Rack, I really feel yout pain! I thought about this thread Saturday evening after I took a shot at a six pointer! After I went to the spot I last saw him, I found only what appeared to be gut matter! I decided not to try to push him, because he ran into a really thick pine thicket! Whatever is not pine in there is briar! I went back to camp and got some warmer clothes and two flash lights, figuring to search until the batteries died on the first one , then use the second one to get out of the thicket with!
I searched and did not find anything in the thicket. So I figured I'd have to make a 2 hour drive home and return the next morning to search again.
Just as I was about to run out of flashlight, I found another small speck of mater. About 20 yards later, there he lay! As it turned out I made a pretty good lung shot, but he did not bleed a drop, just the matter ( I guess I may have clipped the intestines on this quartering shot! I had a really good ending and hope that you can get closure on your shot too! For a while I did not think that I'd ever find him, and if you saw this thicket he was in, you'd see that I was really fortunate to ever find him! Anyway good luck in your search! You have went a lot further in your search that a lots of other hunters would have!