live or dead
 

i shot a buck just above his shoulder through his neck as he was walking away. i pulled the shot high for some reason. i feel terrible about it. its the first time ive wounded a nice buck. the blood trail was real good at first and then got to small drops. has anyone ever hit a deer here and do you think he will survive. i spent hours on two separate occasions looking with no luck. this was late nov before the snow.

SOunds like a muscle shot. more than likely he will be fine. What color was the blood?

the blood was bright red

If was a kill shot
 

the deer is surely dead now.

If the hit was above the spine he probably lost a good bit of blood but not enough to kill em. wounds clot fast on deer, he probably went a ways, laid down for a while, then began his recovery.

He most likely will live if he was not starving for blood flow to the brain.

Bright red, probably dead.

I say odds are he will live .If it was me I would have looked till I knew.Sometimes that has taken me more than 14 days .I have lost a lot of sleep over bad hits in my 35 years of hunting.

Same Here!!

Dan

I lost a huge elk to a white out . After the shot I stood there for 5 min. and couldn't see my own tracks ,10 min. later you could not see 5 feet away.He was buried under 20" of snow never to be found.My guts filling sour thinking about this subject.