alright I just got home from work, I cleanly missed the buck. there was not a spec of blood fat or hair, the ground was soft enough I was able to follow his tracks for probably an hour and never found any place he laid down or any sign of blood or hair or anything like that. I found where my first shot hit the hillside above him, I walked every ridge and draw and sidehill for half of the day and never saw him or any sign of a wounded deer, this area all burned last august there was no brush he could have been laying in. When I got home I shot my rifle and it was 7 inches high at 100 yards the buck was at 215 at my first shot. Im thinking the reason he kicked was that when I shot chunks of sand or dirt must have hit him and scared him? I walked my but off until lunch time and never saw anything but healthy deer. I did circle after circle until I worked out that he could not be near by, then I went back to where he was when I shot and worked out what tracks were his(fairly easy to do, much larger than all the others) and followed then, he gained probably 500-700 ft in elevation before I couldn't keep straight what track was his and I was convinced he had to be healthy to be doing this. The terrain is horrible steep, bluffy ridges and canyons. 140-150 inch 5x5 but thankful I missed instead of wounded him. Thank you everyone for all the advice! I agree with what was said above, this thread does contain valuable info and Im glad to learn off of a situation that worked out in the end.
