Originally Posted by wis_bow_huntr (Post 3707343)

Im going to say that deer was wounded too high in back and may recover just fine. If you have any water sources near by check them. A wounded deer will generally head for a water source. Get back out there with 4 or 5 people and do a comb of the area, He could have layed down and gotten sick. You wont get a lot of blood on a high shot because the blood is filling the cavity and not draining out. Muscle blood is usually dark, lungs are bright red or pink and heart is red. If you have bright red blood you may have gotten one lung. But you wont know until you find him if you find him. Was he broadside, quartering to you or away, straight down??? tell us more about the shot

Originally Posted by fshafly2 (Post 3707690)

Your description is consistent with a that of a high (loin) hit - of course there are other possibilities. Last week, my tracking dog and I ran a suspected loin hit out 700+yds and did not recover the deer. (I've done volunteer tracking for 21 yrs on a local military base and just started using the dog).

Deer should typically survive an above-the-spine hit. I have a few old trail cam photos of a doe in the weeks after a friend shot her high, and she healed up fine.

-fsh