Hunting deer with dogs is legal where I live as long as you have the permission of the landowners...so I can't imagine that using a dog to locate a wounded deer would be illegal.
Two years ago, I shot a deer that moved just as I shot. Instead of hitting its chest-I hit its shoulder with a trajectory that didn't reach its internal organs. Definitely a mortal wound albeit a lingering one. The ball of the bone analogous to a human's humerus was laying on the ground. I tracked that deer by blood and hair for about a half mile into the swamps but lost it. And it was the closest shot I have ever had with a deer. I've lost one that I shot right before dark. I found it the next morning but it was a warm night and I felt the meat was probably ruined. I'd like to avoid that in the future.
However, 2/3's of the decent quality bucks I've killed in the past six years have been right before dark and I want to take those shots without becoming a slob hunter.
Art, I must agree with the neck shot. Every deer I've hit in the neck has dropped in its tracks. But, on the few occasions when I get a 250 to 300 yd shot I like to take it. Don't think I'm good enough for a neck shot at those distances. Not now, with these aging eyeballs
