Shoulder for me. No or very little tracking ever involved. I like that.

Brian

Double lung is the most effective. The only deer i' ve ever lost was a neck shot doe, she fell in her tracks ,layed there for ten minutes, and as i was climbing down from my stand, sure that she was dead, she got up and ran, leaving no blood trail except for a few drops. It makes me sick every time i think about it. Last Dec. i took a nice 8 pointer(the biggest deer i' ve ever killed) with a heart/lung shot(my usual preference) and he ran about 50 yards with shreded vital organs but left a massive trail. The farthest i ever trailed a deer that was hit in lungs or heart was maybe 85 yards, a small price to pay for guaranteed good eatin' .

I have a friend who went on a guided hunt on a high dollar ranch. The guide said if a trophy walks out and he called the shot to shoot right through the middle of the guts. I dont agree, but the guide has to deal with all sorts of shooters, some good some bad and he felt this was a higher percentage shot. I guess the fact that the meat was ruined was second to a rack pushing 169 net. That and the guide gets a better tip from a kill than a miss. When I shoot at a good sized buck I aim for the lungs. A deer seldom runs more than 30 yards with a 30-06 round through the wind sacks, and usually flips over like he got hit by a sledge hammer. When it comes to does, kick the stand and put one in the neck or head when she stares.

Shoot something big enough (Caliber) to take out the lungs and they dont go far at all, and you dont ruin your meat.

For all the fans of the little ones though, those small calibers on a big deer sometimes do good to take out 1 shoulder, and like stated before no wheels = no movement, but 1 wheel will take you on a heck of a tracking job.

My 2 cents is on large bodied deer shoot .264 cal and up

Well, I rifle hunt with a 300 win mag with 165gr ballistic tip handloads. Ive never had a deer take a step after getting hit with it. Right behind the shoulder and they drop on the spot and no meat is ruined. As for hunting in a slug or muzzleloader area or season, Id still go for the lungs, unless tracking conditions werent good, then maybe the shoulders.

I' m sorry but idotic remarks like this pissme off. It dont take a magnum to punch through an animal. It takes the right bullet selection. My good friend shoots a .300 win mag and I showed him up with my .243. We took some hogs one weekend, he took two at a distance of 40 and 60 yds, one in the neck and one in the vitals and both shots failed to pass through, this coming from his.300mag. I took the one below at a distance of 240 yds, I was aiming for his ear and hit just below that ,right in the first vertabrae of the neck shattering it and blowing straight through and dropping himlike a ton of bricks. My son pictured here also took a large spike that weighed in at 140lbs on the same sendero this hog was taken but the next morning. The distance was 190yds. He hit it straight through the front shoulders shatterring both bones and going clean through leaving a blood trail a blind man could follow for 40 yds. I would have preferred himto hit behind the shoulders but thats where he hit, Either way my friend was using the no good for nothing 150 gr.corelocks and I was using Hornady ammo in 100 gr. Please dont tell me I need a magnum. Let me post some veloctys of deer rifles at 300 yds.
308 2000 fps
30-06 2200 fps
270 2200
.243 2400
.300 2300
.7 mag 2500
Either one of these calibers are excellent for deer
Penetration has nothing to do with the diameter of a bullet ,or if magnum is printed on the barrell either. LOL !

I have never ever wounded a deer shot with one of my many high powered rifles, never. I cant say that about my bow though, wish I could.

Two years ago I shot a 6 point at 10 yards with 12 guage slugs. I took the shoulder shot, that thing took off like I never hit him found him 70 yards later. When I took it home and cleaned it both front shoulders where destroyed [] My question is how did this buck run like there was no tommorrow with 2 shoulders of busted bone and mush.

Schuyl, often guys will think they shot a deer in the pins just due to the shoulder mess they incure, when in fact they only ripped through the meat and missed bone completely. What I assume happened is you went through meat or even the lower scapula and yes it ruined a lot of meat through shock, bone & bullet fragments but his legs(bones) were actually aok, he more than likely tipped over due to you tearing up his lungs and as we all know some deer go 0 yards and others go 100 yards with a lung shot. They are tough/amazing animals, I shake my head at what they will endure basically dead on their feet that adraline kicks in and they go till everything finally goes dark! Just a guess but if the pins are removed(broken) I have never seen a deer make it more than a lunge or 2, with one broken wheel they can muster a few more yards.

I attached a picture of the bone structure(hope it works lol) just to illistrate the point. You' ll notice that the scapula drops down into the rib cage marginally and then the bone V notchs forward on the body. Of course we have seen how big a shoulder looks when skinned but the fact remains that is all muscle and the bones are a lot smaller and future forward and up than we may think.

BTW, this isn' t to infer you or anyone doesn' t know this just an add on to this discussion. Maybe you can add more detail to let us know what was destroyed and we can all learn from your experience.

Definitly a double-lung.Shoulder shot will ruin quite a bit of meat and you need to make a decent effort to get as much use out of the animal as possible. Also, if you are to lazy to track a deer for 50 yards or less, how do you plan on walking to your stand. It is basically the same thing.

The issue I believe they are refering to isn' t that they are too lazy to track a deer 50 yards, it' s that if a deer runs 50 yards there is a chance another hunter will shoot the deer again and claim it as thiers. This has happened to me before.

I' ve never had a deer run, or be alive when I got to it when I shot it through the shoulders. Maybe it was these small Georgia deer, but I never had a problem with it. Obviously this isn' t a good shot to take on a deer that isn' t perfectly broadside, in that case I aim for the lungs or heart.