I'm a "whatever is offered" shooter.....and quartering to or away,I'm generally going for bone either coming or going,aiming for the off side shoulder area if the angle is right.
Theory being to get some degree of running gear destruction along the way,with the gooey stuff destroyed at the same time.
I tend to hunt with fairly tough bullets driven fast(but not always),as I've seen the rug jerked out with moderate velocity rounds as well.
A Saskatchewan 10 point pushed out on a drive was loping to another piece of bush at about 180 yards slightly below me,sorta angling on,and a 165 Bitterroot caught him on the point of the shoulder as he ran....I saw him disappear as the rifle recoiled.....just jerked down.
A 140 BBC from a 7 mag caught a mountain mule deer at last light with a lower shoulder shot at 300 yards(kinda upper leg, mid body)....he pushed off with hind legs and tumbled down slope.Like JB said too far forward to catch vitals on the perfect broadside shot.In skinning that deer the vitals were not touched but he sure was dead when he stopped rolling..
A 300 lb black at 70 yards was hit perfectly broadside with the 140BBC from a 280 Rem @3100;just ribs/lungs/ribs,and he collapsed and never got to his feet.....I figured this was not supposed to happen, but his chest was just mush...yet a mule deer hit similarly with 130 gr Speer at 250 yards or so trotted off 30 yards before going down....you could stick an egg in the exit hole.
And a bull elk, quartering on at about 450 yards with a 300 Win Mag and 180 NPT @3100 from slight angle above collapsed like a safe fell on him.....the bullet took the onside shoulder/upper leg and wrecked the chest, penetrated to the off side flank....he never got back up...
Elk can seem kinda bullet proof at times....on 6x6 was hit with a 200 gr NPT from a 300 Weatherby at about 100 yards near the last rib with intentions of making it to the offside shoulder area,which it did, but the bull when next seen a few seconds later,was walking through the lodgepole clearly on 3 legs and another through the slats dropped him....yet another collapsed at the shot and cascaded down the mountain when a 160 Partition from a 7 RM hit him with a high shoulder shot..It broke them both and exited.This was a "7 em em,no need to shoot him again" type deal.....
And a perfectly broadside brown bear was held on the beach when a 250 gr BBC took both shoulders but no spine and blew out the offside;again too far forward to catch the soft stuff but I fixed that with the thrid shot back through lungs.....he was barely able to push along with hind legs for 8 yards or so.
You see funny stuff sometimes....I guess it sort of depends because I have seen some mixed results whether the shots were through just lungs, or shoulders....but it seems to me that nothing goes very far with either type of hit if a good expanding bullet is used that can handle the penetration required.
I figure I will always try to break as much bone as I can while still getting vitals,and have not had much problem one way or the other.
