Baffled

I spent much of Friday and Saturday freezing in a tree stand. Saturday morning I had been watching several young does wander though the woods around me, but choose to let them pass. About the time I was ready to quit and head for home to do chores, I hear another deer coming through the woods. It was a nice buck with a decent rack, but he wasn't real close. I had to take a quick shot through a slight opening in the trees. At the shot he bounded away seemingly uninjured. I watched where he headed and tried to follow him. I wandered quietly through the woods for 15 minutes until I saw a group of does milling around at the edge of the woods. I was downwind and they hadn't spotted me. I watched a few seconds and then the buck (which I hadn't seen) stepped into their midst. I had another chance. I aimed and fired and deer went flying out of the woods into the pasture and over the hill, out of sight. Including the buck. I went to the spot where he had been standing to look for evidence of being hit and found none. What I found though, was a quickly expiring doe. A doe???? I shot at a buck, but here was a doe! How could I have missed him again, and how did I hit a doe I wasn't aiming at? We searched the pasture looking for evidence of where he may have gone, but found none. I'm still baffled as to what happened.

Anyway, I field dressed the doe, picked up Matt's already field dressed doe and we headed for the butcher.