I got the following post off a forum that is frequented by "hunters" that live mostly in So. MD. This is one of the reasons I don't regularly visit those forums. It seems that every other thread is about unrecovered deer or decisions like the this guy made.
tonight was a confusing night. i sat most of the day in one stand and didn't see anything. i was just about to climb down when heard what sounded like a stampede. i believe it was a buck pushing two does. i couldn't see real well and eventually what i think was the buck came through my shooting lane with his nose to the ground and i released the arrow(yes i was bowhunting). it wheeled around and ran about twenty yards and stood there for a few minutes. i figured i missed and watched the deer walk up the hill next to me with its tail betweeen its legs. i went down to find the arrow and to my suprise it was coated in bright red blood. not a extrremely lot of it, but still coated in blood.
i couldn't find any blood and i did find one spot of clear/brown liquid that smeelled like deer. my plan is to head back in the morning and head up the trail i watched it walk on.
pretty bummed. i did the same thing last weekend and couldn't find a doe i shot.
i found it this morning floating in the middle of a pond. iill post pics later
btw ended up being a doe not a buck
He did not recover this deer because the water was deeper than he liked
Oh, and nobody in the thread thought shooting at something you could barely see was a bad idea 