If you grazed her, you'd find cut hairs...not easily but they would be their. Similar situation happened to my buddy 2 falls ago, down hill shot of 100 yards or less on a buck. Aimed for heart...so low and the buck reared up kicked and was gone. He looked for blood due to snow and notta...when I was radioed I came & found several cut brisket hairs that indicated a miss or touch brisket. We followed the trail just to be sure for several 100 yards, but nothing except those hair right near the shot sight.

Now I have seen deer do that on near misses, grazed brisket and heart shots, so really hard to tell for sure. I would assume if you searched that area as you indicated you would have found some indication of a hit that was vital. Gut shoots will often leave several clues near the shot sight and on her exit trail. Being she bolted and no hunch I don't think the guts was even part of the picture here.

Sounds like a miss, better luck next time. Oh BTW congrats on your persistance to make sure she was OK.

I have heard that when a deer is hit, the tail will be down instead of up. Has anyone else heard this?

Sky, I would say that's true at least 95% of the time. On a longer shot I always watch for the tail. I've seen deer hit while running and there tail imediately goes down.

I gut shot a doe 3 weeks ago and she kicked her back legs out. Me and 2 other people tried to find the blood trail but couldn't find a single drop of blood. The 2 other people thought I missed but I was positive I hit her ( I saw her back legs kick out). When I shot her she also took off like the wind, even though I hit her in the stomach.We decided to give it a shot and walk through the woods and 60 yards away she was laying dead. I got lucky because I hit her high in the stomach and busted ribs and the fragments hit vitals.

sky guy 61, I have also heard that a "good" hit on a deer will make the deer tuck their tail under and run.

Well guys, this is the final chapter in the "did i miss her" saga. A hunter on the property that borders mine shot a nice big doe this afternoon. I noticed all the other guys standing around the back of his pickup as I drove by. Went ahead and got out to ask what he had got, a big doe with a streak of hair missing on her underbelly. What are the odds? It was just behind the shoulder and had a little redness to it but I never broke the skin. The doe was shot within 150 yards of where I shot at her. Well now we know. It's always nice when things all tie together like this.I aprreciate all your input on this topic and we all learned a little lesson: sometimes we think we hit something and we didn't, and sometimes we think we missed something but we didn't. So we all just need to learn to think a little less . Sorry, couldn't resist.


-Ray

"Hey ya'll, watch this"