Bad night bowhunting

[Kingcreek]

Got into my tree stand at 2:40 yesterday. At 2:45 a big buck walked across open field crosswind to me about 75-80 yards away. He was moving like he was injured. I tried calling with grunt tube to see if I could turn him around but he ignored me. 2 minutes later an even bigger buck followed him like he was going to run him into the next county.
I tried calling again but he ignored my calls.
A little forkhorn came from behind me and was under my stand for a little while before going back the way he came.
At 5pm about 10 minutes after sunset a decent 8 pt came by and gave me a broadside shot. I hit him a little low and back and my arrow passed thru. He was standing behind some heavy brush for awhile and looped in again at 30 yards. Light was going but I stuck him again and he bolted into thick cover.
I called a friend who said he would head out to help. waited about an hour before tracking him. Almost no blood. Tracked him 1/4 mile thru thick creek bottom. Lost any sign of tracks or blood after 3 hours. Never found my second arrow. We were down to a fleck of blood every 10 yards or so.
I’ve killed over 70 Illinois whitetail and only ever lost 3, none in recent years and never one I hit twice! I’m frustrated as hell and can’t figure out what happened. A big doe I shot last year at the same spot went 45 yards with no blood trail because there was a big plug of fat and lung plugging the exit wound.
Low last night was 41 degrees and supposed to be upper 50s today so meat would spoil. I can’t imagin the deer surviving.

[charby]

Check nearby water sources.

[Ben]

Well, that sucks. I know how you feel. I absolutely hate losing downed game.

[Kingcreek]

Check nearby water sources.

The trail crossed a feeder creek twice and the main creek once in addition to going thru 2 or 3 boggy seeps. Last fleck of blood was on a steep uphill where there wasn’t even trail. It was like running into a wall of thick honeysuckle. I was on hands and knees and can’t figure out where he went from there.

[Lennyjoe]

If you think you may have missed the vitals and hit farther behind, gut shot deer will seek drinking water.  We tracked a deer for hours with a hit a little farther back than wanted and after almost giving up we walked the creek and found her. 

The risk with bow hunting is the potential loss of game.  It’s a part of the risk with archery hunting.  It sucks, but it happens. Hope you find him.

[Kingcreek]

I think I hit a corner of one lung based on the 2 big splotches of jellied blood but there was almost nothing on branches 2’ off the ground, mostly small drops in the middle of the trail.

[charby]

Deer can die in the damnest places, but I'd be looking for crows to recover the antlers.