Any shot can result in a miss for a variety of reasons. A deer's brain is about the size of a tennis ball, it's heart/lungs about the size of soccer ball. Which target is easier to hit?
One year two of the guys on our deer hunt tried head shots on whitetail bucks. Both of their bullets hit too low missing the brain and breaking the jaws. We didn't find either deer, and I'm sure they both suffered a long, painful death.
In my experience, the internal bloodiest hits that I've seen on animals has been from shoulder shots, especially if one or more bones have been hit. On a few occasions I've had to do a finishing shot on an animal and have shot them in the brain from only a few paces. None of them were overly bloody.
This Gemsbok had a deformed horn and an injured leg. My Professional Hunter asked me to put him down. He was very spooky and never stopped very long or in the open. My first shot was offhand at about 100 yards that dropped him but didn't kill him. We walked up to him and I put a second .375 bullet into his forehead, killing him instantly. As the picture shows, there was very little blood from that shot. The deer and other animals that I have had to finish that way looked the same.
