Thanks to all for your responses!!!!!!!
charlie brown...."WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO BREAK THE SHOULDER?????!!!!!!!???????"
Charlie B, see my second post on pg1. I need to drop em in their tracks. If they make it off the logging road recovery would be extremely difficult at best, and at worst the animal could be lost.
muddydog....... "why would you want to waste meat....if you shoot them at the base of the neck at the point where you would quarter the deer, no meat is ever wasted.
its a lights out shot too...no reason to shoulder shoot."
muddydog, I certianly don't want to waste meat..... but especially don't want to loose the whole deer either. I've always taken behind the shoulder, heart/lung shots. Have never taken either the shoulder shot or the neck shot you described. Doesn't seem like you would waste much (if any) meat with the neck shot, but seems like shot placement would be a lot more critical.
Here is a pic of deer anatomy with X hairs on shoulder shot placement. If I'm reading you right, proper shot placement for a Neck shot would be directly to the right of the X hairs, right about where you see the first rib coming out of the spine. Is that correct?
I'm getting 3/4"CTC groups @100Yds and about 2-3"groups @200Yds (need more practice @ 200) so I'm quite confident, given the right circumstances, that I could make either the neck or shoulder shot.
I won't take a "too risky" shot though, and the mountain side clear cut is only one of the areas I'll be hunting. If the shoulder or neck shot's too risky (i.e. deer moving) or if I'm hunting an area where I'm not worried about loosing the deer off the side of the mountain, I'd prefer to take the old bread & butter "behind the shoulder" shot. Besides, although I do believe in making that first shot count, I am shooting a BAR and a quick follow up shot isn't out of the question.
firstshot