#1, Head shot deer are terrible to cook. They don't bleed out and the meat is full of blood.

#2. You Can't head shoot deer with a bow..Let me repeat...You can't head shoot deer with a bow...

#3.If you can't get good penetration Through a shoulder blade you shouldn't be hitting. Mabee wait for a better shot,,,..
 
 
As for IUP been there .. Lost a good buck once..But I made a bad shot. Lost the track in the rain..I know that sick feelin in the bottom of your belly. You seem to have done your duty to the deer and searched hard. Don't let it sour you on the bowhunting it happens to us all...

Since you can dot "i"'s at 100 yrds..Not much meat in the rib cage,only thing there would be heart and lungs..
Unless it's a jumbo buck, then I would aim for the front shoulder.Get his legs out from under him. Here in Amish country you can't let them run 50 ft...
 
With the bow bones can be really tough to get through. You hit at any angle at all and you will get some deflection which cuts penetration. Best to avoid the main bone masses(shoulders, hips,head).
 
One of the reasons I like archery. Not only do you have to get close but the deer has to give you a shot..Where as with the rifle if you can see it you can usually kill it....
 
Did you ever miss a head shot?? Sometimes it isn't always a hit or miss..
I went to head shoot a deer that was already hit to put her down..I was off by 3 inches and blew the poor deers lower jaw off..Made me feel like a real tool...

IUP  sorry to hear all this every archery has been there and YES THAT GUT FEELING SUCKS  Sounds like you tried as hard as you could to make a good effort to find this deer and there is not much more you can do. But maybe go ask the posted area owner if you could take a looksee they may let you. That way if it is in there you could remove the deer.   KEEP YOUR HEAD UP and try again  I shot a buck one time had a good quartering away shot put that pin just at about the last rib and let the arrow go . Seen the arrow hit right where i was aiming he ran out of sight with the arrow sticking out of his rib cage. waited a little over a hour and got down and went to the last place i saw him. found little blood tracked for a  little bit and decided to back out and look look in the morning. next morning started where last seen went about another few yards he had laid down and i must have pushed him the night before. So started to track the little blood trail then nothing. looked for three hours and was ready to give up but see some really thick brush and started for it and then a doe jumped up running but i heard more noise than one deer would make. Walked a couple more steps and there he was lying down with head up STIIL ALIVE hmmmm so i shot him again and he jumped up a couple hops and down he went and die in seconds. went field dressing found that the first arrow so how went between lungs and heart and cut about a 1/2 slice in the wind pipe and busted up the far shoulder.  so   NEVER GIVE UP

if you missed the head by 3 inches it might be alittle more ethical to go sight your gun in so when you aim for the heart/lungs you don't hit it in the ass

Fuzzy, Let's see you put em all in a 2 inch circle free hand at 75 yrds.Smart****...

IUP sorry to hear about your luck.  Shot a buck in 2006, a real nice 9pt.  12yrd shot and hit the deer in the shoulder blade.  Got about half the arrow in the deer.  I was so excited I only gave the deer about 12-15 min. to lay down and then I started tracking.  I got lucky as the deer only made it about 60yrds and was expired.  Time is your friend weither you make a bad shot on a deer or not.  Hope you find him, even if its been a few days.

i have never claimed to be able to shoot a 2 inch group at a hundred yards but i can touch bullets at a hundred resting against something and i have never shot a deer at a hundred yards don't even know many places were you can get a shot that far since i don't hunt in fields most deer hafe been 30 to 50 yards and do you read what you guys post because ur quite the the smart asses just look how we even got on this topic in this thread and as far as the meat i never have thought of that but i also havn't really noticed a difference because i make just about all of my meat minuse the tenderloins and backstrraps into jerky slimjims and  bologna

who is peacymike?

Inbox From: gobyking To: sugarfuzz12 Date: 10/27/2008 2:30:46 AM Subject: ?
****, why do you keep this up? It is not even funny anymore.  

Any other ideas?
 
Her is my idea: You have nothing to do because you are a welfare scumbag. You cannot respond because you have partaken in too much alcohol.
 
Yep, you are passed out again, Peacy(sugarfuzz12). 
 
Sweet dreams(they are all wrong).

I have pussed up my share and it does suck but you have to get back out there and try again.
Good Luck and God Bless!
 
AJ

Brown hair certainly eliminates a very low hit, not leg though.   Meat on the arrow means a back strap hit.   Wagging the tail is indefinitely a solid gut shot.   However, it sounds as if this deer may be dead.  A deer dying a slow death will tuck itself up under logs and such, they do that with their antlers too.  Maybe find a point to look from.  I can only guess that the creek nearby is lower in terms of terrain than what you were.   If you're still interested in looking, and you can legally walk the creek, I would suggest doing so.   Blood lost, means thirst.  Don't be surprised to smell a carcass or even the buck.  If he was rutting, he'll be stinkin' up a storm.   While the meat may not be any good, at least you'd get some closure.  Terrain higher than you would be the last place to look.  An arrow hitting the last rib quartering away, sounds like a you may have hit part of the stomach, and liver, and the arrow exited the lower end of the diaphram, without hitting the lungs or heart but giving you that color of blood.   That's a dead deer with that kind of hit, but not instantly. 
 
You wouldn't happen to remember which way the wind on blowing at the time?  I know it's very difficult to remember the details.  They will generally head into or quartering the wind.  Rarely will they run with the wind direction, especially a buck.  He probably continued to try to follow the doe too.  He probably eventually went in her direction. 
 
Whatever the case, GL with this one or the next.
 
 

That arrow looks to me like it had a lot of fat smear the blood into the way it looks on the arrow.  Just found this post tonight as I have been in WVA slinging arrows, but I would guess a borderline cavity hit where there was a lot of fat, high liver. Hard to guess, just looks like some fat smeared on there as well.  Sorry about your luck.  My guess is that he is laying on that posted property, they know in a hurry where safe is.