No happy ending........

[cryfowl]

Title says it all but here's the story.  Two days ago I had hiked about 5 miles in on a gated log road.  I had the entire area to myself.  I was hunting along the reprod so had my scope set on the lowest power.  At around 8:00AM I get a dead buck pic from my buddy who was hunting a different area.  Sweet, the deer are moving at least.  I keep hiking and climb to the top of a newly made landing.  It overlooks a large clear cut.  It's 10AM.  I look to the opposite landing and out walks a beautiful 3pt buck.  Well above his ears and from ear tip to ear tip width wise.  Biggest buck I'd seen during season.  Severe case of buck fever sets in.  I immediately drop to the ground and try to get the crosshairs settled on him.  He stops perfectly broadside at what I estimate is 200 yds.  Boom!  Buck just stands there.  Relax and breath......Boom!  Buck just stands there.  Crap!  Scopes on 4 power still.  Crank it up to 10. Let the crosshairs settle behind his shoulder and Boom!  The bucks head drops and he hops up in the air.  He immediately heads down hill and out of sight.  I felt real good about the shot.  I range the spot and it was 208yds.  Exactly what I thought.  I hike around to where he was and start looking for blood.  First thing I see is a chunk of bloody bone.  Confidence is booming at this point.  Walk the direction he ran and find some blood, but not as much as I had hoped for. Then the blood just stopped.  There are deer tracks everywhere so no definite path.  There are 3 obvious deer trails so I begin walking those looking for blood.......nothing.  I back track and begin circling looking for more blood, even getting on my hands and knees, but never find another drop.  I look for 4+ hrs never finding another sign.  I go back out yesterday at first light with some family.  We search every nook and cranny for hours and never find another sign of him.  Unfortunately the rain overnight had washed the blood away.  I notch my tag and tape it to the tree limb i last saw him running past.  We load our packs and i make the 5 mile "walk of shame" back out of the area, jumping a Spike and a 2 Pt on the way out.  I'm one of those guys that if I draw blood, I'm done whether I recover the animal or not.  Wouldn't be right in my mind to shoot another deer.  I know a lot of you have been in the same boat and if you hunt long enough its bound to happen.  I know Mother Nature will put the deer to good use but deer jerky sounded so good. 

[wingsandwilds]

Sorry to hear about that.  Sounds like you worked every angle, probably went far above and beyond the area that was feasible, brought in extra eyes.  Don't be too hard on yourself, you sound like a true sportsman.  Better luck next time (sorry for the cliche)

[Boss .300 winmag]

Might have been a lower leg hit, I've had that happen they won't bleed out or stop.

Hey just keep going down hill usually where you can't get them.

[Chinook73]

Even though it sucks, it does happen.  Unfortunately, it is part of the sport.  The most experienced hunters most likely lose an animal in their lifetime.  Only when it starts to become a habit to lose game one should choose to hang up the rifle.  Just my  .

[esteban]

 First I say sorry to hear it happened to you.   
My buddy last season killed a deer and couldn't find it even though he searched high and low--he went back the next day only to find the skin and the antlers-- the predators got to it that fast and devoured it. my buddy notched his tag and called it quits for the season A good sportsman as well. He felt terrible and said he felt he did the deer JUSTICE by hunting no more for that season.
Sad endings do happen.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Is that a piece of leg bone? hard to tell in that pic. Years ago I shot a deer in Alaska that went down and all I saw was legs kicking in the air. I was congratulating myself and looking for a way through the windblown hemlock on the ridge when I looked up and saw him on his feet. Before I could get another shot, he was gone. I couldn't believe it. I got to where he went down and there were a couple pieces of leg bone and a bit of blood. I started following the blood trail but it disappeared after about 75 yards at the edge of the buckbrush (what the locals called the windblown hemlock). I spent the rest of that day doing small circles trying to find him and passed up a couple more bucks. Hiked the two miles back down to my boat, spent the night and hiked back up the mountain at first light and spent the whole second day looking for him, but never saw another sign of him.

The next year I saw a picture a friend took of a friend of his who took what looked like a doe with the lower part of a front leg missing just below the knee. I asked where they'd been hunting and the area was near the ocean at the bottom of the Mt I'd hunted the year before. So then I asked if it was a buck that had lost it's antlers as it was hard to tell in the picture. He said yes it was and wanted to know why I had asked. I told him it appeared his friend had taken the buck I'd wounded the year before. The missing part of the leg had healed over. In hind site, even tho I'd taken as good a rest as I could on a flimsy bush, I'd been breathing hard from climbing the Mt and the deer had been above me at about 175 yards and a steep angle. I'd just muffed the shot.  Like you I put in some hard time trying to find him. At least I eventually figured out his fate.

[Westside88]

Many years ago my Dad and I were hunting a river bottom about half a mile apart. I heard him shoot, so I figured "buck down" and headed over to help drag it out. When I got here I saw him pacing back and forth looking for blood. He told me a big buck had crossed the trail behind him about 120 yards back. When he shot it went down. As soon as he lowered his rifle it jumped right back up and took off.  We looked for blood for hours, all we ever found was tiny drops of blood and small bone fragments.  A cople years later I killed a big 3point that had a scar across the brisket and a healed over old wound on its leg. (obviously had been broken) we had been sick about it at the time, but we did everything we could to find it.  We have no doubt it was the same buck