Joe...

It's true. Here is a story I'm not particularly proud of, but it happened nonetheless. The first buck I ever got was a small eight point that I rattled in to 25 yards. I shot and it was a little far back (left). The buck jumped and kicked his back legs up twice like a bronco, then ran and stopped, facing broadside looking toward me at about 35 to 40 yards. Knowing I hit him, but unsure if it was guts or liver, I let loose with another arrow. That one had the tell-tale "thump" of a hit, but I didn't see where, although it too looked to be left of where I aimed. He jumped, and stopped again, this time in thicker brush, now maybe 50 yards. Feeling as though I should make every effort to put this deer down as quickly as possible, I shot again through a narrow opening. This time I heard a "click". The deer then took off out of sight. I looked for blood, and found some, with hair. I didn't want to push the deer, so I went home and skipped school the next day (I was young), and returned with help. We managed to follow a sparse blood trail for about 250 yards to the deer. As it turns out, every shot was to the left of where I aimed. I had a berger button issue. First arrow was through the liver. The second went through the neck, near the base, and stayed with the deer. The third (I said I wasn't proud) was lodged into the scalp of the deer, and damaged the antler burr. That was the click I heard. Meat was bad, but I did come away from the experience with something positive (other than the rack). I am extremely careful about shot placement, shot conditions, etc. So, a deer can be confused enough (especially a 1 1/2 year old) to stop and look around after being hit. Maybe a 3 1/2 year old buck would have taken off, maybe not. You can't make a blanket statement about the way "all" deer are going to react from a given stimulus. Ain't gonna happen. Deer are like people. And I'm different than you and you're different than the next guy. Talondale, sorry to hear you didn't find him. Lately, around here, there are licensed people with beagles and bloodhounds who you can hire to help find wounded deer. I know you had a lot of rain, but it's something to think about in the future (hopefully you won't need it).