I had that happen once. I was in my stand and sporting my Mossberg 500 when a buck walks up on me. I aim, shoot, and the buck takes off. I' ve got blood trail, bone, hair, etc. so we track and eventually loose him. This was early rilfe in early December. In mid January, the last day of muzzleloader, a buck limps up towards me and I decide to take him out so bam, I shoot him and he falls. I look at he bad leg and he' s go a hole in it the size of a quarter and it' s healing up. This was the same deer I shot in December. The bullet went right through the leg and missed his body. The meat was good except for that front leg, and the only other problem was his liver was black.

Hopefully you will find him....

Tomster