Ok it has been two days since I made my mistake hunt. I have looked and looked and feel very crappy that I cant find the deer. The blood trail wwent from good to slight to none.I am fairly sure the deer will survive the hit, as I have searched and not found any more sign of bleeding or bedding pools of blood. All I can do now is hope that It isnt laying somewhere dead and never found. I got up this morning to hunt, but still felt pretty bad about the whole issue. I am off of work this entire week, so I will be hunting more. Do you think the deer will return to check his scrapes within a few days if it were just a bad hit and he didnt die?[&o]

Reflection is good. Dwelling is not. It is clear you have a concern for what has been done, and I am betting next time you'll give it more time. Which quite possibly wouldn't change the outcome of you finding it or not depending on the quality of the hit anyway. It would change to some degree the knowing if it survived or not, as tracking it after 1/2 to 1 hour and kicking it up tells you more then seeing it standing after 10 min.

Pushing the deer too soon would have less to do with if the deer lives or dies but much to do with if you recover it or not. Regardless, you can't change it now and might as well chalk it up to experience.

Will it return, if alive? Good question. My "GUESS" would be eventually it will return to a simular pattern, but I would also believe that deer is going to be a lot more weary! I don't really know though and have not read nor experienced much in the way of deer returning to spots they were shot. Maybe some other members could chime in on that part.

Here is the deer that I think I hit. He is standing where the biggest puddle of blood was that day.

Sorry for the size

i was lucky this year we hunted on the ground along a fence after i hit him he ran in the field stoped then went towards the car and bedded down we still waited hoping the does would show up in the field like i said it was luck the other deer i hit was in the hip i was shure my shooting lane was clear but there was a twig that deflected my arrow what a waste of a nice buck i only hope he survived the hit

nice post. i have only shot 2 deer. well more than that, i mean i have only killed 2 deer and each with a gun. first one double lung and heart and i think it ricoshed and hit the spine because it didnt move just breathed. but my second deer i got this season firs shot i hit both of back legs at atleast 80 yards and disabled them i thought i hit lungs. but i waited about 3 minutes and walked over and it wasnt there looked found a speckle of blood then the BIG!!! trail of blood it was crawling around with its front legs already moved 50 feet in 3 minutes with only front legs so i shot again which it jumped when i shot and i hit in back legs again. (there went roasts [:@] ) and i sat down took 2 deep breaths shot in lungs. waited 2 minutes still crawled another 20 feet shot in neck. waited 4 minutes crawled 10 more feet. then unloaded 3 shells into chest and neck moved 5 more feet shot one more time it stopped moving. i went got my grandpa came back and it was gone. so i ran back to the house grabbed my 12 gauge. came back my grandpa found it 10 more feet away hiding under 2 trees stood and watched for about 5 minutes until it saw my gun then started crawling agian so i walked about 5 to 10 feet away aimed for were the neck and head meet. shot went through top of head and out through neck and then after alll those shots it died 5 minutes later. i thought it was god in a deer form! but just to say waiting all the time isnt that good i probably wouldnt of got the deer if i waited cause it was geetin ready to go through a spring and swamp and a pond and creek. so if u know u got a good shot wait but if u didnt get one. go after it. now u guys might say i lost alot of meat! just 2 roasts. i got more meat back from this one then i did my button buck (which i wouldnt of shot but i couldnt see buttons).and one other thing dont underestimate a whitetail deer.

Great Post. I usually wait 30 minutes or so and rethink the whole scenario. I get down, look at my arrow, go back to camp and wait for my brothers to get in from their hunt. I guess average time for me at least an hour, sometimes up to 3 or 4 hours.

No offense but if you needed to shoot a deer 9 times you need to practice more.
In my experience if left totally alone they dont go far at all before bedding down & if you blew away both back legs on the first shot I reckon she woulda wanted to lay down a bit.
Once they know your looking for them all bets are off.

Bump as requested....I hope everyone who hasn't read this and even then it couldn't hurt for a refresher course to reread this prior to the season.....For those who haven't read this, there are some excellent tips and great advice throughout this thread.