I hunt in western NY.
3 years ago I was still using a Rem. Wingmaster 20 gauge because it was free and I never had a problem with not recovering a deer. Then I was walking out to my stand and had to cross a small ravine that was about 30' deep and maybe 45' across. The edge I was on was also the edge of the woods from a farm field so there was some thicker undergrowth and a line of larger trees that made up the hedgerow.
Well standing in the roadway that I typically entered from I happened to look to my left and saw two deer bedded down. A smaller doe and a mid sized buck (maybe 8 point), down in this ravine. So i took aim and shot the Buck where it was sitting.
I didn't care about the doe so much as I had already gotten a meat deer that year. So as I watch the buck kick a few times I get on the radio to my father to bring the tractor with the bucket it it so we can field dress it and bring it back tot house.
Then I start walking up the hedgerow to go down into the ravine perpendicular to were I shot the buck.
Well I heard some shuffling and didn't think much of it, but as I came around a giant beach tree all I see is the white flag waving at me as the Buck is running away.
I look back to where I shot the thing, and there is blood and fur all over. So I think its got maybe a 100 yards on it and just wait for my father to get there.
Being just two sets of tracks leading away from where they bedded down and one set obviously being the doe, we set out tracking this thing. After a mile, my father calls it quits. He's up there in years and his property is covered with knolls and ravines and this buck went through just about every one of them.
I pressed on another mile or so, but never did find that thing. I have since switched to an 870 Express with a fully rifled barrel, and I haven't had another episode like that since.
