What!?!I've seen multiple deer hit in the shoulder with a .243, .270, 30-30 and a 30-06. Not one of them made it past 20 yards; most of them dropped instantly.

BTW- He's probably dead. Somebody mentioned a grid search. I'd do the same.

With a spray like that I think you smoked him. Sounds like a really good hit to me. I wouldnt give up. I mean I've double lunged deer and had them leave a pitiful blood trail. I cant believe you didnt find that deer pretty close. Example: I shot a doe last year off the ground at 10 yards. I knew I drilled her but she took off like crazy and made it about 80 yds back into a thicket. No blood what-so-ever. I heard her kicking around so I eased back in there and found her in a ditch. Both lungs were destroyed but there was no blood trail. Except in the ditch. Good luck man

He is there so you need to go find him. Look everywhere!

Two years ago I had a similar situation on a doe at about 20 yards that I got a shot at as I walked in to my afternoon stand. The shot felt and sounded good. After waiting about an hour before tracking, we started to pick up the trail with plenty of blood at first. Found the arrow maybe 30 yards into the track broken in half... only the back half, with the front presumably in the deer. However, not a whole lot of blood on the back part, so I am assuming it did not get enough penetration, and I probably hit her in the shoulder. I tracked probably 200 yards total, but the blood dried out and a grid search produced nothing. I truly believe that deer lived. I have seen some wounded deer that had fairly nasty scars, but were definitely surviving! Nothing I wrote here is to tell you you should give up the search- quite the opposite! As everyone encouraged, look some more and see what turns up, especially with all that blood he dropped. I was just sharing a similar story and the outcome that happened for me.

On the topic of shoulder shots with rifles- I hunt with a .30-06. I have never seen a deer hit in the shoulder blades that did not drop at the site of impact. There was an article about shoulder shots in some hunting magazine last year, I thought it was an interesting article. With the power that such a rifle produces, if you can break the scapula, it will drop right there. I usually shoot for the lungs because it wastes less meat, but I will take a shoulder shot if that is all I have, or if it is a nice buck where I am willing to give up a roast or two to make a sure kill. All my shoulder shots have passed through and dropped the deer in their tracks.

Best of luck finding your deer, let us know the outcome!

Jon

Keep looking I am sure you will find him.

If it's spraying and the fletchings are covered with blood I'd say you poked through. Maybe you only got one lung or something because he shouldn't have gone more than 75-100 if you got both. It's possible you hit an artery, but even so, he should be down in a couple hundred yards given the time you gave him. I'd say with the arrow sign and the spray, he's done. That said, if it was at an angle like you say, it's possible you did as you suspect or maybe even slipped in behind the shoulder and out the bottom. I had one go 600 yards with his leg artery shot off, but he did die. You don't get spray from muscle wounds' There was VERY LITTLE blood on the ground even with his leg artery slit. He had a blood clot the size of a nerf football between the shoulder and the chest wall when I skinned him.

Well I went out again but without any luck. My uncle and I tracked him for over a mile then the snow stopped and there wasn't any blood I'm sick. I changed my braodheads yesterday to muzzy. I can't believe this. I hope I never go through this again. I've been shooting non-stop. The reason I was so high was the deer were coming in to my stand from 360'. So I needed to get high because the deer were winding me.

I shot a doe with my bow in the shoulder, and she dropped right there. There was bone on the ground underneathe her. So who knows what happened.

You did the best you could, time to move on and quit stinking up the place.

The situations I was referring to were low shoulder hits. If you hit the lower end of the humerus or below it, sometimes there is no penetration of the chest cavity, even with a 30-06. I can remember twice with 30-06, twice with .35 Rem, several times with arrows hits like this. The results are always the same, lots of blood at first, then you lose them.