Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Punch the shoulder or slide it through the ribs?

I see a lot of guys talking about this bullet or that bullet and how well it works, and nearly never mentioning where the bullets landed on the animal. Due to where I usually hunt, I tend to take shoulder shots, looking to stop the animal right close to where it is hit. Others like the lung or heart shot to save on meat. I think where some get into trouble is when they use a bullet for one type of shot that they or someone else has had good luck with on another type. For instance, I like monos (or hard cast in large bores), because I plan to punch bone most of the time. Others like a ballistic tip or other C&C because they look for rapid expansion and mucho tissue destruction. Especially on critters like elk, using the wrong bullet on the wrong target can lead to a merry chase. So what bullets are you using, and where do you tend to place them?

Whenever I can get it, I prefer a shot at an animal slightly angled away from me. I try for the lungs on the side close to me and angle towards the far shoulder. Take out the lungs AND break down one of the shoulders. On broadside shots, I'd just as soon take out both lungs. Animal may run off, but usually not far. Also, I almost always shoot Partitions and heavy for caliber.

For me shooting the Barnes TTSX, if it is a meat doe through the boiler works and let her bleed out. If it is a nice buck or a deer where tracking will be difficult then its through the shoulders to break it down. Lose a little more meat but not the deer.

Through the ribs - shoulder shots ruin way too much meat.

+1.

+2

Double lunger here, heavy for caliber. Can't see purposely shooting shoulders. I'd rather take home a whole elk or deer rather than 1/2 of one. Might as well let them walk. Killing one isn't that important to me .

High shoulder if broadside. Misses any meat and takes out the spine.

Heart/lungs if possible.

And I try to choose a bullet that will work regardless of placement or impact velocity. I have a fairly large stash of North Fork SS, FP and HP (prototype) bullets which do very well in this regard. Barnes MRX, TTSX and LRX have provided a bit over 50% straight-down DRT results regardless of angle. We've never recovered one and I've driven two front-to-rear-and-out through mule deer. We use quite a few AccuBond, also with about 50% straight-down DRT results. At some point I'll probably try the Federal Edge TLR, which I think may be the best designed hunting bullet available for my uses.

With exceptions for my levers and handguns, I save cup-and-core bullet for use at the range. Yes, they work most of the time, but I've also seen spectacular failures and necessary meat loss.

[Edit to add]
Forgot one. I also use cup and core (95g SST) in my .243 Win for antelope. Once, two years ago. Did that because it was the only load developed for the .243 at the time and, frankly, it doesn't take much to put a doe antelope on the ground. Have since verified (last weekend) that 90g BT shoot to pretty much the same point of aim out to 600 yards. Will probably switch to 90g AB for hunting loads and save the SSTs for targets and coyotes and prairie dogs.
[End edit]

Shoulders, put them on the ground now, walk over and start processing. A hard bullet won't waste much meat. My trim waste of silverskin and crap from shoulders is much bigger than a bit of bloodshot.

Kent

Hornaday leverevolution 45-70, double lung. The last 20 or so thought it was a good combination.

I usually aim for what presented under the conditions I’m dealt. If it’s perfect broadside I’m going an inch behind the front leg and 1/3 up from the bottom. Doesn’t bother me to not have a DRT, since they will be dead in their tracks at the End of the blood trail

The question presumes the possibility of choice. If you track elk in the timber (my favorite way to hunt elk), you’re rarely presented with such a specific choice... said all that to say, I really don’t give a damn, I just want to get a bullet in the lungs.

I use rifles and bullets that hold together and penetrate. My method is pretty easy to understand.

Imagine a shaft (like a dowel rod) that runs from the shoulder hump of the back and comes out directly between the front legs. Now imagine another one that makes a cross in the 1st dowel, going side to side about 1/2 up from the bottom of the chest between the forelegs. In the picture above that cross would be about 8" higher then the red dot. See the cross in your mind's eye. Now suspend an imaginary 8" "ball" in the center of that cross.

Shoot the ball. If you aim at it with any bullet that will penetrate deep enough to hit it and continue out the other side of the elk, you'll make a one shot kill.

The body angle and position doesn't matter, if you go through the "ball" and have an exit.

Many bullets used today will not reach that "ball" if shot from the rear and through the whole body so you may need to hold your fire if your round is one that can't make it all the way through. Raw power is NOT always the answer. Some bullets just come apart too much to give the effect I like, so I don't use them myself, but if you do, you will have to wait for a good angle. Many bullets I have seen used on elk will not exit a bull even standing broadside. Hit the ball and you'll kill it even if the bullet fails to hold together. You will not have a very good blood trail, but if you hit the "ball" at least it will usually be a short trail.

The better it penetrates the more options you will have and the easier it is to fine any elk that runs ------- even a short distance.

As examples, I have seen a lot of 300 magnums and 7MMMags and one 338 mag fail to go through an elks stomach from a quartering angles running away. In all these cases the bullets were too lightly constructed and came apart leaving very little weight, so penetration was shallow. Switching to 160 and 175 grain 7MM and to thick jacketed 180 or 220s in the 300s cures the problem. So does a Mono bullet most times like a Barnes or Hornady GMX. Yet a standard 1930s type 30-06 with a 220 grain goes right through, and so does a cast 45-70 400 gain bullet. The 30-06 often exits from an extreme rear angling shot, and the hard cast 45-70s have exited in every case I have see, without exception.

Not popular, but, the last 4 elk I shot dropped right there. Two thru the brain and two at the base of the scull. I know, I know.... It works.

I just want to get the job done and start processing. Same as when I killed chickens and clubbed hundreds rabbits for the meat buyer, or killed beef to butcher since I was a kid. I like hunting as much as the next guy but when it's time to kill then get it done ... hunting quits, work begins.

Kent

Arrow through the ribs, bullet through the shoulder if able to.

I break em down, no fun tracking shiit in western Washington

I have on several occasions put one in the brain pan if the opportunity was right. The autonomic plexus shot also drops them on top of their hooves, as does massive brain trauma. Makes tasty meat, and no tracking. But my usual in places where I need them on the ground where I shoot them is a high shoulder shot unless a head shot is a gimmee.

I’m a simple guy, I just shoot them in the front half. There’s important stuff in a lot of places from the center of the ribs forward and all of it works. I’ve shot them in the neck, head, shoulders, armpit, it all works. And with tough bullets I rarely have issues with meat loss. I figure that if you miss an opportunity by avoiding the shoulder and waiting for a broadside shot you’ve lost a whole elk’s worth of meat. If you smash a shoulder you might loose 5 pounds, YMMV.