Shot placement
01-13-2010, 01:21 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Amarillo, TX
Posts: 456
Shot placement
I am referring to rifle/muzzle loader hunters.
When shooting at deer or other four legged game, where do you try to place your shot?
I was taught as a young hunter to aim for the chest cavity (heart/lung) area but a shoulder shot none the less. Since I have been hunting for years now and have experience from trial and error, I now try for high shoulder shots on all game. I have taught my daughter this and she has tagged 4 deer now, one the last 4 years with 100% accuracy and one shot kills. I allow her to shoot deer at distances most grown men wont shoot with her longest shot being a smidge over 300 yards using her .243 and 80 grain bullets. This was a perfect placed high shoulder shot and the buck folded where he was standing.
What's ya'lls shot placement preference?
When shooting at deer or other four legged game, where do you try to place your shot?
I was taught as a young hunter to aim for the chest cavity (heart/lung) area but a shoulder shot none the less. Since I have been hunting for years now and have experience from trial and error, I now try for high shoulder shots on all game. I have taught my daughter this and she has tagged 4 deer now, one the last 4 years with 100% accuracy and one shot kills. I allow her to shoot deer at distances most grown men wont shoot with her longest shot being a smidge over 300 yards using her .243 and 80 grain bullets. This was a perfect placed high shoulder shot and the buck folded where he was standing.
What's ya'lls shot placement preference?
01-13-2010, 01:35 PM
#2
Typical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Amongst the Trees....
Posts: 964
Go for the shoulder or if you feel confident enough, the neck. Neck will drop them where they stand. I am not sure about a high shoulder shot, as I always go for the middle to low shoulder, tageting the lungs (middle) and heart (low). 
BigBuck95
BigBuck95
01-13-2010, 02:54 PM
#4
Spike
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 73
Please explain "high shoulder" shot. I think I know what you mean but am unsure.
I've been taught to aim for the vitals.
That being said, I've yet to have a buck 'fold' where he's standing. One buck I shot, three years ago, was at 70 yds, straight on (directly facing me), shooting a 30-06 w/ 180 gr Federal boattails. I hit him dead center of the chest; but he was able to turn, run approx. 60 yds and bury himself under some palmettos. Myself, my mother, my father, my wife and 2 club members searched the area until 11pm with no luck (I shot him at 4:35 pm); there was absolutely no blood trail. It took my father's wolfhound to find the deer the next morning. When my father pulled the deer, by it antlers, from its 'hidey hole', all of its guts fell out of it's rearend, thus gutting was not necesary (my father opened him up and the cavity was completely gutted). You would think this shot would have 'folded' that deer easily. And this was a 140 lb. Florida deer.
I've been taught to aim for the vitals.
That being said, I've yet to have a buck 'fold' where he's standing. One buck I shot, three years ago, was at 70 yds, straight on (directly facing me), shooting a 30-06 w/ 180 gr Federal boattails. I hit him dead center of the chest; but he was able to turn, run approx. 60 yds and bury himself under some palmettos. Myself, my mother, my father, my wife and 2 club members searched the area until 11pm with no luck (I shot him at 4:35 pm); there was absolutely no blood trail. It took my father's wolfhound to find the deer the next morning. When my father pulled the deer, by it antlers, from its 'hidey hole', all of its guts fell out of it's rearend, thus gutting was not necesary (my father opened him up and the cavity was completely gutted). You would think this shot would have 'folded' that deer easily. And this was a 140 lb. Florida deer.
01-13-2010, 03:21 PM
#5
Spike
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Md.eastern shore
Posts: 79
shot placement
When using a gun I shoot deer the same place I shoot them with a bow!! thru the boiler room !! This season 3 shots , muzzloader / buck went 35 yards , bow / doe went 50 yards , rifle buck went 15 yards all shot just behind shoulder all but doe was double lung = dead deer !! just too big a target not to shoot for!
01-13-2010, 03:22 PM
#6
Spike
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Md.eastern shore
Posts: 79
shot placement
When using a gun I shoot deer the same place I shoot them with a bow!! thru the boiler room !! This season 3 shots , muzzloader / buck went 35 yards , bow / doe went 50 yards , rifle buck went 15 yards all shot just behind shoulder all but doe was double lung = dead deer !! just too big a target not to shoot for!
01-13-2010, 03:52 PM
#9
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Tug Hill NY
Posts: 420
I aim behind the shoulder, but about 2/3rds up. I dont ruin shoulder meat, take both lungs and also cause massive shock (but not physical damage) to the spine, collapsing the deer. A bit high, spine is broken, still down and dead very quickly from the arteries just below the spine, or a bit low still through the lungs.
01-13-2010, 04:21 PM
#10
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,425
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...
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...