Well, here's my take on shot placement & bloodtrails. I think you're more likely to get a bloodtrail if you hit chest area relatively low - it's thinner there, bullet will almost certainly blow through, blood gathers down low & drains out. Downside of that low shot - I think they'll more likely run off. If I've got a good shot at a deer where I can see a long ways, I'll aim mid-low for bloodtrail and no meat loss. In thicker stuff - I'm always in thicker stuff - I'm about halfway to the backbone - that way I figure I'll prob get a lung or two, break a shoulder, do damage to running parts. Also, if my shot is off - is often is, seems - more margin for error. If I aim lot and hit lower than I intended, that deer might get away.

The one deer I hit right in the sholder dropped straight down last year - bullet didn't quite exit (under hide). It was a 240gr Hornday. All the other deer ran off a ways, after being hit in chest. Only one other - hit in the back lungs/piece of liver broadside - fell right down and stayed there.

I once shot a little runt deer at about 25 yards with a load of 000 right through the chest, and he kept on going as if I'd missed. I kept shooting, he kept running. I thought I'd missed, 'til I found some blood... some more... then a LOT more. When I found that little deer, his ears where shredded - one shot pattern just missed head. One of his front legs hung by a tendon; and about six or seven pellets in a hand-sized pattern went right through the chest broadside. That convinced me that sometimes, no matter how good you hit them, they're gonna run off.

Put me down as a mid-high shoulder shot guy, unless I'm REAL close.