Place your Shot
 

when shooting a doe where do you shoot?

RE: Place your Shot
 

why would u shoot anywhere BUT the vitals? i personally think that the other two choices are unethical. i dont think that just because it isa doe that we can blow its head off.

RE: Place your Shot
 

Good Call! This is kinda dumb, thereare very few reasons to even attempta head or neck shot on a living animal. I had to once and I felt horrible afterwards. I had spined a doeon a running shot (another thing i wont do ever again) and she got into some really thick stuff when I hit her. All I could see was her thrashing around trying to get up and her head was sticking up above the thick junk. She held still long enough for me to put her out of her misery. Shooting eyeballs out on the range is one thing...in the field, its unacceptable.

RE: Place your Shot
 

no kiddding... vitals or bust.... why chance anywhere else?

RE: Place your Shot
 

Vitals for me too.......but, there will be some who will start ranting about being a better shot than the rest of us so, I'll just sit back and enjoy the comments

RE: Place your Shot
 

Vitals all the way....anything else is borderline unethical!!!!

RE: Place your Shot
 

People disrespect does. Its "fun" to do headshots on does. People are ignorant.

RE: Place your Shot
 

i shoot for vitals only, again anywhere else is pointless.

im waiting for the person who says that their a good shot there was
a post like this one not to long ago .

RE: Place your Shot
 

Results so far...

0
0
15

Thank you HuntingNet!!!!

RE: Place your Shot
 

nevermind...wont bother

RE: Place your Shot
 

I shot my doe in the head this year on accident and i felt really bad. I was hitting a waterbottle at 100 yards with my 12 gauge slugs the night before i went out. I got up and went out in the feild, 8:15 rolls around and here comes a few does, last day of season, though i would take her. By the way she was a 180 pound beast. Just huge. but anyway, i shot once...missed, shot again...missed, shot again...missed. I didnt know what was wrong. I reloaded and sat on the ground for better braceing. Shot...missed. the last time when i shot she dropped, I waited a couple of minutes and walked to her slowly because i could'nt see her till i got right on top of her so i walked slowly. I got about 10 feet away and she started kicking. I aimed to shoot her again and she let out one gasp of air and stoped moving. It was horrible!!! I felt so bad. I examined her to see where i shot her and i hit her on the bridge of her nose on accident. I was aiming at her vitals!!! I must have bumped the sights or something because it shouldnt have been off that horrible. Well i try to think positive so at least i didnt ruin any meat and let me tell you what she sure tasted good.

RE: Place your Shot
 

I could see if this would have said shoulders or vitals, or maybe neck as well. Some consider this to be a decent shot, I'm not one of them though.

But a head shot, come on now that is probably the lowest percentage shot you can make on large game. Just too many things to go wrong.

I put that right up there with shooting one in the spine on purpose.

Paul

RE: Place your Shot
 

vitals becuase its a much larger area and if your of by an inch or two chances are you still have a dead deer

RE: Place your Shot
 

vitals all the way.

RE: Place your Shot
 

Vitals is IMO the only ETHICAL shot. Neck ans head are too , too risky.
FYI, I consider the shoulder a vital hit. The heart is almost directly behind the shoulder bone.

RE: Place your Shot
 

If it's under 100 yards,where my rifle is dead on,I would shoot it in the head, no need to waste meat, or, I would shoot them in the shoulder if they're farther away.

RE: Place your Shot
 

I have killed does with head, neck and vital shots. There are a bunch of "elitists" here want to label other hunters as "unethical" if they don't agree with their shot placement or hunting methods, and that is a bunch of horse crap. I will hunt my way, and you can hunt yours.

I kill from 6-10 deer every year between the two states that I hunt, and in 25 years of deer hunting, I have not lost a single deer that I have pulled the trigger on. I shoot my guns all year and am confident with my ability, but for the weekend warriors that only shoot just before season opens, well heck no, they need the largest target they can get. For this type of "hunter", I still wouldn't call a head or neck shot "unethical" because it would be a MISS.

RE: Place your Shot
 

The positive of a neck shot is that if you hit it anywhere in the nexk then the shockwave from the bullet will break the spine causing death. That being said I shoot for vitals just because that is what I have always done.

RE: Place your Shot
 

i aim for the vitals regardless if i am shooting a buck or a doe. i feel it is the best shot for me to take. as long as you are confident in your shot and can consistently hit what you are aiming at i guess you can aim where you want.

RE: Place your Shot
 

Very well said retrieverman
25 years here to 5-10 deer per year also no losses
just like to add to your post
Ability =Lots of practice not just at the range on perfect benches/range
but in the woods with your stands or blinds.(they are not a perfect benches)
The woods also have variables and obstacles trees,bushes and limbs ect...
these are bullet deflectors. Deflected bullets are misses and or wounded game.
When you become aware of all of these.
Then we get to BUCK FEVER (also in the case of Does DEER FEVER) this causes
problems with nerves,ripid heart rate,shaking,and some blindness to range and
obstacles such as trees and limbs which takes us back to bullet deflectors.
(missed and or wounded game)
When you take all these things in to consideration before you pull the trigger
then you should have the ABILITY AND CONFIDENCE to shoot any kill spot
on deer or any game.
MOST weekend warriors don't do all this just go out blasting.
Don't want to affend anyone BUT jake smith09's post is good example I'm sure his
deer did not just stand there in same spot while he fired 5 rounds at it.
SORRY jake your post just happened to be there. LOL

RE: Place your Shot
 

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.

RE: Place your Shot
 

Same Here!

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

RE: Place your Shot
 

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!

RE: Place your Shot
 

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

RE: Place your Shot
 

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.

RE: Place your Shot
 

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!!

RE: Place your Shot
 

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.

RE: Place your Shot
 

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.

RE: Place your Shot
 

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

RE: Place your Shot
 

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

RE: Place your Shot
 

I don't see any reason to go for the head or neck on a doe. The reason you would go for the neck or head (other than to prove you can which I think is stupid) would to prevent the animal from running off. First of all, a doe is going to weigh much less than a mature buck, so if it does run off, it will be easier to drag out. Second, with a properly placed shot and the right bullet, chances are the doe will drop where you shoot it.

RE: Place your Shot
 

Like I stated earlier, I've only taken one head shot on a doe, and I did it to put her out of her misery. That being said. I hunt with a 30-30 using 170's or 180's (when I can find them) on the range I can put one shot through a stationary clay pigeon at 150 yds using the 170 gr ammo. I am very confortible with the gun and every deer I have shot has dropped where I shot it. After reading all these posts and thinking about my own abilities, I guess I really don't have a problem with people taking a head or neck shot. If someone is really that comfortable with their gun and confident in the shot/conditions, I don't seea problem with it. For me personally, I'll stick with heart/lung shots.

RE: Place your Shot
 

RE: Place your Shot
 

Vitals for sure

RE: Place your Shot
 

Nope, I have only hunted private land locally in the Adrian MI area. I hunt on weekends and after work. And I have to either hunt with someone, or have them quickly available if I kill something. I am pretty little and need help dragging them or loading them in a vehicle. Most of the deer I kill weigh more than I do;). Heck I don't even own a truck. I own a 2 door Sebring coupe. It would have to be a pretty little deer to fit in my trunk (not sure I want one in there anyway).

Like I have said in other posts, hunting deer is sort of a logistics pain for me. I am thinking of shifting my efforts to turkey, bunnies and pheasant. Much easier to drag out of the woods for me so I could do it easier by myself.

Paul

RE: Place your Shot
 

I aim for the vituals. Just because i see ever deer as a trophy and like to take pictures. I don't want a deer with its head blow of, and plus my family like to see the deer butI know that the head and neck will put them down pretty easy.

RE: Place your Shot
 

i have shot deer in both neck, vitals, and head(accident). i voted neck since i have been taught to shoot at. some people may think it's "unethical" (which isyour opinion)to shoot a deer in the neck. but to me you drop em and you put meat in the freezer. that's all that matters to me and i don't feel sorry for it. that's just my .02 cents worth.

RE: Place your Shot
 

It depends on the deer. If its a trophy, without a doubt the vitals, although I have shot one in the neck before.For the most part if I make a neck shot its on a doe or spike.Those deer are somethin else though, sometimes no matter how great your vital shot is they can still run. But i find the tracking to be the fun part anyways.

RE: Place your Shot
 

Yep! I quit running Hog Dogs in 2000 after 45yrs due to my age and physical condition.I have shota number of deer since then, but I too am considering going for Quail, Dove,Turkey and Rabbits pretty soon.

I plan on shooting deer this season with Crossbow, but I also have to have someone with me. I'll have to see how it goes!

RE: Place your Shot
 

Hunting Is Knowing Your Abilities

Ability =Lots of practice not just at the range on perfect benches/distances,
but in the woods with your stands or blinds. (they are not perfect benches)
The woods also have variables and obstacles: trees,bushes and limbs ect...
these are bullet deflectors. Deflected bullets are misses and/or wounded game.
When you become aware of all of these.......
Then we get to BUCK FEVER (also in the case of Does, DEER FEVER) this
causes problems with nerves,rapid heart rate,shaking,and some blindness to
range and obstacles such as trees and limbs which takes us back to bullet
deflectors.(missed and/or wounded game)
The next thing is knowing what type of bullets to use for the game you are
hunting. How much penatration, how much expansion, how much penatration
before expansion and how fast to expand. (example .224 50 grain sx bullet with
muzzle vol.4000fps only penatrates1/2-3/4 inch explodes massive damage for next
3-4 inches with no exit on coyotes/deer)( .224 50 grain sp bullet with muzzle vol.4000fps
penatrates 1 inch with max. expansion in 3-4 inches exits with 1- 3 inch blowout)
(.284 139 grain sp bullet with muzzle vol.3000fps penatrates 3 - 4 inches before it starts
to expand max. expansion in 6 - 8 inches. 3/4 inch exit from12 inches of solid meat)

If you think about this a .284 139 grain sp bullet would travel 1/3 of the way through a
deer before it starts to expand (note: lung tissue is not solid meat either)

A better choice in bullets would be the .284 120 grain sp or hp for the faster expansion
it penatrates 1-2 inches, and starts to expand max. expansion in 3-5 inches 3/4-7/8 inch
dia. and pushes through about 12 inches of meat
(By the way reloads and hornady bullets) sp=spire pt. sx=super explosive hp=hollow pt.
BULLET CONSTRUCTION IS IMPORTANT TO CLEAN HUMANE KILLS ALSO!!!!!
When you take all these things in to consideration before you pull the trigger
then you should have the ABILITY AND CONFIDENCE to shoot any kill spot
on deer or any game.

MOST WEEKEND WARRIORS DON'T TAKE THESE THINGS INTO CONSIDERATION
THEY TAKE GUN OUT OF STORAGE A WEEK BEFORE SEASON, FIRE A FEW ROUNDS
JUST TO CHECK SCOPE. SCOPE OK, NOW OUT OF AMMO, RUN TO LOCAL
GAS STATION, HARDWARE STORE WAL-MART BUY THE CHEAPEST AMMO
THEY CAN FIND FOR THERE GUN AND JUST GO OUT BLASTING.
BLASTING = (MISSED,WOUNDED AND/OR LOST GAME)!!!!