Just sick

[Broomd]

Guessing on the angle and close shot with that shot placement you hit brisket and got real good blood that probably isn’t lethal.

figure 20 feet up and 36 feet away, that’s close to a 40 degree downward angle. Shooting below the white and assuming a duck, the likely impact was thick brisket and deer is fine.
Hope the dog tells me differently

This^^^^^
Amazing how far these animals can bleed and still rebound. Hope you either find him or you see him on the hoof again recovered.

 

[OXN939]

Tracked for 7.5 hours today, frontal shot at 12 yards, confident in that shot from 20 feet up in a tree. Aimed below white patch and let it go, split second decision. Had very very good blood for a couple hundred yards and then it reduced to dime sized spots...for a couple miles, in a small area. He doubled back many times and took a pile of sharp turns for no reason. Craziest track I’ve ever been on. Really upset that the meat won’t be recovered but I have a tracking dog coming in the morning to hopefully locate him.



View attachment 133502

View attachment 133503
View attachment 133504View attachment 133505

How'd it turn out? I had a very similar experience during VA's bow season about five weeks ago... quartering away shot that looked and felt good. The blood trail was as shown below- absolutely massive and consistent for 500 yards, then started to dry up. I frantically did concentric circles for two hours at the end of the trail, and finally found him piled up under a downed tree, almost exactly 90 degrees from the direction he had been going the entire time. Ended up being a single lung that ended in the superior cardiac vasculature.

 

[ChrisAU]

How'd it turn out? I had a very similar experience during VA's bow season about five weeks ago... quartering away shot that looked and felt good. The blood trail was as shown below- absolutely massive and consistent for 500 yards, then started to dry up. I frantically did concentric circles for two hours at the end of the trail, and finally found him piled up under a downed tree, almost exactly 90 degrees from the direction he had been going the entire time. Ended up being a single lung that ended in the superior cardiac vasculature.

View attachment 134361

The dogs jumped him alive, and caught up with him a couple times but could never bay him. We determined if he was healthy enough 30 hours after the shot to outrun the dogs then he would be fine, hope we are right.

 

[JR Lewis]

Kudos for the effort - as my buddy who was cutting out the tenderloins pulled out a 6 inch segment of arrow embedded - WITH BROADHEAD - against the vertebrae said, "I don't think we give the whitetail buck enough credit..."