Gryan

I know I am late on this one but I' ll bet you hit the deer in the leg. Was the bone rounded? You can tell this from even a small piece of bone. The deer probably stopped because it hurt to walk on a hanging leg. Thus the three small puddles of blood. They can do quite well on three legs! Pratice and self-control will help. AND practice will improve self-control. I' ve been there and have done this even recently, not a rookie error. As I line a deer up, I come up on the vitals along the line of the leg, with both my bow and with my guns. If you touch off with the gun or release the bow before you reach the vitals, you sometimes get the leg bone. If you break into the chest cavity, she is dead but if not, it is a meat/bone hit. Shell probably recover but lose the use of the leg.

Don' t beat yourself up over it. I try to remeber that if it didn' t hurt so much to lose, it wouldn' t be worth winning.

Hang in there,

Greg