RE: Recovery, What To Do After the Shot.
One other item I'll add to this is when you lose blood and are doing a search, know your terrain. think about where the deer would most likely head for cover or water, etc.
On my buck last year, the thing I failed to mention above as that instead of approaching the spot I had last seen my buck from the direction he traveled, I circle completely around. Not 60 yds from there is a well traveled road. On the other side is a house and a swamp. I don't have permission to get into that property (nor do I think I could, even for a wounded animal.) So my Dad approached from the road and I stood watching where I had last seen him from my stand. This served 2 purposes.
1. It allowed us to see if there was any blood out to the road as he first took a slow walk along the edge
2. If the deer had not expired, it allowed us to push it back into an area that we had access to and were familiar with and hopefully I'd be able to see him and mark the next location.
Once I saw my Dad I slowly approached and followed the trail until I was in the spot I had visually marked as the last place to see him. As I was scanning the ground I found the leaves turned up and that's when I saw him.