You need to unroll the pod somewhere in the body where the powder can absorb into the blood stream. A nick won't cut it. A shoulder hit with low penetration will. A ham hit will. A neck hit will. I believe a gut shot will. A chest cavity shot...well...that's beside the point.
A deer heart goes
lub-dub 40-50 times a minute when at rest. Each cycle pushes blood throughout the animals body. The faster the heartbeat (deer startled by shot, deer running away) the faster the substance works. All voluntary muscles are affected by anectine. I think
@kyler1945 is actually wrong that the heart is affected, because it's involuntary. But the legs and diaphragm muscles are affected.
It turns basically any solid muscle hit into something very close to the lethality of a chest cavity hit. In both cases, you're killing a deer by disrupting the circulatory system and starving the brain of oxygen. How far the deer runs and what kind of trail it leaves, as we all know, is a crapshoot even with good shot placement. I've hit deer that didn't know they were hit and died almost in their tracks. I've hit deer that were on the verge of bolting who made it hundreds of yards in a matter of seconds.
It's not a guarantee that you find the deer. But your odds are WAY better with than without the pod. And the odds of that deer showing up on a camera days later emaciated with a gruesome wound are way lower.