Welcome to the forum!

Most of us, myself included, know what you are going through. It sounds like you are well on your way to becoming a successful traditional bow hunter. But I noticed just a few assumptions in your post that might need to be re-evaluated:

Shot Placement – You said you placed the arrow behind the shoulder. If you had hit the deer behind the shoulder and the arrow penetrated the chest cavity, the deer would have died within 100 (probably 50) yards of your shot. I respectfully suggest that either you did not hit the deer in the chest, or your arrow did not penetrate.

Arrow Tuning – As I just brought up, you didn’t mention arrow penetration. Did it pass through? What was on the arrow? Guts? Dark Blood? Bright red blood? What happens with the arrow is an important part of the story.

Pushing the Deer – The only time you need to worry about pushing a deer is if it is gut shot or liver shot or something like that. In fact, there are times when you do what to push the deer, as when it is shot in the ham. Keeping the deer moving will cause it to bleed out faster. All this depends on knowing exactly what happened at the shot. The ability to know exactly where your arrow hit and what happened will come with experience. But since the moment is fleeting, and we are always amped up, there is always some doubt.

Not knowing exactly what happened, and always ready to step in and sound like a dope 😳 🙄 😀 I would guess that if you did hit around the front of the deer you hit him in the shoulder and got poor penetration. Shoulder wounds tend to bleed a long time but are generally not fatal. Your buck may live to see another day.

Assuming again that you hit him in the shoulder and going even further out on the limb as we dopes are wont to do 😯 I would guess that the lesson to learn here is arrow tuning and maybe broadhead selection.

Bottom line though, is to not let it get you down. By choosing to hunt with the bow, you are giving the advantage to the deer. This is the way of the true sportsman. In this case, the deer took the advantage.

Three cheers for mister buck! And three drinks ,ok maybe two 🙄 , for our new toxophilite!