Shoulder Shots on Whitetail
 

New to muzzle loader hunting, have a question on Shoulder Blade Shots. Hunt on 80 acres of creek bottom ground that has a lot of good deer. The problem is that the land is bordered by ground that you might not get permission to track a wounded deer. Compound that problem with the fact that the best hunting spots are closest to that ground. Need to drop the deer in its tracks. What about shoulder blade shots. Thanks

Its bascially a spine shot. A low shoulder shot is bad. High shoulder shot and they won't move a muscle.

It can be a risky shot. Smaller kill zone than just a double lunger.

As long as you are using a jacketed bullet with near magnum loads you should be okay. I shot one last year in the shoulder with an 100% lead bullet and only 100gr. of powder and the bone broke but stopped the round from entering the vitals. She ran over the hill and I thought she was dead. I'm glad I reloaded before topping the hill because she was standing there looking at me when I popped over and I had to put another one in her behind the shoulder. She went 20 yards and was done. I could not believe that the bullet didn't get through the shoulder when I got up to her! Have shot the TC shockwaves through the shoulder with 150gr. of powder and they went through and through, dropping them right where they were.

if you can shoot them in the shoulder you should be able to shoot them in the head

High shoulder shots can be tricky.
I high shouldered a nice buck once, knocked him right down, but he got up in a matter of seconds.
Problem is my gun stove piped the ejected shell, never found that buck :cry:
This was a 15 yard shot with a foster slug.
A neighbor found him in the spring while turkey hunting, 130" 10pt.

Shooting Horady sst 250 with 100g of Blackhorn 209 powder out of an Accura. Haven't tested more powder. Very comfortable up to 150yd with this combination. Thanks for your info.

i just recently ran across an article in a hunting mag advocating the shoulder shot....id always heard it wasted too much meat but the article author made me rethink it. Next time i have a good shoulder shot opportunity im going to try it out.

I don't know about muzzleloaders, but I shot a buck in the shoulder once with a 165 grain Remington Core-Lokt .30-06. He hit the ground like he had been hit by a dumptruck, and never took another step. When a grasped his front leg to try to roll him over, it moved in all directions, so it was clear the bone structure had been turned essentially to jello.

The Deer Shot
 

First, the heart-lung shot was always highly recommended by experts, to hunters, because it was a bigger target. There were other shots, but accuracy, not found in some hunters, is required.

I learned knock down shots, because I hunted deer in swamps, when young. I would take aim at a broad side standing deer, move up its leg, and aim the shot in the upper part of the deer. I found hitting the shoulder/artery area very effective. Move up the leg and target the more upper part of the deer body, rather than the lower part.

I never had to track a deer, five feet or more, through a swamp. Oh, and I used that most powerful of deer cartridges in my rifle -the .35 Remington.
Except when I was using a .50 caliber round ball in my flintlock.

Very timely subject for me. I intend to use a shoulder shot on the next deer I get where I hunt because like you, I have a small area to hunt and can't track them off the property. I know a shoulder shot is a sure thing with my 30-06 and figured it would be for blackpowder as well. But a couple posts here have me worried. I am using 100 gr of pellets with a 250 gr SST and was hoping for an exit wound. Sounds like with a shoulder shot, I might not even get through the vitals. :(

The shoulder shot will drop them like a rock. You may not get an exit but the trauma to the shoulder and the shock wave shreds lungs and shocks the spinal cord paralyzing the animal from the neck down. I think they are dead before they hit the ground.
every one i have hit there the tracking was for inches

Another non-recommendation for the Shoulder shot
 

" It ruins a lot of meat"


To date, I haven't heard an expert hunter mention that, who has ever butchered a deer or butchered a deer that was shot in the shoulder.
Butchers know deer are not beef cattle. And a lot of hunters wouldn't have a clue what the previous sentence means.

As far as placement I think you still have a large enough area to hit, look at this anatomy. if you aim for the shoulder and are off a little you will spine it if high, low through lungs or heart, right you are still lungs and left windpipe and arteries.
all lethal

neck shot
 

if it is a doe and it is getting late at night, i will most likely shoot them in the neck so i dont have to track them. as long as you hit the esophagus they will drop right in their tracks (aim right below the white patch on their neck). my dad and i shot two does last year like that and both dropped right over. If it is a large buck, you might not want to shoot in the neck for fear of messing up cape if you are gonna mount though.

I shot a doe on opening morning this year using Hornady XTP 240 grains with 100 grains of pellets. I hit right in the shoulder. She walked in a big circle basically crippled dragging her front end and then hopped into the woods. We never did find the deer or even any blood. I began researching the muzzle loader section of this forum and found others have had the same problem. Some of these bullets are not designed to go as fast as they new in lines are shooting them (they are basically a hand gun round). The round hits shoulder and disintegrates. I switched to Barnes bullets and have had much better luck on the next two does I killed. If you want to use a shoulder shot make sure you have a bullet that will hold up. Many people told me the jacket seperates on the hornady's and they don't preform.

I'd say the shoulder shot is a decent shot, its a pretty big area, too low you hit the lungs/heart, to high you hit the spine/neck. I shot a deer through the shoulder with a hollow point 295 powerbelt with 100 grains powders. It destroyed the shoulder, lungs and travled through the neck(d/t the angle) and stopped right under the skin. Considering that was with a muzzleloader, I'd say a shoulder shot would be ok and I don't know of anyone who has had a problem with it. It definatly drops them in there tracks, but double lung is ALWAYs a sure thing, so choose what your comfortable with, just note you will lose alot of shoulder meat on a shoulder shot and I know this because I butcher my own deer.

DID THE SAME THING THIS YEAR. 155 POUND DOE. FELL OVER DEAD. BOTH SHOULDERS BROKE DRT. dAMN CAPS lock!

Shoulder shots aren't risky. With a deer facing your right, If you shoot high you hit spine, shoot low, you hit lungs, shoot left you hit lungs, shoot low left you hit heart. Reverse it if its facing the other way. its just a lung shot with insurance. and the fall over. The blood trail is almost a foot long in some instances.

just put a shoulder shot on a doe sunday and she dropped in her tracks... without even passing through her vitals they where mush from the impact... safe bet as far as im concerned

Saturday was our last day of muzzleloader season here in WV and I was fortunate enough to harvest a big doe. I was near the top of a ridge and she was bedded down about 90 yards below me and I opted for the shoulder shot. I rested my Knight across an old uprooted pine an aimed high center shoulder and squeezed the trigger. She never got up out of her bed. When I field dressed her, I could see the damage to the lungs and her chest cavity was full of blood.Later that day, I skinned her out and you could plainly see why she never moved. The 45 cal. 260 grain Speer jacketed hollow point hit high shoulder on the entry, taking out the bottom of the spine and exited low shoulder on the opposite side. I was using 85 grains of 777. The center shoulder has always been my choice whether I'm using my .270 or my muzzleloader and I always get the same results.

Im with ya kyslayer. I hit one high just back of shoulder (Maybe 1/4 " or so) and dropped her in her tracks. The lungs were gone and very little damage to the meat. Shot with .243 95 grain Fusions at 150 yards. Complete pass thru.

Come on now!, its a deer, they dont have a heavy bone structure. I have shot elk in the shoulders with complete pass thrus using 300gr. Hornady XTP's out of a 50cal. muzzleloader

There's very little meat on a front shoulder to begin with!

Hammer em!

Another thing to keep in mind when considering the shoulder shot is that if you shoot too high or too far in front, you've got either a clean miss or an animal with agonizing wounds. And if you shoot too low, you've got an animal with a broken leg that can still escape, only to later succumb to its wounds or predators.

Just think of hunting legend Karamojo Bell. It was his fanaticism over bullet placement coupled with an understanding of his quarry's anatomy-that allowed him to tale down so many elephants with his meager .275 Rigby, a cartridge equivalent to today's 7x5 7.

I can't speak well on behalf of a muzzlelaoder, as I have only killed a couple of deer with one. Both were shoulder shots however, as my aiming confidence is not as good as with a modern rifle. But with a modern gun I always shoot in the neck. I do this for two reasons... they are always laying where you shoot them, and you don't cause any meat to become blood-shot.

I never used a muzzleloader, but I find this quite interesting. I would not have thought that a round ball was so ineffective. I did shoot a deer with my 40 pound recurve and had missed and hit it in the shoulder. The arrow knocked a hole about an 1 1/2 round through the shoulder bone (cut the deer up later) and continued through the heart. The deer ran about 50 yards and appeared to be using only 3 legs but it happened so fast I am not sure. Do muzzle loader balls only break a hole through the shoulder bone like that? I have shot plenty of deer in the shoulder with .300 Savage,6.5 Japanese, 6.5 Swede and other light cartridges and those deer go right down even if running. It is enough to break the bone. Not my preferred shot, but sometimes it is the best shot and it does not damage much meat really.

Huh? The tube that joins the mouth and the stomach? Are you sure you don't mean the spine?

its a very effective shot.and theres little meat on the front quarters of a deer anyways.

BarnesX .308 -
 

That guy means esophagus, I have seen it done with a .22 longrifle. It won't kill them with a .22 but it does drop them and they stay there unless forced to get up. If they can even get up they can't go more than 5 feet without dropping again because they can't breathe.

Are you serious???

The shoulder is a decent sized area. The only part of the head that will kill a deer is the brain...basically the size of a lemon.

They breath through the trachea (wind pipe). The esophagus is the tube they swallow food through.

Even the wind pipe is not an anchoring shot. A deer can run 100 yards with a blown out heart and no oxygen enriched blood going to the brain. I can assure you they'll go pretty far not being able to breath.

I shot in the neck will usually take out the spine and can also sever the carotid artery and jugular vein. These are probably what is causing your deer to drop.

You guys aren't vascular surgeons, are you? :D

You don't know what we were talking about or what you are talking about. The windpipe and esophagus are right next to each other and on a frontal shot you hit both. I was with a poacher when I was a kid and saw it done with a .22 long rifle. That is the way he always did it, said the brain was chancy.

yes, and you take out the spine right behind them. This is what would drop a deer. Especially with a 22.

A 22 hole in the trachea would be like giving the deer a tracheotomy. The diaphragm would still pull air into the lungs, just through the hole and the mouth. The esophagus would only be a problem if the deer were trying to swallow food. Unless they were very hungry, they wouldn't starve to death instantly :D

The spine will drop the deer instantly. The carotid and jugular, very quickly. Esophagus and windpipe are just incidental injuries and would not be the primary cause of death unless it was from bleeding out or infection. Both not instant.

You should be ok as long as the ammo you use is jacketed and not just plain solid lead.

BarnesX .308 -
 

Like I said before, I actually witnessed it happen. You can walk up on them and the deer will get to its feet and run, but will only go two or three steps and drop. A neck shot in the bone and they would never get up. This guy told me it drops them every time and he had plenty of experience with a .22, although he did get caught years later and paid thousands in fines. I never used less than a center fire for deer, but if I had a gun that could not break the shoulder and drop that deer I would get rid of it. I have used a .223 and .22 Hi-Power and both will break the shoulder. You really can't go much lighter than that.

You can put an entry wound wherever you want, exit wound is a different story. My last deer I shot in high shoulder bullet came out half way up the neck. (7mm Mag) High shoulder doesnt directly hit vitals, but the bone fragments do with large caliber and do more damage than bullet. High shoulder is my choice on a trophy buck, drops 99% of time.

Shoulder shot is my shot of choice. Drops them in their tracks.

Don't ever go for a head shot! It moves too fast and you can never tell when! Heart lungs all the way. With a 50 cal bullet you should have no problems. I haven't at least.

Very true Barnes, thats why trachs are done sometimes in the ER to secure airways. Without damage to the lungs or a occluded airway the animal can still breath. No question about that.