Charlie I agree whole heartedly, there is no way he hit that buck straight on with a 12 gauge slug in the chest, as you stated, even if the slug did not directly contact lungs/heart/arteries, the shock would have turned them into mush. He either gutshot him or he hit the shoulder and tore it up! If he gut shot it, its dead, if he did hit it in the shoulder straight on it is probably dead also, but I have seen more than one deer recover from being shot in the ham or shoulder, usually though they have one heck of a limp, I have also seen 3 legged deer.

I think he was referring to the time they jumped it up while tracking it the next day.

It sure would be nice to kow if he found the deer. I would give him maybe 50-75 yards out of the water. Heck, if he'd pay for my plane ticket, I'd go out there to help him find it. It sounds like a big one. "Bro" you have got to get out there and get this deer. There's no way that it's still alive. Not after acting the way that it did. It's got to be down and down for good!

A dog would've helped out a lot, especially after 24 hours.

I hope you have not stopped looking. That deer is likely dead out there, and you owe it to the life you may have taken and to yourself to give every possible effort to retrieve it.

I have been in that situation before on the last day of deer season....I shot a nice buck and knew I had hit him good, but there was no blood trail, hair, or any sign of a hit. I was so sure he was dead that I called the GW and said I would go out looking for it....he said it was fine as long as I didn't take a gun along. After A FULL day and a half of hard searching, we found my buck.....a 205 pound 8 point.

Start from the last place where the buck was seen, and do a THOROUGH grid type search. Start in small diameter circles, marking off points as you go. You may find nothing more than a rack and some bones at this point, but it is your responsiblity to at least give the effort.

Hoping for an update soon!

You owe the deer and your self!!!!!!!!! Now go find him. You should be able to follow your nose. Your post was on the 12th today is the 18th. He should be tellin you where he is very soon.
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Well you got us all waiting! Did you find it or not? Been following this thread for days now hoping for some good news.

Pretty clear from 'bro's last update that they found the deer. Now if we could just get the details - he implies a good story......COMMON RACK GIVE IT UP!

He was talking about the time they found the deer still alive and it got away because they had no gun with them.

They have not found the deer or they would have told us by now.

That deer also was gut shot for sure and not shot through the chest.....no matter what the crosshairs said. A chest shot deer does not live 24 hours.

Too bad.....sounded like a nice deer.

Come on Rack, put some closure on this one way or the other.