lost deer

OK my buddy, a long time friend of mine ??
came up to hunt my place yesterday, I put him one of my stands and told him, take your time and odds are good a decent buck would show up
I hold him to a 120 or better or there is a $500 fee, as over the yrs he has had some problems letting 80-90 inch deer walk, so?
this seemed to workout
well, he is one of them guys that falls apart when a buck shows up
he had one of my best bucks show up, and he took a crappy shot, low light bad angle bla bla bla
it was even moving so he decided to guess and lead it
wll he drilled it in the front shoulder, he thinks?

30 yrds, couldn't tell me what way it went after the shot, just said I think that way and pointed in a general direction

so decided to leave it go over nite, was in the 20's
so, go in this morning, have him guess where it was at the shot, since he couldn't tell me???
could not find an arrow searched a 20x20 yrd area, even raking into the soil about 6-8 inches
so I believe its in the deer some where
couldn' t find a single hair, a drop of blood anywhere spent 5+ hrs doing circles out from where ?? maybe it was standing.walking when he shot!

MAN I know things happen, but this guy has 20+ yrs of hunting under his belt
I was kinda pissed, about the whole deal
if a shot if iffy, let it walk!! why take a chance and loose a great deer!
I mean again I know bad shots happen, but come on how do you not know where it was at when you shot or what way it went after a shot, from again , a guy with 20+ yrs hunting, including a good 20+ deer under his belt
and to boot again it was maybe the best buck at my place??
one of only 3 I would even shoot here?
guess maybe I'm down to just two now, and just 1 maybe two days left to hunt??

so just a reminder guys, try to make a mental note of where a deer is when you shoot at it, and what happens afterwards
makes a huge difference on recovery!!

I'm sorry to hear this but this is really good advice watching where that deer goes and how it reacts is half the tracking job.

Well Stan I know a guy that has probably killed 30-40 deer over the last 10 years and still tends to lose it when a shot takes place. This guy is my father. He may not lose it to the extent your buddy does, but he tends to not remember where he aimed, if the deer was broadside or quartering, etc. He doesn't lose a lot of deer, in fact he has killed two in the last week. His biggest problem is following a blood trail. He gets to excited and rushes the trailing. Then he will many times ask me to try to unravel the blotched trailing job. Sometimes we find the deer and sometimes we don't. If I ask where the deer ran he can usually give me a good general direction.

The point is that some guys are detail oriented and some guys are not. Or maybe they just can't hold it together at the time of the shot. My dad had five deer approach his stand last Saturday evening. In this group were a doe with a fawn, a 6 point and two 8 points. One 8 was pretty nice and the other was quite small. My dad wanted the nicer 8 point. The two 8's went over a small knoll out of sight. The 6 and two antlerless deer stayed in range of him. Now he was able to keep his composure until the one 8 came into range. As soon as the 8 got in range he took the shot. He made a decent shot and the 8 ran about 80 yards and piled up. Thing was this was the very small 8 pointer. But, he says in his mind an 8 is an 8. I'm sure he really wanted the bigger 8 but kinda got excited at the first 8 point he'd had in range this fall.

I am very composed until I pull the trigger. After that I do tend to lose it somewhat. But, I always try to see where my arrow hits and watch the deer until it is out of sight. I always mentally mark where the deer was last seen and go directly to that spot when I start to trail the deer.

Like I said some of us tend to let every little detail sink in others see a big picture.

Sorry, you lost the buck. But, shame on your buddy for taking a shot that was questionable. The game we hunt deserves better than that.