I've seen various BP hunting shows this fall where the deer go right to the ground after being shot. I've spine shot deer before and these video shots don't appear to be spine hits. Will a pure 100% shot through the heart do this? Are the hunters using huge sabots or conicals? Having recently shot and lost two deer, both of which should have been found, I've been second guessing myself for days. Have I been aiming incorrectly all this time? Is a 250 gr sabot too light? RRRRR

Neck shots that hit the spine or shock is normally drop them in the tracks. I heart shot a big doe and she stumbled 5 yards with excellent blood trail.

deroche117

These are my personal thoughts only... There is no replacing shot placement as the most important thing you can do.

A lot of people aim for and shoot through the shoulder as a way to break an animal down and anchor the animal where it was shot. Most often this works very well.

I really prefer to shoot in behind the shoulder putting the bullet in the vitals. At this point different bullets do different things. My goal in making this shot is to create enough 'tramatic' shock to the animal that actually over-rides the animals 'flight' response system and stops them from running.

I prefer a bullet that enters in behind the shoulder passes through the vital area and exits out the other side. And oddly enough the size of the exit hole is not a key factor. The key is what does it do on the way throught the vital area. I want a bullet that passes through and creates enough 'hydrostatic shock' that it destroys the organs in the vitals whether the organs are directly hit or not. If this happens you create the 'tramatic shock' that I am referring to.

Here is a picture of the vital area...



I want to destroy the ALL organs in this area. The animal then knows there is a huge problem and the 'flight' response often fails.

For me the bullet that does this to a whitetail is a Nosler .451/260 grain Partition HG and I believe the new bullet (Lehigh .40/200 or .252/250) that I am using this year will do the same thing.

Here is a recovered Nosler... Nothing spectacular at all. The bullet passed through expanded to it's max and then contiued out the animal. What you do not see is as it passed through the vitals it turned everything in the cavity to 'red jello' There was a small piece of the heart left - but that was it. The animal went about 10' and collapsed.




Hope this makes some sense to you - but it works for me...

There are a lot of bullets out there that will accomplish this, a couple of examples are the:
Noslers - already mentioned
Speer Gold Dots
Barnes Bullets
Lehigh Bullets
and some others

But also there are a lot of bullets out there that under perform or do not perform the same consistently.

I think it depends on each individual animal. You can hit some in the same critical area and some run and others crumble. I can honestly say I've had considerably more drop on the spot than run. I always put the crosshairs in the same spot, right behind the soldier.
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I have taken deer with perfect shots in the boiler room and they dropped right in their tracks. Shot a doe a couple years ago and she managed to run 20 yards or so before piling up. When dressing her out my Shockwave didn't hit her heart but hit the arteries and the heart was no longer attached at all. Amazing what a sudden boost of adrenaline can do sometimes.

I aim for the boiler room on all my shots. Been using Shockwaves for the past 5yrs and not lost a deer with them yet. 2 of the deer I took were not perfect shots, 1 was far forward and still took the doe down right there, and the other was my fault. A high spine shot, however this shot did not kill her and required another shot. I felt so bad for her as I waited 20 minutes before climbing down to find her still alive. Will never forget the look she gave me when I walked up to her. She was only 20 yards from me but in weeds where I couldn't see her after the smoke cleared. The shot was a result of me hitting my sights somehow from my truck to the stand. Now when using open sights I check and recheck my sights multiple times while in the stand.

Also something I prefer to do is to take a perfect broadside shot and wait till the front leg facing me goes forward to open up a heart shot.

Sabotloader explained this perfect, I do the same. As for the shot that drops the animal in there tracks look at sabotloaders pic of the deer's anatomy above. Where the shoulder bone-spine connect if you place your shot here you will most likely drop the animal in there tracks everytime. If looking at the deer this would probably be considered a neck shot, some consider it a shoulder shot. Also this is NOT your best shot, you have to be exact on your shot placement or you will miss the spine and hit non-vital area, or hit in the neck and miss the arteries. Or worse you'll not do enough damage on the shoulder and loose the deer as it will run away, far, then eventually die.
Your best shot is a behind the shoulder, heart-lung area, hit here the animal will run away, but will die.
(BP)

250 is plenty for most size deer. Shot placement is key. I try and place it right behind the shoulder. I preferably like to have the deer take that extra half step and expose all of it's vitals, but have no reservations about taking the standard broadside shot.

Bullets do make a difference, but nothing makes up for shot placement. I've been using XTPs for 10 years now and have never lost a deer with them. Most drop in their tracks or don't make it more than 10 yards. That being said, roundballs have and will continue to kill a lot of deer because they're placed in the right spot.

I don't think I can improve either on what sabotloader said. My grandpa, back with open sights were the only game in town, said to bring the sight straigt up the front leg and pull the trigger when you get to the body. Your "follow through" puts the bullet right in the "boiler room". With scopes, we can obviously do more precise aiming. I use to put the crosshairs behind the rear crease of the shoulder. However, I now hold it further forward, directly above the point of the elbow and 1/2 way up the body. No matter what, they will not go far if you get the bullet there.

Shot placement and the right bullet will drop them every time.
The spot I marked is a never center the feeder for the carotid artery and a double lung shot. I did not know this to start with but after I dropped a couple on the spot I started researching it and know a 110gr load and a Gold Dot 250 gr will do it as long as you hit that spot.[Marked in black]

Lots of good info from all the other replies. I just wanted to add my experiences. Usually I've found that if I hit a deer in the heart/lung area, it will drop in it's tracks or only stumble a few yards. Neck or spine shots also (obviously) will drop them. Some exceptions are when a deer is being pushed by other hunters and its adrenaline is flowing. Sometimes then even with a perfect shot, the deer will still run a ways. And obviously, if you don't put the bullet where it needs to be, it's not going to kill the deer right away, no matter what bullet you are using.