at the report, his front feet came off the ground, as the front came down he kicked up with the back legs, whirled and made a loping stumbleing dash out around the bench he was on, I watched him run 30 yards, then lost interest cause I figured he wasn't gonna make it out of sight.
went to the impact site, found the swirled tracks where he turned to run and.....nothing else, walked the line I saw him run.....again nothing, walked another 100 yards, still not a sign.
started a grid searchthat part of the thicket is 150x500 yards, bordered on the uphill side by a large rock ledge with only 2 places deer can get through. back and forth up and down I looked, every 50 yards I would scan the area for a white belly, after not seeing it I watched the ground for blood, to keep track ofmy grid as I went along in 10 yard increments I would use landmarks, a certain unmissable downed tree, or a big square rock. searched there found nothing, dit the same above the ledge and on the back side of that ridge, left at dark, the next morning I went to the closest place from where the buck was where he could get through the ledge, as I got to the rock break I could see his belly, he was 30 yards from one of the landmarks I use for the grid search.he had ran a total of 100 yards, only blood anywhere was a bit on his nose.
After thinking about it I had walked by him at least 4 times during the search, within 20 yards and I'm sure he was either still alive laying flat on his belly, or died flat on his belly and rolled over later, but I have never saw a deer die flat on its belly.
The liver had a bullet hole through it as did the stomach, left the heart and lungs intact and will clean it tomorrow and keep you all posted, there was no exit, and I don't think any heavy bone was encountered.
RR