Quote "no blood trail at all, even where he fell. " - please look at the picture. If that deer bled enough to paste down the hair under the wound there was a blood trail. For absolute, certain sure, there was a blood trail. Saddlesore, you are a very experienced hunter. I'm pretty sure you know that you're doing! No personal aspersion on your skills, but you didn't, or couldn't see the blood trail. Congratulations on a successful hunt. But even though I'm not the best tracker in anyone's opinion, I'd advise that you reconsider your tracking skills. The blood was there. Perhaps conditions made it difficult to see. But that wound definitely leaked blood.
No really C&B , the only blood was under it.It was smeared because when I rolled it over ,I had to drag it a bit. The deer went about 20 yards, down a dirt bank (no grass, no blood ). Across a 2 ft wide stream and made it about 10 yards into the cotton woods in that little patch of grass. No blood at all and I did look. As others have posted they have witnessed similar scenarios. I figure the entrance/exit wounds were about 1/2 way up the body. There was a lot of volume for the blood to fill before it starts to leak out. I have had my share of nasty tracking jobs with elk. It has been my experience, at least with elk , that no blood for some times 50-75 yards is common.
