Great post! One of the biggest factors is patience. Not only in the recovery but also during the shot. Just one thing I have seen in the past.
About the "void" myth. It may be a myth from a shot taken from a treestand or an angle but it is not a myth on a broadside deer. I have video of a friends buck being shot just below the spine with an arrow. We killed that same buck on film a month and a half later. We have trail cam pics of that buck going through his healing process. He had healed over pretty well and would have made it. It can happen.
Luckily we had the footage to watch over and over to determine where the shot was. We thought he was going to be a dead deer. We waited a couple hours before following up the trail only to find very minimul blood and no sign of the deer. He started showing up on trail camera about two days later.
Last edited by Bloomgren; 07-15-2011 at 08:22 AM.