Too bad, Just a couple of questions before story time (if in person...we could go on for hours....according to my wife anyway). What type of rig are you using (scope/gun cal.)? As to your brother and the buck getting up; I've have twice seen a buck go down (before the shot) and crawl his way to safety. Something when I saw it the first time just couldn't believe it. I was walking a trail beside a wheat field and a big buck stood up about 50 yards from me. Even though I carefully raised the gun, suddenly he he just dropped. I kept the gun to my shoulder, scoping the field waiting for him to pop back up. About 30 min. later he did stand up but at the far end of the field (a good 500 yards). That was one smart buck. He crawled to safety through the wheat and there was no way my ML could reach out and touch him at that distance. 2nd; I once had a broadside shot at about 75 yd. with my old side lock ML. Just as I was shooting his head was turning to scratch his back with his antlers. When he got hit he went straight down. He was a very heavy 4 pt (easy 4-5 inches around at the base. With his head down we could only see one side of the rack. We stood there for at least ten min. just to settle down because he was such a big deer. Suddenly he just jumped up an ran. As he ran off we noticed that the side of the rack, we couldn't see when he was down, was only about a third there. All we could figure is when he turned his head to scratch, that side antler took the imact of the bullet and that he must have just been knocked out or something. I usually give the deer a poke when I come on it but in this case he went straight down and with all the excitement I didn't (very rookie mistake for not being a rookie at the time). So a couple of ideas why he went down and there was no blood. Better luck next time.