Deer Recovered (interesting story)

Well I headed out opening day of gun season after already punching my first ever Bullelk(bow), and first Antelope earlier this season. I am a new resident here in Montana so this was a year of first's for me. On opening day i decided to hunt the river breaks knowing there were mule deer in the area if i was willing to hike through the rugged country.
That morning i seen what appeared to be a shooter buck at about 250yds bedded down up on a rock. I really had a hard time judging him and since it was the first hour of opening day i decided to pass. I had plenty of time here in the montana rifle season to find the buck i wanted.
I am still used to only hunting whitetail since that is all i have ever hunted before. Judging mule deer is way different that looking at a trophy whitetail buck. In my mind a 20-25" mule deer is considered big, just cause i have never see those huge heavy racked boys, and it 's much harder to see a +25" mule deer in NE montana. The winters have been pretty rough lately.
Anyway, i went back to the same spot that evening and i sat on top of a ridge glassing all night to west. about 1 hour before dark i noticed some does on the ridge across from me peaking their heads up and just scanning the horizon. After having a stare down with these does for about 20min they started grazing on the ridge side. And that's when i noticed a bigger bodied deer step outside of the bushes. When i looked in my scope at this deer all i could see were horns. I got a little nervous and didn't get a range on this guy. I estimated him at about 250yds. My 25-06 was dead on at 200 so i decided to aim just a hair high(mistake). When i squeezed the trigger he instantly hunched up and ran over the ridge. I knew i hit him, but i wasn't sure how good.
I waited not even 15min(another mistake) and went over to the ridge to investigate. I was so pumped, this my was my first mule deer ever!! As climp the steeper than hell ridge i finally go to the top completley out of breath and started looking for blood. I could not find anything where i initially shot so i walk over the ridge where he ran and found a trail that went back to the south. I immediatley picked up some blood on the trail but it wasn't much. And at that moment i noticed the buck jumped up about 100yds away and popped over the ridge before i could get another shot off. At this point i was devestated knowing that IF i had backed out he would of bedded there for the night and I would of easily recovered him the next day. I immediatley backed out of there and decided to come later after this event had just happed.
The next morning i was even more devestated casue the couuntry that he ran in made it impossible to walk and more less track a deer. I didn't find anymore blood, i had no blood trail, and the country was so intimidating and rough i could of looked for a year and never found this guy. The coulees were so deep that if you walked down in them you COULDN"T get out! After looking the entire day i decided to give up.
This was absolutley killing me inside, the first good mule deer i ever shot is now left for the coyotes. I did have hope that he would live though. My brother back in Oklahoma Arrowed a deer this year just in between the spine and the lungs. The deer didn't die, and he actually got pictures of it the next day! If you don't believe me i'll send pics. To make it even more interesting he shot this buck 3 weeks later on the last weekend of muzzleloader season. This just made me hope that my deer would live.
After two weeks had past I had already hunted some other areas but i hadn't seen any shooters. I decided to go back to this area knowing there had to be good buck in there. I was into about 20 deer that morning, mostly does and 4-5 small bucks, but nothing worth the taking. I decided to do a little hiking and go further back along the breaks in so that i could sit on the ridges all afternoon and just glass. I glassed all afternoon and took a nap as well, all i seen were 4 does bedded on a hillside. At about 4 o'clock i started glassing some more knowing is was gettin close to that "magical" part of the day when everything starts getting up from there beds. As i was glassing i noticed a flock og magpies about 3/4mile away landing on something. As soon as i seen this I instantly thought it was my deer!! I basically ran down the ridge and up the coulee to where the magpies were knowing they were eating on my buck. As soon as i got up there it was him!!! my buck that I shot two weeks prior!! I was so pumped to see this dark choclate brown perfectly syymetrical 4x4!! He was a great deer for NE montana!! a 22" 157" buck!!! IT was my first mule deer ever and i was so pumped!!
The coyotes and magpies got him pretty good, but I cut off his head, punched my tag and decided to start looking for a cape so I can get my head mount done!! I was so pumped to recover this deer, it was absolutley killing me inside knowing that i had shot him and could not find him. I investigated the carcass and found that i hit him right where i was aiming, I must of just missed his lungs and spine cause the shot was high in the shoulder!!
I hope everyone enjoys the story it has been a great 1st montana hunting season for me. I have punched all my tags thus far and I only have a North Dakota Whitetail tag that I look forward to filling in the next few weeks. The rut is kicking in and i need to go and get my tree stand hung. I just can't wait now until next season to get after another Muley in Eastern Montana!!