Always look
This weekend one of the oldest members (74) of our hunting party shot at a buck. This guy has always been one hell of a shot with both rifle and shotgun (has shot trap and skeet at many national events) and religiously sights in his rifle using the best loads for it he can.
At lunch I asked if he saw anything as I thought I heard a shot from his stand location. He said he missed a very tight quartering away shot in 25 mph crosswind 250 yards. He said he had really bad parallax on his scope, got kind of flustered and because the buck was about to jump the fence, pulled the trigger when he knew he shouldn't have.
He drove over to the area and looked for blood even after seeing the buck jump the fence and run up a very steep hill, followed by two quick shots from the neighboring property. But, didn't see any blood even though he was looking in exactly the right place (he told me exactly which fence post it was standing at).
I asked if he felt we should go take a look and he said "No, I know a good shot from a bad, this was as bad as I can remember, I have to admit when I miss." Based on what he said about the situation and how well he knows his shooting, I was 99% convinced.
The next morning I took my boy over to that area just out of curiosity, I went to that fence post and saw a crossing and a trail. about 50 yards up the hill I found a speck of blood. We trailed it as it increased, and found his nice 10 pt buck. He felt pretty bad about it. I think age is catching up to him, but pride is still strong. Eyes aren't as sharp for looking for blood as they once were. I just patted him on the back and said, "If it happens again, just ask for help, we all do it, and we all want each other to find their animal or not. You told me that when you helped me find a buck 20 years ago."
I think he felt a bit better after that. But just as a reminder, always check. Deer don't always appear to be mortally wounded when they can be and if a guy is a great shot, odds are even his bad shots still connect.