Interesting post, buckmarlin. Got me thinking about deer I' ve shot in the past. Now I know a whole bunch of guys will offer conflicting experiences, but I can' t recall a hit deer EVER snorting while running off.

The sound an arrow makes hitting a deer, at least to my ears, doesn' t sound like a 3-D target. It has a distinctly hollow sound. The sound you describe sounds more solid than that.

As far as blood trails, pretty hard to generalize. A complete pass has the highest probability of good blood, but like most aspects of this sport, there are no absolutes. I' ve had solid blood when I didn' t get a complete pass. The six point I killed a couple of weeks ago was a sharp angle quartering away, and from a fairly high stand. The arrow entered about 3/4 of the way up the body, just behind the rib cage, which was where I aimed. When I found the buck, the broadhead and roughly 4 inches of the shaft were sticking out low in the chest and just behind the opposite shoulder. Although the arrow did not completely pass through, the blood trail was solid and easy to follow, and the buck ran only 60 yards.

I' m guessing you missed this shot. The good news is you seem to have noted the details once you let the arrow go. That' s the first important part of locating a hit animal. The sound, the attitude of the deer, and of course the direction. I also find using bright fletching helps me track the path of the arrow.

Good luck with the next one!