Someone else posted about being careful if you do not get a pass through, when field-dressing. I would agree, and be careful when dressing any deer, sometimes old arrowheads might be lodged from a previous wound. Its happened twice to me, where I've found previous heads in deer.

The first was a decent 2-1/2 yr old 8 pt I shot in 1998. Lodged in the pelvis, was one of those early expandables that did not make it through the bone of the pelvis. The deer's rack was smaller on the opposite side of the body from the wound Other than that, the deer seemed perfectly healthy, and was with a doe when I took it. Notice the smaller side of the rack as a result of the previous year's wound. Here is a picture of the healed pelvis with the arrowhead embedded

The other example was a small 3 point that I took a couple years ago in gun season. It was limping very noticeably, so I took it even though it was a small buck. Its front knee was very enlarged, when I opened it up, I found an otherwise good Muzzy stuck in it. Even though this was a wound from probably only a month prior, the bone was very healed over already. In hindsite, the deer probably would have lived, but always walked with a limp. I should have let it walk, but I could not tell what the wound was, and assumed it had been shot with a shotgun.

Deer are very strong animals, its amazing what they can live with. I think its not too uncommon to find these kinds of wounds, does anyone else have photos, or experiences?