I have always pondered the thought of taking a neck shot, but not a head shot. My first year in the woods a doe came out and her whole body was behind trees with the exception of her head. I wanted a deer soooooo bad, but I didn't take the shot, mainly because of a story my friend told me....
His dad had raised him to shoot deer in the head. It was his first time ever hunting, a doe came out, he put the reticle on the head and pulled the trigger. He hit the deer in the jaw, blew the entire area from below the eyes to the mouth off. He got lucky and was given another shot from the deer, but if he hadn't....just think of what that deer would have had to go through.
All it takes is just a little movement or just a mistake to make a shot like that go terribly wrong. For me I'll stick to the 18" boiling room I can shoot at. And even if I do ruin some meat from the front shoulders, we usually dont even mess with the front quarters anyways, so no wasted meat for me.