Just curious. I hear this all the time about this round or that. I usually kill and eat 5 or 6 deer a year. And to be honest really don't like keeping shoulder meat. Not even for hamburger. I hate to fix hamburger meat and feel like I have been chewing on a candle. But I see some guys obsess about getting ever little scrap of meat from the shoulder and even neck on rutting bucks, but then at the end of the year, I see these same guys let there meat get freezer burned.

I am upset if I ruin a hind on a follow up shot and defiately cry if I make a spine shot ruining the backstraps. And I don't think I ever have did neck shots.

I would much rather ruin a shoulder than lose a deer.

I don't worry to much about it. Nothing I've ever done has ever ruined much meat. I've shot shoulders with 30-06's and 30-30s and it never mattered much. Deer burger isn't the best part but it is useful if you like it. I've even shot deer with buckshot and not ruined any more that I would with a single 30-06 shot.

You really have to be shooting a cannon to ruin more meat than you save.

"Hey ya'll, watch this"

No such thing as too dead! I use plenty of gun! Like you said, shoulders are burger anyway and I aint that crazy about burger!

I worry. I'm not extreme about it, but I just hate seeing waste in anything. I shoot lots of deer and I know messing up meat is nearly ineveitable, but I still hate to see it happen. Heck I've ended up ruining meat from bow kills. With proper wrapping and care meat can last you a long time without becoming freezer burned.

i dont even think about it, I just try to put the deer down fast.

I usually go for the boiler room, so if there is a little meat damaged it will probably be between the ribs. I don't usually take the time to cut that little bit of meat out anyways. Most guys I know eat right up to the hole.

i dont care about it at all...i use the most destructive bullets made for hunting as some people tell me..its either a good hollow point or a balistic tip flying out of my 3006...shots usually under 50yds..most under 30...i havent seen anything to devistanting in my 3 deer with them..and my dads 3 deer with them that i was with him when he killed them...sure the in hole is the size of a quarter and the exit is about 3 inches and it damages the meat with shock all around hte holes..ive seen them skinned the hole isnt bad when you look at the bruised meat that is ruined...but i rather drop my deer within 30yds if not in their tracks then have the bullet not blow the insides to mush and do its job and take the animals life fast than have it not open and not ruin much meat..sure hte animal wil die but even double lunged with just a whole throught them can go a decint ways...ive never seen a whole lung in a deer of hte 7 ive gutted or seen gutted...and none went over 30yds...thats the way i like it..that few lbs of meat isnt much...

I agree with you guys. I just hear all this talk about meat damage, and can't really figure on how it happens unless your talking about a pound or so of shoulder meat. I have shot deer with .243 to my 300RUM, and not experienced any meat damage beside a a shoulder.

Boiler room shot! Zero meat damage, large target, and fatal!
Shoulders make great chili and sausage meat, and if you ever eat a good old cajun neck-roast stew, you will wonder what is so good about backstraps!