Thank everyone for the info. I appreciate it. I feel more confident it was a clean miss and he's out there doing elk stuff at this very moment.
I’d be happy to come try to find him! Haha.
I doubt he was hit in the shoulder. A muzzleloader shot to the shoulder will take them off their feet. They might get back up, but you’ll be able to tell they were hit.
High hits won’t bleed well as the chest cavity needs to fill before it starts spilling out (or they need to lie down).
The bull my dad shot Sunday went down immediately, but flopped around for a few while he reloaded. Even after the second shot, there was basically no blood.