Same thing happened to me on the first deer I shot at with a bow. I thought i hit it great. Found the broke arrow and good blood. It was an old doe with a grey face. Later that year we had more pics of her and even saw her one evening gun hunting.

Trailed her for a good ways and was expecting to walk up on her every step I took but nada. I think he got leg from what he described. A good "crack" like he hit a tree, she fell a few yards after the shot and has white hair with little blood on it. Blood finally stopped, thats the farthest Ive ever trailed one and not found it. I told him she is probably fine and thats better than the first few deer I shot AT with a bow. Hopefully he gets it together and stones one this weekend. I need him to handle it cause this old doe Im trying to kill is whooping my tail.

I've only shot at 2 deer with a compound bow, one was that one and the other I gut shot. I hated it and never found any blood to track her. I think my limb hit my stand on that shot. I had thought about just giving it up because I hated shooting stuff and not finding it. Later on I switched jobs and didn't have enough time to practice like I wanted and so when the crossbow law changed I made the switch. I enjoy shooting bows and when my kids get older I'm planning on getting them into it. For now the crossbow is doing me just fine. In the last 3 years I've shot at 13. Killed 10 missed 1 and lost 2.