Yesterday evening was a good day around the house apparently not for shooting
I went and hunted a food plot about 430 had a 6 pt come in and since I ain't tagged a deer much less saw any in alabama I decided Id shoot well I did and made a bad shot. apparently hit the leg found some white hair and 2 pieces of bone along with 2 small drops of blood at the hit site. I went and got my dog to put on it and out across some of the thickest nastiest cut over you ever seen we track for about 300 yds and never found any blood or a deer and the dog kinda became uninterested which confirmed my first thought of I doubted we would find the deer so I decided I would chalk that up to a non recovery.
Then my phone rings it's the neighbor he wanted to know if that was my shot earlier I said it was and told home about what had happened. He said as I was driving out to go get my dog he shot and wanted me to come track his as he couldn't find any blood. so I loaded the dog up on the viking and run up to his place started rooster where he said the deer was standing with a lil dug up ground and some brown short hair no blood we headed out in the direction he said the deer went and about 100 yds later rooster is chewing on a pretty nice 7 pt that was shot in the neck so I pulled the viking in there close loaded him up and hauled him out for him.
I get home and eat supper phone rings again it's another neighbor shot a 8 point and had good blood but couldn't find it wanted to know if I'd bring the dog over so I load rooster up and head that way. Get there the story is he shot the deer, deer staggered and broke and run across a food plot in front on him he backs out waits a hour goes back and starts tracking, jumps the deer from a bed, backs out and calls me. I load up and head out about 9 get there start the dog on the blood in the food plot and off we go. track about 300 yards to the wound bed find a fair amount of blood and start past it go on blood for another 150 yds and the blood stops, rooster keeps going and takes us to and through a creek , go for another 150 yds and come to a property line. I asked the hunter if it was ok to go on and he said I believe it'll be ok I told I wouldn't go on believe we had to be a lil more sure. So we discussed all the possibilities and fell fairly certain it was a high shot and and that the deer would probably survive. I told him if he would get us permission to cross on the property I would come back this morning and run the track again and that after all night we might possibly find it. The fact that after the one wound bed we found where he jumped the deer and the deer never bedded down again leads me to think that it was a non lethal shot. This one kinda has me scratching my head and wondering what we could've done to change the outcome on this track. The hunter could've waited longer maybe, called the dog in earlier and we coulda pushed it after we jumped it maybe, had permission to keep going across the other property before hand maybe.
I hate leaving deer in the woods but sometimes things done pan out like you think or like there planned

They tuff this time of the year as well. They get rutted up and just are harder to kill sometimes. Lol

People need to learn to calm themselves before the shot. No reason with a rifle and scope, if its on not to make a lethal hit, unless you hit a limb or tree, or if its a looong shot. People just go to pieces when they see a deer that they want to shoot.