Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting SHOT PLACEMENT

HEY ALL...Where do y'all place your shot so the deer is DRT...???? I try to place it near the spine to avoid it running off and a possibly long tracking trek....What works for you..??
Pete

So, what bullet from what gun at what speed when it gets to deer? It all matters. Anyway, your question. My fav is a reasonably fast expanding bullet from most anything bigger than a 22 hitting the neck a few inches above the chest of the deer that was just facing me when I turned the lights out.

HI MAC..I have used 5.56mm...6.5 Grendel...7-08...308....partitions...accubonds...TTSX.....all at close to max book loads...my shots are never more than 125yds....sometimes its hard to get the right angle to place bullet near the spine....its a small target...
Pete

If it is late I shoot them through the front shoulders so they dont run off. If there is snow on the ground I for 4" behind the front shoulders and let them run and bleed out. The meat tastes a bit better if the deer bleeds out .

This is where I aim when a broadside shot is presented.

Sherwood

Thanks Sherwood...Have that target..if I can get that broadside shot I like to place bullet at top of shoulder and break the spine...deer drops at the shot..
thanks for your post...!!
Pete

I've never struggled to track a double lunged critter 100yds or less. I did struggle to track a neck shot cow for a mile because I hit below the spine.

HEY DW7....YES..u r right...my hunt partner insists on shooting them in the neck...so far he has had 2 deer run off this season and we tracked them at least a mile and a little more..we did recover both of them...
if I cannot place the bullet where I want to break the spine I will take the shot as shown in Sherwoods target...they do not run more than 50 yds if at all...most will drop at the shot....

Pete

Sherwood's X is about spot on. However, it's a 2D representation of a 3D system. You're not aiming for a point on the hide, but rather a path through the vitals.

The vast majority of my shots end up with the deer either dead where it stood or you can at least stand in there and see the carcass. When I feel I've got it "just right" is when both lungs are shredded and the top of the heart has been taken out. Normally I'm shooting a 30-something , 30-06 accounting for the bulk of the shots now.

I used to tell my kids to envision a soccer ball in the chest. However, in reality it's more like a gallon milk jug. If you can energize the water in that jug so that it transfers energy to the surrounding structures that deer will be toes-up where it stood. If you instead manage to only hit the imaginary jug obliquely, the deer will die, but at some distance from where it was shot.

At least that's the catechism. In truth, I've blown up heart and lungs on a few deer only to get no reaction at all-- they went back to feeding. I've also seen a doe walk away non-plussed with an 8 foot arterial spirter. Nothing is for sure. The wildest was seeing my son shoot a small buck with his M1 Garand. The round so energized its surroundings that it opened the buck up and cleaned out both the chest and abdominal cavities. Despite this, the buck ran 60 yards and collapsed with its intestines wrapped around its hind legs.

I had an instance this season where I took a shot at a buck inside 150 yards with an 8X57. He was close to a fence line, and when I shot, all I saw was the buck disappear. I cranked a second round in and went to aim; there was nothing there. My first reaction was the buck had jumped the fence, but then I saw 4 hooves waving above the grass. He'd fallen in a small depression right next to where he'd been shot. Upon examination, I found the heart was intact. The lungs were pierced but not a mass of soup like they usually are. I was a good 2-4 inches high. I found the cause to be the parallax adjustment for the scope. It had moved dramatically from where I'd originally set it. New rifle. New scope-- something new to check next time.

While I am not a big fan of neck shots, I have taken them from time to time, with good success. Most were with a 130 gr Partition out of an accurate 270, at less than 150 yards. There was also one buck taken with a 12 ga slug that was facing me, at around 30 yards. Put it just under his chin, and he went straight down.
The shot, as shown in the target, would always be my first choice.

If I were hunting nice open woods with decent visiblity, I would take the lung shot as pictured. Where I am hunting now is anything but and I have gotten tired of chasing and dragging deer out of what is essentially a 3000 acre briar patch after which I look like I have been in a disagreement with a bobcat. I have indeed struggled mightily finding lung shot deer that left poor sign. So I started blowing out the shoulders. I love not having to track but hate the meat loss. Life involves a lot of trade offs.

I went to a seminar once at a deer classic show and the guy was talking about how effective the "withers shot" was. Not being a horse guy, I had to check where a withers was and then the opportunity presented that shot as a buck stood with his lower half obscured with too much brush to try to shoot through. Too tough a bullet (TSX) at too slow a velocity and I shot high for the spine and the deer ran away. First and only one that I've lost and I'm not going for that withers shot ever again. I've had very few drt deer and more than a few where did he go moments at last light with minimal blood trails with Partitions, so I'm using softer bullets from now on for more blood and faster drops.

I was always taught, and continue to use the adage - "shoot for the off-side shoulder". Works every time to anchor a deer. Most I've seen one run was about 30 yards. Postmortem examination shows from about any angle, you're taking out at least a lung and major arteries or the heart.
It does mean you pass up some shots from the rear angles though. But, quite often a whistle or grunt will get them to turn a bit more.

I think that unless you shoot to hit the skull, just below the skull clipping the brain stem or hit close to the spine with a high shoulder shot the results will be uneven.

I have taken out the heart and lungs on a lot of deer with everything from .223s to 50 cal MLs and if that's what I am shooting at I expect it may go fifty or so yards. Sometimes I get blood trails that Ray Charles could follow. I have also gotten zero blood trail with some even while having two holes. The longest run I have had with the heart and lungs both gone was 70 yards give or take a little. Sometimes they go down where they stand with that shot. I have had several deer shot with a bow drop where they stood with heart shots, I have had one deer that was heart shot right through the heart, top to bottom make it right on 100 yards. I had one deer that I cut almost all the great vessels on with an arrow make it just over 200 yards. I had one deer that I double lunged with an arrow make it just over a mile.

Predicting the outcome of anything other that a CNS shot with a rifle is going to produce contrary results. I do not believe it is possible to predict the outcome of heart/lung shots other than to guess that a given percentage will be down and dead within 100 yards or something like that. Predicting blood trails when you are taking uot the heart is equally prone to contrariness..

Shoulder shoot mine, no looking!

Sherwoods X is my choice whenever possible. I've found over the years that any deer I've shot and double lunged, be it with an expanding rifle bullet, 12 or 20 gauge slug, round ball or conical muzzleloader bullet or arrow, runs like a bat for about 35-40 yards and drops. If you're quiet you can actually hear them drop.

The only exception was a buck I shot with an arrow at 10 yards, the arrow went right through him, he did an "about face" with his ears cocked wondering what was going on and fell over as I watched him bleed out.

Yadayada yada....
90+% of my kills are neck shots. 5 of 7 this year, I'm off.
Any hit in the neck of a standard NA whitetail with decent expanding projectile and a velocity at or above 2k FPS is going to be sufficient.
Period.

the ONLY thing that is guaranteed to fall on the spot is the CNS shot. The largest target of the CNS is by far the brain.

Beyond that you have to decide how you want to handle that.

Oh yeah, since most won't use the brain shot, my suggestion is to become good at trailing as sooner or later you will need to.

I’m not sure why you need a DRT shot as a hit through the lungs and heart should leave a blood trail easy enough to follow even on beach. A spine shot can be tough to hit. Head shots are foolish as that’s the part that is usually constantly moving. Best bet is taking out the shoulders. Knock out the front axle and they won’t go far.