Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting High Shoulder Shot????

168g Nosler ballistic tip entry wound - looks almost like an exit wound. I wouldn't want to hit any higher with this particular load as this shot jellied up the front of the backstrap as it was.

Shot hit about an inch high of where I was aimed, hit him right at 190 yards.

He went less than 30 yards.

Sometimes high shoulder is all you got as animals move through screening cover. Happened to me this year and has happened before.

Most deer are not killed at any great distance,so impact velocities are still high.Thin jacketed bullets are certainly effective,but tougher bullets of the same weight reduce the chances/amount of bloodshot meat and kill just as well.

Not much. Typically with a double lunger with a broadhead, they only run as far as they can in about 15 seconds. If you get'em good, that's about how long it takes.

The high shoulder shot seems to be ingrained into my 8yo as both of his deer this year were shot that way. I like the instant drop for a kiddo. Mine this year was pure spine shot as that's all I could see as it was moving away. Turned the lights out quick enough. My 5yo approved...

I generally prefer ribs shots to save as much meat as possible, but if there might be problems if a deer runs some before dropping (such as a property line or deep Missouri Breaks draw) then I prefer the high shoulder. Don't use it often but with the right bullet it doesn't ruin all that much meat.

Must add, however, that while certain bullets do tend to ruin less meat, I've seen all sorts of contradictions over the years. Last fall my wife shot a medium-size mule deer buck very carefully right behind the shoulder, about 1/3 of the way up, with a 100-grain TTSX from a .257 Roberts. A 100-grain Ballistic Tip normally ruins far less meat! It was astonishing.

Have also shot Texas does on cull hunts with spine/shoulder shots with standard cup-and-cores from .243 to 7mm cartridges and never had a problem with penetration or anything else. But a Texas doe isn't an Alberta buck.

or with the amax. Fav shot with a rifle.

I use the same aiming point and it has always worked well for me.

Its my preferred shot in Mountain terrain....Drops them in there tracks...I learned the Hard way in East KY after a few Briar thicket recoveries and drags to the bottom of a holler and walks back to the top to get the ATV..

Depends where I am hunting and how close I am to: a river, swamp, property line, close to end of shooting light,etc.

First option is usually in the boiler room but, if close to any of the above, then it's the high shoulder shot for me.

Up here in the North woods that's know as the "Violater's spot".

I used to run shooting matches with the local game warden. The first time I shot a buck there, It dropped in it's tracks. I told him about it and he laughed, "That's the Violators' spot".

This is not a wealthy area and a lot of the natives eat venison year round. Here abouts they are called "Jackpine Savages". They tend to interpret the games laws as reading "I Jan. to 31 Dec" as being deer season. The best tactic to avoid contact with the game fuzz when shooting deer at night in the summer is to shoot them in that spot, throw them in the back of the pickup and to leave Dodge expeditiously.

It works well if you are really old and can't track wounded deer through the woods very well.

Yep!

I can track wounded deer pretty well, I just don't want to. And I am pretty old, so I shoot high shoulder.

Either the "high shoulder" or "boiler room" works for me.



Dropped a pair of 200gr Hot Cors through this guys boiler room...he managed to get about 50 feet from where the 1st one hit him. He was leaking pretty good.

Mauser 98? If so, what caliber?

I shoot them dead center in the shoulders, I hunt next to a property line. Not good if they go over the fence. I saw a couple of Bob’s posts when I read through this thread. They were articulate, well thought out. I think he ways an attorney, but I feel he would have made a good gun writers as well.

Vz-24, 8x57is...always figured "is" stood for IS anything else really needed? LOL

Nice.

Looks like a custom build I done on a Mauser 98. Nothing else in the safe would shoot with it. In a weak moment, I sold it to the smith that built it.

I did a necropsy on a whitetail doe this year and photographed its anatomy in " layers".

Diamond Jim was kind enough to post the pictures on a thread in the Savage Collector forum.

The thread is titled Savage 220 slug gun.

The animal was dissected in layers showing the organs. A line is across the photos to keep reference.

The first two shots I am unclear which of the two were first. We're taken at about 80 yards with of course a savage 220 20 ga slug. Barnes expander sabots.

The third was the one in the shoulder the " planted" the animal.

As you can see the exit holes pre necropsy.Right side of animal.


The entrance holes are visible at the end of the dissection. Left side of animal.

The " cartoon" images of deer anatomy posted so often on the computer WAYY over illustrates the amount of rib cage that has lung tissue in it!

Past the seventh rid is the abdomen...............containing Rumen on the left side, intestines on the right.

You can clearly see the shot that entered between the seventh and eighth rib, missed the thoracic cavity entirely.

There was in fact 3 inches of thoracic cavity behind the front leg...where the heart is located ventral .....three inches. If you shoot 2 inch groups......think about it.

The other photos show the mediastinum.....the membrane that separates the lung fields from each other. That is why a " single lung" shot can be non lethal. The punctetered lung can collapse clot up and the other lung can function.

The last two photos show the cystic ovariesthis doe had. Perhaps this is why she was not lactating and had no fawn.

Perhaps some one could transfer the photos on this thread. I have an I pad that cannot compress the photos small enough for me to post my self.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

John

S Kane is showing a excellent point of impact.

However I would advocate about two inches lower in placement.

This is a suggestion not for greater effect, but more for considering error in the shot.

John,

I love the link to this, I just searched & can not find it !