8mm/06

I have purposely taken only one head shot in my 40 years of hunting. It was last day of the season, small doe right on the trail and only 15-20 yards away. Peeking through the trees and limbs the only shot I had was quartering away behind the ear/jaw. The deer had no idea I was there, and I had a rest against a tree with my 243 which was my go-to gun at the time and I had ultimate confidence.
Not sure I would do it again, but it worked out fine for me that one time.....
But for all practical purposes I want a easy heart-lung shot or I will let the deer walk. I astually let a monster go a couple years ago becasue I had a little brush between me and the big buck. I have made a couple bad shots in my life and I would rather not make any more.

Rebel Hog

Same Here!

Hey 8/06, have you ever hunted The Sanctuary in West Central?

Hotburn76

I voted vitals, but that is cause all three are vital to me![&:] I have been shooting deer since I was eighteen and last year was the first time I killed one with a gun, all have been with broadheads, one shot! All my guns sit quite on the shelf jealous since I am done by the time the gun season gets here. The first one I took last year was with a fifty cal knight ML. I was really upset with the amount of damage a bullet did compared to the slice of a arrow. One shoulder was all but wasted, and the other might as well been by the time I was done cleaning it up! You can say that we think we are better but its just knowing your gun, and ammo, bottom line. It is like the weekend warrior comment, sounded harsh, but its the truth! If I only shot my guns the week before then I would be a lung and heart guy only, but I would bet a paycheck where my bullet is at 50, 100 and 200 yards. I will also go out on a limb and say that any gun that holds more then one shot is a sign of lacking self confidence. If you do not think your first shot will get the job done, then you have no business taking the second one! Saying that you may need to take a second shot then is also like saying it is OK to take shots at running deer or deer that are giving you a bad shot angle. Very rarely will a deer stand broadside for a perfect second shot. So with that being said, after seeing the damage and wasted meat, if I get a chance to fill a tag at gun season next year and the deer is less then fifty yards, it's a lower head top of the neck shot!

Outdoor

90% of mine are neck...I have no problem. I think whats more important is that youcomfortable with your weapon.

djschuett

I'm gonna take offense to that one. I use the same gun for deer hunting that I use for pheasant, duck, squirrel, rabbit, and goose hunting (a 20ga remington .870 express with interchangeable slug and shot barrels). As such, a gun that holds more than 1 bullet is essential for me. Also, I can't afford another gun which is why at 24 I'm still using the gun I got for christmas when I was 12!

Personally, I don't like to see a deer, or any other animal suffer un-neccesarily. Call me a softy or whatever, but once I shoot a deer, I want it to suffer for as short of a time as possible. For this reason, as soon as I know my deer is down I count 5 minutes then go to it. If it is still breathing, I will put another shot through to finish it off.

Also, when I was 11, I went hunting with my dad for the first time. He was hunting with an old sawed-off 12 ga he had owned for years. He pulled it up to take a shot on a nice sized buck from about 45 yards, pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He pumped the shell out as quietly as he could, then took aim again as the buck started looking around and took aim and pulled the trigger again... nothing. Finally the 3rd shell, by which time the buck had been spooked and took off. We tested that shell later in the day and it fired perfectly. The other two shells had firing pin marks but never fired.

What are the odds of getting 1 bad shell let alone 2 bad shells back-to-back? Probably pretty damn low, but I'm not gonna take that chance if I can mitigate it as much as possible.

I agree with the majority of your post with the exception of the part noted above.

Hotburn76

Understandable, but now we are talking about two different types of game. With rabbits and upland birds you can have more then one opportunity so a gun that holds more then one shot is a good thing. I just find it unreal when I hear all the shots being fired during Ohio's gun season and all the shoots taken at running deer after they miss the first time. I understand using one gun for two types of game. The only part of your post that I see alot of people doing is going after a deer to quickly. Alot of hunters loose deer every year cause they took up the chase to quickly. Alot of times deer will bed down in a short distance and die. But alot of hunters go after the deer and the the deer gets up and runs, sometimes a great distance and never found. I try to always wait one hour at a minimum before I start to track. This forum is clear full of post where a person says they were tracking the deer and then the blood just stopped. Alot of times I think when this happens is when the person spooked the deer and it took off full steam and the blood drops were just spread out to far and harder to find.

I understand the one gun thing, a tight budget is a hard thing to have as a hunter. Been there, done that!!

djschuett

Tight budget sucks, but fortunately Mom and Dad came through huge with a new set of hunting clothes this past Turkey day for early Xmas!

I grew up in Mansfield, a little over an hour from Findlay, so I know all about some of the Ohio deer hunters. We hunted on an 8 acre plot my Dad owns, and we would alwasy talk over lunch and at the end of the day about the incredible amount of 3-5 shot bursts we heard that more than likely either resulted in a total miss or a wounded deer with a lot of running left in it. Fortunately Ohio went to the required plug law where you can only have the 1 in the magazine and 2 in the chamber which should help this somewhat. Having now hunted deer in Iowa and Minnesota as well, Ohio is not alone in having the guys who "know" that they can hit a running deer with at least 1/5 shots!

On the letting the deer go for a while, I hunt public land that is pretty heavily hunted, and I don't know or particularily trust anyone who hunts there. This year I shot a doe at about 80 yards. I knew I had a good shot on her and she ran about 20 yards before going down with blood visibly spurting the whole way. I went to her about 15 min after she went down. As I got closer to her, I saw another hunter walking towards her looking around. By the time I got to her, he was about 20 yards away and still heading towards her. When I got there, he asked me "Did you shoot that deer?"
When I said I did, he got a disappointed look on his face and turned the other way.

I would like to think he wasn't going to try to steal someone else's deer, but I definitely have my doubts. I should add at this point that unless someone else fired at the exact moment I did, there were no other shots fired in my immediate vicinity for 40 minuts after my shot, so there is no way he shot it too.

So basically, I try to get to my deer as soon as possible within reason as a means of defending my kill. Sounds pretty primitive, but based on some of the idiots out there, I think it's a legit worry.

ReDoT

I agree, i hunt in a shotgun only zone, with the exeption of muzzleloaders, so 99% of all my shots are within 100yds. i have my 12ga. shooting 1" groups @ 50yds. and i am confident with my shot. if a CLOSE PRACTICALshot presents itself i will always go for the neck shot just behind the head, i thinks its very human and provides for instant death. in my 13 years of deer hunting i have never lost a deer, every deer i have shot at has been killed....all with ONE slug with the exeption of my first hunt at age 12 and 2 years ago, they required 2 slugs.

Paul L Mohr

I have never wasted any meat shooting for the vitals. Probably one of the reasons why I don't shoot for the shoulder or or neck.

I get the same amount of meat whether I shoot it with a bow or a gun, of course I aim for the same place with both weapons. I don't eat the lungs and that is usually the only thing that gets damaged.

I will admit that I have never had a deer drop in it's tracks either. They always run for ways before they fall. I have been told a high shoulder shot with a ML or shotgun will anchor them where I shoot them. I might try it sometime if need one to drop on the spot.

I hunt lower michigan, no centerfires, either shotgun or ML.

Paul

Rebel Hog

Paul, have you ever hunted the Sanctuary in West Central?