BS! BS! BS!
Miss a lung shot by an inch or so= dead deer!
Miss a head shot by an inch or so= dead suffering deer!
Majestic game animals and any other living creatures deserve a better fate!

I knew this would come up...

In NC and many other states (about 30) it simply isn't addressed...

We use to butcher 20 pigs a year, a .22 short to the brain would drop them...It does the same to a deer, although my 541 prefers CCI long rifles...

I know some might think this shouldn't be done, but I have killed hundreds of squirrels with a .22 to the brain...A deer's brain is a much larger target and a .22 to the brain puts their lights out...

I grew up on a farm, back in the day we didn't have deer rifles, we used what we had...I'm now 58 and have never lost a deer with this shot...I do not condone it for everyone...

We have all missed................or at least have heard about "others" missing. LOL

Now you want to talk about head shots ??


Full disclosure; I have shot two deer in the neck and countless coyotes.

Ive been shooting hogs in the head with a .22 for 20+ years. Domestic not wild but it drops them like a rock at short range. Even 600+ lb animals. It doesn't kill them instantly but it knocks them out instantly.

The reason we do it that way is for the animal can be bled with the blood still flowing.

Wouldn't that make recovery pretty easy?

heart/lung shot

Never ! Only if I literally walk up on a deer I've already shot and I'm point blank

[QUOTE=nchawkeye, although my 541 prefers CCI long rifl..[/QUOTE]

Just asking is your 541 s, t, thb. Dad's is a thb and shoots great would like to find a 541 t. The thb is to heavy to carry in the squirrel woods. I would only take a head shot with a big caliber rifle. Unless it is finishing off shot. The one I killed was with a 7mm rem. Big hole , shot hit just under right eye, that's where I was aiming. Tore most of the head up, you could look through the hole on one side and see the ground.

I guess while having shot a few big game animals in the head because that was the only shooting scenario. I'd say it depends on how comfortable you are in all manners of shooting positions to make that shot. It's not as easy as some think to hit it right in the brain. A lot of times head shots have not hit the brain but caused enough brain trauma the animal either is comatose or knocked out to the point the hunter usually puts in a finishing shot. I have seen animals running around with their jaws shot off. But in defense a nasty gut shot or busted legs is just as equal of slow painful death.

I never understood someone saying the term wasting of meat from bullet impact. If you shot them where your suppose to then you waste only a rib or occasional off shoulder from a quartering away shot. Blasting through both shoulders is for sure way to make you throw some meat away.

Whole lot of rumor and guessing going on here. This year I had to shoot one in the head. I don't try to shoot deer only in the head, but sometimes it is the only option. I was up in some rocks and two big doe came around the bend and started feeding in front of me. It was full of laurel and redbrush so I could see the whole deer easily, but there was branches and sticks blocking their bodies. I kept an eye on one that was more open and when she reached her head over her back to pull some hair, I shot her right between the eyes. Maybe 75 yards. Definitely not over. I am guessing most guys would have shot through the brush. Now and then I take a headshot, but not usually my first choice. I remember when I was younger I saw a guy unload a lever action on a deer when I was hunting a powerline. A guy down farther killed it and it had the nose shot off. I can tell you that first guy was NOT aiming for the head. I killed a deer once that had a bullet hole through the ear. I am absolutely sure that all these horror stories (Mostly rumors and BS) stem from guys that were NOT even shooting at the head. I only take frontal or rear head shots. How do you shoot the jaw off a deer that way? I don't use a magnum, but if I shoot low and hit the nose, it is going into the neck too. Same with a shot from behind. I would say that if you can't do a head shot under 50 yards, you will eventually gut shoot and lose one anyway. **Shooting a leg off will not kill the deer. I have killed a few doe with the lower leg healed over and my buddy, a butcher, gets a couple "Stumpies" in every year.