Yup. I'm one of them. Even hit the aorta, and he still ran 75 yards.
The only animals I've had DRT were head/spinal or high shoulder.
Right. The only way to be sure to drop an animal in place is via significant upper CNS damage. That can be direct damage to the upper spinal cord, brain stem, or brain, or indirectly by damaging those areas with either hydraulic shock or hydrostatic shock, but these indirect methods apparently are not 100% reliable in typical hunting calibers. I am guessing, Chuck, that your high shoulder shot either passed through the spine (direct damage) or right next to the spine (likely hydraulic shock indirect damage) resulting in DRT.
They all die, just not a DRT.
It just always seems easier to find an animal where you shot it rather than finding it after it has run somewhere else, often into the woods, briars, or thickets.
Here is a short video I put together from my hunt on Thanksgiving. I was hog hunting on my place and ended up watching the deer, raccoons, and mice all evening before giving up after about 5 hours of hunting. Oddly, I had two injured deer show up. One was a larger (for my place) buck that had a limp of unknown origin. The other was a doe that had been shot. That was my assessment based on their being what appeared to be corresponding wounds on opposite sides of the shoulders, one small, one large, the larger apparently draining (not bleeding). The locations would indicate a high shoulder shot from an elevated position, but the entry was too high, passing over the spinal column without doing significant damage, and the project exited out slightly lower on the opposite side. Generally speaking, I like high shoulder shots because you have the chance of catching the spine along with the lungs, but if you err and go too high, you can blow the whole shot, which is what appears to have happened here. The hunter received no hydraulic or hydrostatic benefit from the shot.
Over the years, I have encountered a variety of wounded animals, usually with well healed or mostly healed wounds. When they are hogs, we often target the wounded hog, first, and then examine the animal to see what was causing it grief. This is probably only the 3rd time I have encountered a recently wounded deer, the previous time being a deer actually hung up in a fence that I managed to free. The first time that I recall, was a high, mid back (grazed ?) wounded deer that was still slowly bleeding.