tracking advice needed

[01txag]

My buddy shot a good 12pt this morning and couldn't find him. He was in the feeder pen (rifle). He said he shot, the buck dropped to the ground, then got up stood for a couple seconds, jumped out, stood for a few more seconds, then trotted into the brush. They didn't find any blood at all. They had 4 guys looking for 3 hours and nothing.

I've killed deer and didn't find blood until I found the animal. I told him to watch for buzzards since he's gonna be there all week.

To make it worse, his gun could have been off. He checked it yesterday when he got to the lease and it was good. He decided to shoot it again after this morning and it was 9" high. Turns out there was a screw loose on the mount.

I'm thinking the buck could've dropped to the ground when the bullet whizzed over his back. Does that sound reasonable?

Or, he just hit him high and it went through between the backbone and all the vitals. I killed one a couple years ago that still had a bullet in him, so anything's possible

Thoughts?

[flywise]

My buddy shot a good 12pt this morning and couldn't find him. He was in the feeder pen (rifle). He said he shot, the buck dropped to the ground, then got up stood for a couple seconds, jumped out, stood for a few more seconds, then trotted into the brush. They didn't find any blood at all. They had 4 guys looking for 3 hours and nothing.

I've killed deer and didn't find blood until I found the animal. I told him to watch for buzzards since he's gonna be there all week.

To make it worse, his gun could have been off. He checked it yesterday when he got to the lease and it was good. He decided to shoot it again after this morning and it was 9" high. Turns out there was a screw loose on the mount.

I'm thinking the buck could've dropped to the ground when the bullet whizzed over his back. Does that sound reasonable?

Or, he just hit him high and it went through between the backbone and all the vitals. I killed one a couple years ago that still had a bullet in him, so anything's possible

Thoughts?

I shot at a big buck many years ago with my bow, the arrow hit a vine and went straight to the ground(i did not know this at the time) the deer jumped straight up and landed on his back and flopped around for a few seconds then got up and ran away. I just knew I had a huge buck down I got down, found the arrow in the ground about half way between me and where he stood.
I believe something like this may have happened to your buddy.

[01txag]

That's I think. It could've hit feeder leg also. I'm afraid the odds of seeing him again may not be good

[Shane]

If he hit the buck in the antler, that would have knocked him to the ground without killing him. I know, because that's what I did on the first deer I ever shot at when I was a kid.

[quackerback]

there was a kid over in my area that shot at a buck and he dropped like that and we never found any blood in that area. the buck may have reacted and dropped as the bullet whizzed over him.

[Tylerbost33]

Same thing happened to me this past weekend. Shot an old spike, he acted like he was short. Limped off in a trot and stopped. Looked around and then ran off. No blood, never found him. Crappy deal

[01txag]

Its not really worth god's time, but I went ahead and said a prayer that my buddy would get another shot st him