I don't think he hit the vitals either. The buck is not going to be alive to be jumped out of his bed if the vitals were hit. The deer was probably quartering toward him and he hit guts....
I just meant that a frontal shot at that range is acceptable to me, personally. A bad shot is a bad shot, unfortunately....whether frontal or broadside. If he made a bad hit at that range, he may have made a bad hit regardless of the shot angle given him.

Like you said, you have to be confident you can make the shot, or you shouldn't shoot.

But, bad things do happen and I hate that Rack lost a very good deer. But I do commend the effort to retrieve him. At this point, it's all he can do. Hard lesson learned.