I've heard several stories of people losing deer this year as well. And like you said, it's been people who normally don't lose deer. My father shot one about 2 weeks ago and got what appeared to be a good hit. We had an awesome blood trail for about 100 yards, where we kicked the deer up. We heard him run about 50 yards and stop, so we quietly backed out for the night and came back the next day. The blood trail went another 100 yards or so, then just stopped dead in the middle of a plowed corn field. Not a trace of anything after that point. 4 of us spent almost an entire day scouring the entire woods, fencerows, and fields in the area and didn't come up with a single thing.

I doubt that there is some sort of mass conspiracy going on, but who knows - maybe aliens are taking our deer. [:-]