There's a spot where you can shoot a deer just below the spine and above the lungs where the deer will survive. The high shoulder shot is the best kill shot unless you shoot 1"or 2" below the spine and 1" or 2" behind the shoulder.
Nope. Wives tale. There is no vacant space inside the body except inside the lungs.. If there was, the diaphragm and lungs wouldn’t work the way they do. If an arrow or bullet punctures the chest cavity, that leads to a “sucking chest wound” which then will usually collapses one or both lungs.
I beg to differ from my experiences, I've shot deer there and killed deer that have been shot there by other hunters with both gun and bow. Most of the time it'll knock them down and then it's off to the races. I've also heard deer blow air out of their chest cavity that sounded like they were blowing at a hunter or varmint, how is that possible with a collapsed lung or two?.
I’ve had that same experience but it’s not because the shot went through an empty space. The deer’s lungs are right up against the spine just like yours. A shot just below the spine can momentarily stun the deer and knock them down and they may survive because it didn’t do enough damage to kill the deer. It’s not because the shot went through empty space. I’ve had the same experiences and seen similar reactions out of a couple of deer on a high hit and a low hit too.
Years ago I shot a buck head on and hit him too low. He ran about 100 yards and when I got on him again he was head down and I could hear him coughing and could see him blowing blood. Another shot put him down.
Another time I hit one right below the spine at 150 yards with an in-line muzzle loader. When he dropped on the spot I knew he might get back up so reloaded quickly (as quickly as you can do it with black powder 😊) and hit him again as he started struggling to get up. That did the trick.
