First things first, Hello I love to not only hunt deer but also to watch them as I hunt and try to learn their behaviors as much as I can and then of course use it to my advantage as much as possible.
I had a good sized deer walk through one shooting lane Saturday morning, he paused and did not want to continue on his path any further, so I grunted to stop him, and let one fly........POW!!!!!!!! It made an awesome sounding hit, definately not the lungs but a good solid hit non the less. I then allowed stupidity to take control, I got down and immediately started looking for the deer. Finding my arrow covered in blood (dark red) I thought ok, a muscle hit...not too good. then a few more steps, dinner plate sized blood spot, and drops leading off....I go tto a fence and saw the most beautiful buck I had ever seen standing in a field away from me looking right at me, didnt seem effected by any sort of pain or wound, so I thought maybe that isnt mine...Well I was wrong it was him, he left a blood trail over the fence and throught the field I followed the blood for over 500 yards....It got faint and then nothing..........I went out today and looked again to no avail. Did I have a bad hit? Did I spook him 2 miles off and never see him again? Any suggestions will be appreciated. I plan on hunting hte same spot Monday hopefullt if he wasnt wounded enough to die, then maybe he has healed enough to come check his scrapes again and I can get him. Probably just a pipe dream.