The Hunt - Agony and Disappointment

The short version;

I shot a nice buck and failed to recover him.  I guess that this is part of hunting (especially bow hunting), but it sucks.

The long version;

I went out Saturday evening to hunt the driveway stand.  Here I am on the way out - checking the position of a relocated camera.

I sat in the driveway stand until 6:15 with no action.  I had just traded email with Dave and told him that nothing was moving when 3 does suddenly showed up behind the stand in the treeline.  They were eating acorns.

I lasered them at about 35 yards.  Shortly thereafter, two bucks showed up out of nowhere.  They came from the right as if they had crossed the driveway.  One of them was "the mutant" and the other one was a very nice typical 8 point with long G2's and G3's.  I didn't study him closely since he was an obvious shooter.  He pushed one of the does off of the acorns and almost went out of view to the left.  I had practiced a 35 yard shot earlier in the day.

My 3rd pin was just the right elevation but all my shots were to the left.  So I decided to put the pin on the buck's shoulder.  I drew and let the arrow fly.  He immediately jumped, turned and jumped directly over the barbed wire.  As he was going over the wire, I thought that I saw the arrow hanging out the backside (not at all sure about it).  The other 4 deer were still standing there and couldn't figure out where the buck went.  I watched them for about 30 minutes.  The mutant buck was the first to leave.

I finally had to grunt at the does to chase them away.  At about 6:50, I got down to try and track him before dark.  I went to the impact spot and could find no evidence that he was hit.  No blood, no arrow.  As light was starting to get low, I headed down the atv trail.  I found significant blood about 30 yards into the woods.

I tracked the blood trail and it looked like he went straight down the hill across the atv trail.  I was losing light and I tracked him down a steep part and it looked like he turned and came back up the hill.  It was now completely dark in the woods and I decided to go in for dinner to give him some more time to bleed out.

Joan made a great dinner but I was slightly distracted.  After dinner, Joan came with me and we went back out in the dark to track.  I took good lights and orange tape and I tracked him for a couple of hours.  It seemed like he went in a circle and came back up the hill.  Finally, I gave up until morning.

I had a restless nights sleep and was up drinking coffee waiting for the sun to come up.  Finally, I went out in the dark and tried tracking again by flashlight.  Gradually it got lighter and I kept coming back to the same spot on the atv trail.  It looked like he walked a couple of loops and came back to the same spot.  I hung orange tape everywhere that I found blood and it was everywhere.

I went over it and over it.  There were a couple of big loops of blood trail but I couldn't find any outside the perimeter of these loops.  I walked concentric circles outside the loops and found no sign.  I went down to the creek bottom and found no sign.  I went up to the brushy field edge and found no sign.  Finally, I decided to go in for breakfast and I took a ride in the Ranger everywhere.

After breakfast, I came back and tried again.  No blood outside these loops.  I tracked backwards up to point of impact.  I couldn't find any blood (or arrow) near barbed wire or for 15 yards into the woods.  I picked up light drips at about 20 yards and they got heavier and heavier and went into the loops I had tracked previously.  I walked the entire creek bottom and bigger and bigger circles around the loops.  Nothing.  The woods here are still fairly green and areas are really thick.  Some of the dropped leaves have red blotches that confuse things.  But I never found any other trace of him.

I did chores mid-day and then Joan and I came back again.  I walked it all again while Joan drove everywhere.  Nothing.

So, I shot and lost a really nice buck.  Based on the amount of blood lost, I have to assume he was fatally wounded.  I'm now into the second-guessing phase:
1.) should I have taken the shot?
2.) was it a good shot?
3.) did I really see the arrow hanging out of him?
4.) why didn't I recover the arrow?
5.) why didn't he bleed for 20 yards?
6.) was I right to aim at his shoulder (compensating for a left hit)?
7.) should I have let him alone longer before tracking?
8.) should I have kept tracking last night?

Anyway, I don't feel good about wounding an animal.  My objective is a quick, clean, humane kill.  Bummer.