to melt the snow. He got up leavinga little blood in the snow. Now as hes walking there is a speck here and a speck there until he stopped before his next bed. When he was standing there, the blood wasnt bad like it was dripping out. He got out of that bed and went another 200 yards and bedded again. Then there was 3 beds within 60 yards. But again very little blood in the bed. The blood in the bed is all at the front end of his body. Again this buck is huge. Probably 200lbs dressed. Does that make then tougher? IDK. We stopped tracking last night after 6 hours of tracking and him not bleeding after the last string of beds.Personally I have never scene a deer bleed this much without dieing. He bedded probably 10 times and fell down twice. In hindsight we should have waited a couple hours before searching but the sign and his reaction at the shot was that of a quick kill. I am torn between knowing this buck is dead or alive. So much sign tells me he should be dead but he was still walking at the time we left. Also the total trail that we followed was well over 2 miles.