Originally Posted by nchawkeye

Littlekid...If you'll drop down to a 150gr bullet your deer will drop faster...That 180gr bullet is harder than a 150gr plus it's going slower so it won't mushroom as quickly either...In other words, a 150 will do more damage than a 180...That's what many hunters don't realize about moving up to larger calibers...They shoot bullets that are too hard for deer and deposit the energy in the ground after it passes through the deer...In many cases the deer doesn't offer enough resistance to fully mushroom the bullet...

A high shoulder shot on a broadside deer is a bullet placed through the shoulder blade...Since the spine runs between the shoulder blades this bullet damages the spine and the deer drops...The high lung shot the first poster mentioned actually puts the bullet above the lungs but close enough to the spine to put enough shock on the deer to drop it...I've taken that shot many time with my .243, you need a bullet that opens up quickly to transfer enough shock into the ribs to drop the deer...

Where I put a bullet depends on the range and the angle of the deer...If its quartering to me I shoot them where the shoulder and neck meet...Quartering away, behind the shoulder to angle the bullet to the off side leg...Perfect broadside, just behind the shoulder and a third to half way up the body...After a few dozen deer you simply put the cross hairs where they need to be to bust the lungs and kill the deer...

Seems I remember an outdoor writer (probably Jack O'Conner) mention that you should visualize a basketball being held between the deer's front legs...What you want to do is bust that basketball...

Do that with any modern centerfire and that deer will not trave far...In fact, if they consistantly go further than 75 yards, get a softer bullet as you are drilling a hole through both lungs instead of having that bullet mushroom and making a wide wound channel...

Originally Posted by teedub31

A bullet that puts a deer down after a 60 yard death run is more then enough. Honestly, if a deer only runs 60 yards fm the point of impact from theshot, the hunter should see the animal fall. I have taken high shoulder shots and such. Man do they work when they connect, but when they don't, you got a wounded deer. Now a boiler room shot,, while not always an immediate downer, will always put a deer down for recovery with some effort. I got the idea that hunters that soley rely on the high shoulder/neck shot don't have confidence in their tracking/recovery ability.