At first, reading this, I thought: "He's punking us",(ie,joking) because I was thinking that's too many incidents like that in a short period of time. I realize though that poop happens and you're just getting your unfair share unloaded all on you at once.

I won't say the number because it's almost unbelievable and I wouldn't feel right saying anyway, but I have a friend that wounded a LOT of deer within one year. I was there for most of those tracking jobs where the deer was never found. He was using a compound bow with the new expandable broadheads... the Wasp Jackhammers.

It took me years later to figure what happened and why this was happening. I learned by getting and seeing feedback from other bowhunters. The problem was that many of his shots were quartering and expandables do not do well with quartering shots because one side of the broadhead could open up first and allowing it to flip or lose penetration. So, I bring this up to tell you bad things happens to good hunters. I don't mean to sound cliché, as it does happen to others in the field and they get over it.

As for the gut pile, I don't think it's the same deer. Around these parts a gut pile NEVER lasts 2 days. Birds of prey and ravens have too good of eye-sight to let them be around that long and if the winged critters don't get them, the coon, skunk, bobcat, fisher, fox, coyote or timberwolves will.

You're just have a run of unfortunate circumstance. Let it go and like I said previous, don't let it shake your confidence; just keep on hunting and eventually your luck will change!

iSnipe