Schuyl, often guys will think they shot a deer in the pins just due to the shoulder mess they incure, when in fact they only ripped through the meat and missed bone completely. What I assume happened is you went through meat or even the lower scapula and yes it ruined a lot of meat through shock, bone & bullet fragments but his legs(bones) were actually aok, he more than likely tipped over due to you tearing up his lungs and as we all know some deer go 0 yards and others go 100 yards with a lung shot. They are tough/amazing animals, I shake my head at what they will endure basically dead on their feet that adraline kicks in and they go till everything finally goes dark! Just a guess but if the pins are removed(broken) I have never seen a deer make it more than a lunge or 2, with one broken wheel they can muster a few more yards.

I attached a picture of the bone structure(hope it works lol) just to illistrate the point. You' ll notice that the scapula drops down into the rib cage marginally and then the bone V notchs forward on the body. Of course we have seen how big a shoulder looks when skinned but the fact remains that is all muscle and the bones are a lot smaller and future forward and up than we may think.

BTW, this isn' t to infer you or anyone doesn' t know this just an add on to this discussion. Maybe you can add more detail to let us know what was destroyed and we can all learn from your experience.