Heart/lung shot. Ill take a head shot on a turkey, but even then its questionable. I really wouldnt recomend taking a head shot. But, im talking about bow shots. Rifle is different, but bow i take only chest shots. Does with a rifle ill shoot in the head though if there close enough and everything is right.

The way it was explained to me when I was first starting out (6 years ago) was, behind the front shoulder you have a paper plate sized area where all the Vital Organs for a deer are. If you aim just behind the shoulder you are apt to get a double lung, a heart shot, or both in the same shot. Every deer Ive taken Ive shot behind the shoulder and each and every deer has dropped on the spot, Ive never had to track a single deer. If you try to shoot a buck in the head, your liable to mess up the " Rack" or ruin any chance of mounting the Trophy. So, personally I aim just behind the front shoulder

If you hit in the right spot you can hit both lungs and the aorta the biggest artery coming out of the heart this is the best shot. Being a bow hunter a shot to the head is irresponsible and just stupid unless you got a high poundage hard shooting bow you will just wound the deer. a guy that hunts with a buddy of mine took a shot that hit a twig and diflected into the head after trailing the deer for about 200 yards with little blood he found it still alive wandering around blind it was hit in the eye and some how went blind in the other luckly he was able to put another arrow into the lungs and put it out of its suffering.

shoot him in the luns or hearrt area..

Hey guys, come on, youre jumping to conclusions and making accusations now.
KenneyHunt said Never once did he mention whether or not he was hunting with a Bow, Shotgun, or Rifle. You all assumed because you hunt with a bow, that he does too. Im assuming here that he doesnt because everyone knows that taking a head shot with a bow would more than likely wound the deer. So please, lets not call names huh?

To me a head shot isn' t the best.I would have to go with a double lung
shot.It does the job and puts it down.

with a bow u have to go for the heart/lungs but with a gun it all depends on what youre shooting at if its a buck never shoot it in the head cuz you can mess up the rack or mess up a mount if ur gettin it mounted. Now Does one the other hand id rather put one in the head with a gun so that way no meat is ruined and if u miss its not that big of a deal because Does are soo plentiful

I would say the lungs or the heart. I would use the head shot to finish off the animal. With a bow the only shot is in the lungs.

I' m not trying to be rude here but the head is the worst possible place to TRY to kill a deer. Have you ever watched a deer for any length of time? How often does it move it' s head up and down and side to side? I' ll tell you. A LOT.

Have you ever seen a deer with the end of it' s nose or bottom jaw blown off because someone was trying to shoot it in the head and it looked the other way just as the person squeezed the trigger. Not very pretty to say the least.

In a hunting situation a " hunter" should never try to shoot a deer in the head. There is way too much that can go wrong. The deer will eventually die if you hit it in the face. But, it will be a slow and agonizing death from starvation or infection. An animal that is shot through the lungs will die within seconds. A deer that is shot in the face will die over days or weeks.

The target size is also much bigger for a lung shot. On a deer the lung area is about 9 to 11 inches and relatively still. The brain is about the size of a baseball and is constantly moving. Could you hit a baseball every time as it was bouncing around on a bungee cord? I highly doubt it.

We get enough of a bad name as it is with all of the anti hunters out there. We don' t need to make it worse for ourselves by trying to take a very risky shot and wounding an animnal. You can bet that it will die so an anti hunter will see it, or worse, someone that wasn' t anti hunting until they saw the deer with it' s jaw blown off and that' s another one that we turned against us.

Be responsible, take the beast shot possible. 99.99999% of the time it is the lung area.

Highcountry13, I don' t know how old you are, I assume 13 years, but if you are old enough to be out there hunting and taking an animals life to feed yourself then you should have a much better respect for the animals that you hunt. Mentality and comments like that have no place in the deer woods. Doe or not, it makes no differance. A good clean kill should be the only thing on your mind when you have the cross hairs on the animal.


Sorry about the lecture guys, but it needed to be done.