Found him....and wish I could've found him back in December. 
Biggest buck I've ever shot with my Ruger 450 Bushmaster. He hid himself, very well and a lot closer to my house than I would've possibly imagined. Makes me sick, but at least I found him and can put the rest of the story to rest and have some closure.
I attempted to reassemble him on the ground, as best as I could, but his legs with the hooves were missing....I assume coyotes.
I hit him head on in the brisket, favoring the right side, at 25 yards and he went down hard. Then he got back up, ran into the woods that I was standing in and fell again. It was very thick and I was attempting to get a second shot, when he fell a third time and rolled over a log, got back up and ran another 30ish yards and fell a 4th time and slammed into another downed log. He actually pushed that log a couple of feet, but got back up and took off running hard into the thickest part of the woods. I was stunned that he kept getting back up as I was watching his rack thru the brush and then he fell a 5th time.
I waited an hour an a half, before slowly tracking him....blood trail tracked him, along with scuff marks in the leaves. He went a solid 160 yards, before the blood and scuff marks disappeared. I left the woods and came back to look around, at 4 p.m. and never found him. According to where I found him, today, I had to walk within 30 yards of where he hid himself. Until this event, I've never had any animal walk off, after being hit with this 450 BM. A second shot and/or better first shot placement would've made the difference. However, as we all know.... "shoulda woulda coulda in one hand and a doughnut in the other, and you've got breakfast". Live and learn.
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Biggest buck I've ever shot with my Ruger 450 Bushmaster. He hid himself, very well and a lot closer to my house than I would've possibly imagined. Makes me sick, but at least I found him and can put the rest of the story to rest and have some closure.I attempted to reassemble him on the ground, as best as I could, but his legs with the hooves were missing....I assume coyotes.
I hit him head on in the brisket, favoring the right side, at 25 yards and he went down hard. Then he got back up, ran into the woods that I was standing in and fell again. It was very thick and I was attempting to get a second shot, when he fell a third time and rolled over a log, got back up and ran another 30ish yards and fell a 4th time and slammed into another downed log. He actually pushed that log a couple of feet, but got back up and took off running hard into the thickest part of the woods.
I was stunned that he kept getting back up as I was watching his rack thru the brush and then he fell a 5th time.I waited an hour an a half, before slowly tracking him....blood trail tracked him, along with scuff marks in the leaves. He went a solid 160 yards, before the blood and scuff marks disappeared. I left the woods and came back to look around, at 4 p.m. and never found him. According to where I found him, today, I had to walk within 30 yards of where he hid himself.
Until this event, I've never had any animal walk off, after being hit with this 450 BM. A second shot and/or better first shot placement would've made the difference. However, as we all know.... "shoulda woulda coulda in one hand and a doughnut in the other, and you've got breakfast". Live and learn. 
