I feel your pain. You work so hard and here is your chance on a deer that has out lived all the other deer and out smarted all the hunters in the woods and you end up messing him up so that your almost sure he's not going to make it but yet you don't find him. It's the worst feeling a hunter can go through. It happens to most of us, I know it's happened to me. Sorry bud, don't let it get you down to bad.

Check out my page.
http://www.geocities.com/scottbowden23/mydeer.html
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence and determination.
Calvin Coolidge

sounds like you either hit him where bobco19 stated, in 1 lung which are a bear to retrieve....i helped a buddy of mine track a 1 lung hit and we tracked it for 5 hrs before we found it still alive bedded in a cornfield. no telling how long it would have actually gone if we wouldn't have found it and finished it off...or your hit wasn't as good hieght wise as it appeared. you may have hit it high in the withers just above the lungs, in which case you'll probably see him next yr if he survives the shotgun season. either case, no ribbing here you've done everything you could to retrieve him. sorry man it happens. good luck