Rifle Season, Shot Placement

[Dunezilla]

I have shot several deer in the neck & they all dropped in their tracks. I had to do a second shot on one doe. All the neck shots were 60 yards or less except one where I did a 100 yard neck shot in the wind pipe. My other shots are heart & lungs.

[1886]

When I was younger I thought head and neck shots where the way to do it. Made some amazing shot with that theory, but also made some amazing misses as well. Now I just put it in the heart/lungs and it works good for me.

[bdub]

Originally Posted by Dunezilla

I have shot several deer in the neck & they all dropped in their tracks. I had to do a second shot on one doe. All the neck shots were 60 yards or less except one where I did a 100 yard neck shot in the wind pipe. My other shots are heart & lungs.

Mark my word. If you take enough neck shots you will run into trouble sooner than if you stick to heart lung shots. The folks all for neck shots just haven't killed enough game yet to have figured out how poor of a shot it is.

[Red Bullets]

Vitals 95% of the time. If the opportunity arises and the animal is looking right towards me..... just a little above and between the eyes. No long range shots taken. If I can't get within 150 yards for a shot I'm not hunting and don't deserve the shot. Most shots are within 75 yards.

[dmcbride]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Vitals 95% of the time. If the opportunity arises and the animal is looking right towards me..... just a little above and between the eyes. No long range shots taken. If I can't get within 150 yards for a shot I'm not hunting and don't deserve the shot. Most shots are within 75 yards.

I have actually seen a guy shoot a moose a little high between the eyes with a 270. The moose dropped on the spot. While we were going to retrieve the moose it just got up and started to walk away. Took 2 more shots to drop the moose. On closer inspection of the moose after it was down for good you could see where the bullet got redirected and took a strip of hair off down to the skull.

I don't now if it was because of the way the moose was holding his head, but they have a thick skull and it acted like a ramp for the bullet.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by dmcbride

I have actually seen a guy shoot a moose a little high between the eyes with a 270. The moose dropped on the spot. While we were going to retrieve the moose it just got up and started to walk away. Took 2 more shots to drop the moose. On closer inspection of the moose after it was down for good you could see where the bullet got redirected and took a strip of hair off down to the skull.

I don't now if it was because of the way the moose was holding his head, but they have a thick skull and it acted like a ramp for the bullet.

Very good point. A skull can have some strength and deflect bullets. I should have clarified that my 'between the eyes' shots are on deer and other medium game. I would choose a vitals shot on a moose or elk.

[pikeslayer22]

Originally Posted by bdub

Mark my word. If you take enough neck shots you will run into trouble sooner than if you stick to heart lung shots. The folks all for neck shots just haven't killed enough game yet to have figured out how poor of a shot it is.

I too have had good luck with the neck shots....and I have killed my share of game and witnessed even more kills by others....each to their own...seen a lot of boiler room shots end up in the paunch or somewhere else not in vital area...not that I always shoot for the neck but in my experience every one has been a bang flop

[bdub]

Originally Posted by pikeslayer22

I too have had good luck with the neck shots....and I have killed my share of game and witnessed even more kills by others....each to their own...seen a lot of boiler room shots end up in the paunch or somewhere else not in vital area...not that I always shoot for the neck but in my experience every one has been a bang flop

Many times they are bang flops. Just often enough they are not and you end up chasing them all over the dam place. On a big animal like moose or elk your chances of a screw up increase.

[hunter1993ap]

I've heard too many stories of guys who only neck shoot, and then they see a monster and cant believe they missed.

myself, I will take the shot that presents itself. I have shot deer in the shoulder, behind the shoulder, in the neck. all depends on what kind of rest I have and what the animal is doing. I've shot deer head on right in the white patch of the throat and deer broadside right in the lungs. I will always go for the biggest target possible, which is the shoulder/behind the shoulder. If the situation is perfect I go right behind the shoulder but if a deer is moving or I don't have enough time for a rest I aim for shoulder.

[Smokinyotes]

I prefer a heart lung shot but have shot a few moose in the neck and they went straight down. I have called in bulls and shot them square in the chest. All have went straight down except for one which ran about 50 yds. Years ago I was shooting 230gr Winchester fail safes out of my 338 wm. I shot a bull moose through both lungs at 118 yds. I was very surprised that it continued to run for another 200 yds.

[1886]

One nice thing about head shots. Either you're eating or you're not. LOL

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by 1886

One nice thing about head shots. Either you're eating or you're not. LOL

....or the animal can or cannot eat....

LC

[Sledhead71]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

....or the animal can or cannot eat....

LC

BOOM, nailed it LC....

Had to tag a 100 inch whitetail many years ago when we came across it while his bottom jaw was flapping in the wind...

Sad day but the right thing to do IMO.

[expmler]

Originally Posted by 1886

One nice thing about head shots. Either you're eating or you're not. LOL

Until you take a lower jaw off, then the deer doesn't eat.

[6.5 shooter]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

....or the animal can or cannot eat....

LC

I too have taken neck shots DRT but prefer the heart lung... Much bigger target.
As for the panch shot......just imagine where the bullet may have gone if our buck fevered hunter had tried to placed the round aiming for the marginal and much smaller head/ neck shot?

[Pathfinder76]

Originally Posted by bdub

Mark my word. If you take enough neck shots you will run into trouble sooner than if you stick to heart lung shots. The folks all for neck shots just haven't killed enough game yet to have figured out how poor of a shot it is.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

[Gate guy]

Regardless of the " deer, moose,elk,or bear " I've shot the angle and placement I prefer is slightly quartering away. And I aim for the far side leg.
This angle gets a line from the lung-heart-lung-shoulder bone and even if they wanted to there haven't been a chase or tracking session yet. There may be some day but not yet.
Previous rifle being a 7mm mag 160gr barns tsx
Current rifel. 300wsm 180gr barns tsx

[1886]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

....or the animal can or cannot eat....

LC

And that is called the other side of the coin. Plus a good point by the way.

[missingtwo]

Common sense tells me that you would aim for the largest, quickest lethal area. That would be the lungs. Any other target leaves a larger chance of wounding. But, I guess common sense is lost with some.

[Preux86]

Lung or heart shots are obviously the top choices to hit. (Nothing survives well placed lung or heart shots) But ive dropped a few Deer with the 45/70 in the spine. They didnt even know what hit them. Nothing survives the spine being severed. As for a head or neck shot,never tried.
Bullets can riccochet off the skull. Neck could be just a pass through the muscle or esophagus.
But maby it works for some.

[southernman]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

I thought this too....till I dropped a deer with one shot to the neck at exactly 100 yards. Went up to him and drug him 10 yards....then went back to where I was sitting to grab a knife (left my pack behind), he got up and ran before I got back to him....

A lung shot would have been a much better choice.

LC

Ha , I had a mate Shane Scott in NZ that did the same, except that he ended up trying to throttle the deer, and the deer and him thrashing around in the scrub till they both went over a high bank and into the river, and he finally drowned the poor deer,
lost his gun, knife and pack, as couldn't get back up the cliff edge, We went back the next day, must been half an acre of flatten bush, The deer did alright, he was grased and bruised all over, We had plenty of laugh's round the fire over that.

[southernman]

Funny the different school of thought's, growing up and culling/ meat hunting in New Zealand, I never shot behind the front shoulder, mind you I never worried about destroying to much meat either, as could go back next week and shot another couple deer,
Base of neck, (if close) or threw the shoulders, or on a angled shot, for the far shoulder,
I hated having a heart shot, as once in a while it would mean a deer bolting in a ****tty little gut, or over a bluff or under a stinging nettle or flippen tangle of bush lawyer (thorns). Always tried to break both shoulders.
Oddly enough, the only rifle I never lost an deer (red, sika, fallow) with, was a .222, (be over 600 deer), wish I could say that about the .270, 3006 and 303
Mind you, I passed up lots of shots, with a .222, that I didn't with a .270

[Okotokian]

what's the bigger target? Heart/lungs, or spinal column? Where are police taught to aim to stop a target? 'Nuff said.

[lone wolf]

Originally Posted by Preux86

Lung or heart shots are obviously the top choices to hit. (Nothing survives well placed lung or heart shots) But ive dropped a few Deer with the 45/70 in the spine. They didnt even know what hit them. Nothing survives the spine being severed. As for a head or neck shot,never tried.
Bullets can riccochet off the skull. Neck could be just a pass through the muscle or esophagus.
But maby it works for some.

IMHO few hunters have a) the marksmanship skills or b) sufficient knowledge of the animals anatomy to consistently make clean kill shots on game animals when shooting at the neck. Personally, I always aim for the offside shoulder to guarantee a shot through the heart/lung area. When you shoot through the chest area you lose very little meat.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

what's the bigger target? Heart/lungs, or spinal column? Where are police taught to aim to stop a target? 'Nuff said.

2 to the body....one to the head.

LC

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

2 to the body....one to the head.

LC

Yes, but the first one is to the body.

[AlbertaWhitetail]

Had a buck walk up on me in the bush 10yards away, knew i was there and was looking at me so i didnt move until he calmed down and started walking broadside to me and in one motion stood up to aim quick and he turned to run directly away from me and hit him in the mid back of the neck as he ran, dropped him and it killed him pretty quick, but every other time i aim for heart/lungs

[Mateo]

Originally Posted by Sledhead71

Your logic is flawed.

No, your logic is flawed.

[Clegger]

[ACKLEY ABE]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

....or the animal can or cannot eat....

LC

Seen that too many times.... Over the years three moose found in the bush with jaws missing and/or half the face. Neck shot gone bad... Heart/Lungs.


If you end up with a bullet in the paunch on a heart/lung shot....a substantial target.....how would one expect to make a good neck shot.....a very much smaller target.

I have made a number of spine shots on running deer in the past, but that was in error. Intinctivley on a running target you drop the crosshairs on the back and pull lead instead of dropping the crosshairs on the kill zone and then leading. It worked but not the shot that was intended. You don't even realize that you are doing it at the time. It took a freind of mine to point it out many years ago. Thks R.J.

It's a habit like lowering your rifle to reload instead of working the bolt with the rifle shouldered. Takes practice.


There are, of course exceptions, as in the situation mentioned by Alberta Whitetail.