RE: lost blood trail
I'da kept going till the blood let out anyway. Its a good idea to wait a bit for the deer to die so you dont just keep jumping it.
It can be that the deer was wandering around crosssing its own track if you cant find the end. I had one last year was driving me crazy. It went thru a thickett & back around & thru again, took some unravelling but I found blood again aways to the side where she finally really left & ended up finding her.
I'v lost them before, it happens & while some guys will say it never happened to them, might be theyre just lucky. Could be tomorows the day they'll stick one & lose it or maybe they just won't admit it happened to them.
Whatever, good luck recovering your deer.