I have killed about 140 deer with my .243...Probably 35-40% have dropped in their tracks from a high shoulder shot (bullet through the shoulder blade) a lower shoulder shot takes out the heart and part of the lungs...Shoulder shots are no riskier than others, just wait until you have a good broadside shot...The spine is directly behind the shoulder blade and a bullet through the shoulder blade also hits the spine, this is what drops the deer...Some hunters have problems with angles on deer...they forget to shoot for the offside front leg, this is where some deer are "hit in the shoulder" and run off...Its like taking out a single lung on a bow shot, that deer can travel farther than expected. As stated a deer can cover ground pretty fast on a lung shot, usually 20-100 yards, no matter the caliber gun used....I have taken out shoulders with the Federal 85 gr HPBT, the Winchester 100gr PowerPoint, the Hornady 100 gr InterLock the Federal 100 gr Classic, the Federal Sierra 100gr SPBT, the Federal 100gr Nosler Partition and the Remington 100gr CoreLokt....

Some might ask "Why the heck do you want to destroy the shoulder on a non-dangerous game animal"...The answer is in eastern NC, what isn't a crop field is usually a swamp or a cutover, the area is loaded with bears, and coyotes and I want to recover the deer before they do...When hunting swamps its best to drop the deer right there than to try and track through water...Now if I'm hunting a crop field, I like to wait for the deer to get 50 or so yards into the field, then I'll take a behind the shoulder, center lung shot, as they seldom make it back into the woods...