Took me almost a week dealing with the disappointment of not recovering a deer I hit last Saturday morning it was a first and new low for me . It was the last day of our Pa late flintlock season . A friend let me hunt his 180 acre farm something he don't let a lot of people do but he knew with my medical condition I couldn't hunt very hard . I was sitting under his pavilion were we target practice and have camp fires it's a little bitty strip of woods maybe 40 yds across and over grown fields on both sides of it . I didn't really expect to see much but I appreciated his offer to me . I had just fired up my little propane heater and getting comfortable sitting at the picnic table I look up to my left and two small doe are walking just 20 yds away at the edge of the field . I grab my rifle sitting on the table and cock back the hammer and shoulder it in one smooth motion front sight lands right behind the shoulder and I fire ! She takes off down across that 40 yd strip of woods and up the other side she was running but not super fast but taking long high jumps . I reload and walk over where she stood at the shot found just a little hair so that was a good sign I'm color blind so can't see blood unless there's a lot of contrast and there ain't on grass and leaves . My bud texts me asking if I needed help he shows up and finds blood drops right away about ever 4-6 feet about a quarter sized drop on her trail we follow it about 75 yds up in the high grass 40 yds away she jumps up and runs another 100 yds in the over grown field up the hill. We stop and leave her be for an hour and half . By this time it's starts to sleet and changing to rain , we start back on the trail but any blood is washed away we followed the train she took and went to the last place we saw her. No hair no blood anywhere . Started doing circles in that 4 ft tall high weeds walked around for 3 hours in the rain nothing ! I was sick ! As I said first deer I lost after hitting it and the feeling of guilt I felt as it was a honor to be asked and allowed to hunt on my friends land an in my mind let him down for not recovering the animal . He told me don't sweat it it happens but still stings a lot for me. Least the yotes got fed ! Only thing I can think happened is I pulled the shot and hit low and missed the heart/ lungs . But still drew blood . 40 years of hunting deer and it finally happened .