Shot placement should always be a priority.A well placed shot ruins little meat.Isn' t that one of the reasons we hunt?Larry you can grind the neck up wit the rest of the scraps for burger or chilie. Or use it in spaggetti sauce. I personaly saw the neck into chunks and use it this way. Roll the Neck up, tie and use as a roast also. it is very tender. If it comes out tasting like a mop or candle then either It wasn' t cared for properly in the field or someone needs cooking lessons. Waste not want not. If you can' t stomach the meat how can you stomach the kill.

using only a .357mag and being a meat hunter (though i like antlers but thats simply a bonus, in fact at first this year i didnt buy a buck tag, went back and got it after an 8point stared at me for half an hour) i have double lunged and will continue to do so until i figure no other way around it.

Where I hunt here in PA you better drop that deer right where it stands or it will run off and someone else will put a tag on it. I' ll ruin a little meat to have the deer drop right now.

Gentlemen,
Interesting thread, looks about evenly split between the " sniper/purists" and the " get it done/shoulder" boys.

First let me say that I' m a " meat hunter" more than a trophy hunter. Second, as a meat hunter I don' t hunt deer, just elk -- no comparison in the meat. Third, since there seems to be a heavy emphasis on shot placement - I' d point out that elk are less cooperative than deer regarding posing for that perfect placement shot in contrast to a deer' s excess curiosity and that tendency to give the hunter that 125 yard, stop, turn broadside, and look back at you opportunity. You can luck into some " posed" shots on elk, not saying you can' t, its just not as likely so you' re frequently left dealing with the " merely sufficient" shot opportunity. So bear in mind that I' m not using deer (150-250 lbs.) as my " gold standard" for this discussion - its elk (at 450-600+ lbs and tough).

Let' s see,
A. Perfect " sniper" heart lung shot (excellent).
B. Solid " thru both shoulders and everything in between" shot with a heavy round (plenty, plenty good AND easy).

Both are lethal, effective shots -- lots worse shots being taken consistently each year by those in camps close to yours and mine - gut shots, hind quarters, texas heart shots, and botched head and neck shots. Those are the ones we ought to be fretting about as one lost animal easily offsets years of animals taken with whichever approach you like. IMHO, effective " take down" of the animal is the paramount issue, how pretty you do it comes in second.

When someone in my group calls in that they shot an elk, I don' t want to know where they hit him -- I want to know if he' s down and they' re in possession of him. Sure, I like them killed clean and pretty, but thats NOT the FIRST priority, when elk hunting -- things don' t always go " just right." A quick high probability kill shot and prompt possession of the animal is our first consideration - okay I spend 10 extra minutes with a butcher knife -- I can live with that -- congratulations on the kill.

Tempest in a teapot if you ask me. EITHER " A" or " B" will do it.
So what about the other actions can be taken to " save meat" if that' s indeed the holy grail we' re seeking? This applies to elk OR deer.

Does everyone take the heart, the liver, neck and rib meat? (Great chili/jerky/salami meat on those last two) Some, but I' ll bet not most, yet I haven' t detected much talk about the virtues of saving those " cuts" of meat.

I saw a few of you mention butchering your own meat. Good for you -- it' s very personal -- and it takes your respect for your harvest to even a higher level. We butcher ours right in camp. Three to four hunters butchering over the course of a day or two will save more meat off their animals than those who would take the " same" animals to a commercial processor who is butchering 300 to 400 a day on a 24 hour schedule (elk country in season). The hunter/butchers will do a far superior job of picking off the hair, trimming out the bone, fat, tendons, sinew, silverskin and bloodshot parts off of their " personal" elk meat than any processor will because for the hunters it is a " labor of love" (resulting in " gourmet elk" cuts) whereas for the processor it' s power saws, fast knives, waste bins, grind bins and " community burger" (CWD?) all under the pressure of schedules to be met and economics (result: " commerical elk meat" ).

I hate to bring it up -- but it ties right in to the topic. Heavy bullets at medium speeds don' t create the degree of bloodshot muscle tissue as the hyper-velocity " light" weight bullets that count on hydrostasis (shock) for their killing power. If you butcher your own and do the trimming yourself you know what I mean. A 7mmMag " beats" a 375 or 45-70 badly in this category.

We care about the issue of " not wasting meat" so long as the whole animal doesn' t get away, but we don' t go bonkers over having to trim up some shot up roast meat, little less roast and a little more burger/jerky/salami. No big deal, after trimming we' re talking ounces of tossed tissue not pounds and pounds.

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM

ELKampMaster,
Excellent post. I couldn' t agree more about every point you make. Although I don' t have any experience with hunting elk. You have obviously hunted whitetail as you have characterized thier behavior quite accurately. They will, on many occassions, offer a second or third opportunity if they have not winded the shooter. I will take your word for it that elk don' t offer this type of 2nd chance often enough to be too patient or picky. Not to mention the terrain elk are found in often necessitate dropping them before they become un-retrievable.
And re: the issue of wasting/not wasting meat. I applaud your bringing up the point of using all of the game. If you' re going to worry about wasting meat, you should take every opportunity to utilize every scrap. You owe it to the animal and the sport to not be wasteful. If there are cuts you don' t prefer see that someone that wants it takes it. I don' t care for the ribs, but my buddy uses them (not before I steal the skirt meat off' em first).

And bravo to you to exhault the under-appreciated " medium speed" projectile. In this day of blistering speed and all the hype that goes with it, medium to slow moving bullets wil continue to bring home the bacon....intact.

Just curious here and not trying to start anything whatsoever. What does that mean, " owe it to the animal and sport" . I don' t owe that animal anything. My God put those animals here to for me to eat. I guess where I come from we don' t get into this spirit of the wild thing like American Indians. We make it kinda simple by just enjoy hunting and shoot animals and eatin em.

I hunt with a 7mm and have many friends also ask me why I use such a big gun for deer because it ruins a lot of meat. I try for the cleanest kill possible and have never noticed that my gun ruins more meat than any other deer gun (243, 270, 30-06, etc...). If I notice that I am ruining an unacceptable amount of meat with my gun then I need to practice more with my gun.

What I meant by " owing to the animal and the sport" was to not be wasteful. I would consider it disrespectful to nature, which God did put here, to waste anything wantonly. Thats all I meant. Nothing more. I wasn' t referring to meat wasted by a damaging shot, but was referring to ELKampmasters point of using ALL of the animal.

Hey, raccoons and vultures have to eat too. Guess, I am not respectful to animals, I don' t worry about shoulder meat and rib meat or neck meat of bucks rutting. Couldn' t give it away much either. But hey, when kill a few next year, I will let people know they can come by and pick the ribs before I bury the rest.

BC,
If you mean it in your heart of hearts and without qualification that you " don' t owe that animal anything...." then there is really very little that can be said that will matter. I' ll keep my fingers crossed and hope that life and the fullness of time will bring you to a different viewpoint before they are gone.
EKM