I have been reading this board for a while, and just registered so this is my first post.

Shot a deer last Sunday evening around 5:20 pm (within 5 minutes of legal limit time). I was really confused if I hit the buck or not as he didn' t drop. Shot was from about 50 yards broadside, but was extremely hard to see thru the cheap piece of crap scope I had on my trusty Marlin 30-30. Normally I would have waited for a while before getting up and looking, but I had to be somewhere at 6:00 that evening. I searched the area of the shot with a flashlight, and found nothing. No blood, no hair, nothing. So now I' m thinking I just flat out missed, or did I? I searched around the area for a little while looking for body, but never saw anything.

Monday morning I loaded up and hit the woods to take another look. I just wanted to make sure I did indeed miss. It was cold overnight with a freeze having come in, so I new the meat was okay if I were to find anything. I went back to where I shot the buck, looked thoroughly in the area (hardwood bottom), and nothing. I new the direction he ran after I shot, so I starting zigzagging the exit route. About 100 yards from where I shot a few droppings of blood. I marked the spot, walked about 10 yards, and more blood. Then, nothing.....looked and looked. Called my brother in to help me search for the lost blood trail. He was in the area and arrived quickly. We both looked for about another hour. We had all but given up on the blood trail and branched out to search for the deer. The blood trail was heading up hill, and just didn' t seem right. With my brother searching the uphill area, I veered towards the creek to see if I could find any blood where he may have crossed. I walked about 30 yards down the creek bank, and bingo!! There he was lying right next to a fallen tree with its head stuck under one of the big limbs. Pure luck I found that small blood trail. The deer was gut shot and had backtracked towards the creek. The funny thing is, when I walked out that evening he was only about 40 yards to the right of my trail.

Always go back and take a look if you even remotely think you hit the target!!!!

Here' s a pic......and this is my first " official deer kill" !! Not a big one by any means with a small 6 point rack, but I' ll take it!!!! Tasted mighty fine......
P.S.: After that gut shot incident with that scope, I immediated replaced it with a better quality scope on Tuesday!!