Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Shoot’n hearts or Crushing Lungs...

No they dont.

I have had plenty of DRT/not one step shots that hit the heart or just slightly above it.

Of course YMMV, but I avoid "always" statements.





Ive found that:

A heart shot deer will usually run 50 or so yards before it passes out and dies. bleeding a lot along the way. They sometimes drop within a few steps.

A lung shot deer will usually run less than 100 yards if you poke both lungs. Lower holes tend to bleed more. 50 yards isnt uncommon.

A CNS shot deer drops fast. I've found that anatomy isnt always peoples strong suit , and so "shoulders" mean different things to different hunters. A shoulder is the joint of the humerus and the scapula. On a deer, thats pretty low and forward. Most people taking a high shoulder shot are refering to an upper scapula. It drops then "now" because the spine runs behind it.

After a half a lifetime of the classic behind the shoulder "1/3 up & an inch behind the crease" heart/lung shooting, out of curiosity I took 100% upper scapula "high shoulder" shots on all deer for a few years. I found that do tend to drop faster, and in many instances these shots also hit the spine. I also found more ruined meat.

I like high shoulder drops them.

I shoot a high shoulder shot. I hunt close to the fence. They gone if they jump the fence!

This. Don't like crawling on hands and knees through prickly pear and rattlesnake country. BTDT.

Beaver10 & Judman:
Top of the morning to you both, I hope the day's as nice and bright in your area of the west as it is a few hours inland and a few more north here this morning.

I'm not sure if either one of you gentlemen has ever been in our area of the world or close - we look not too much different than say Lake Chelan country more or less.

Since I've been trying to resize some photos to make them fit Rick's photopail thing, I'll dispense with my usual typing and try to do a few thousand words this way.

If I look out the window over my right shoulder, I'm seeing the vineyard across the valley in the center here.


This is just up the road behind the house. There's two rams in the photo - sorry it was getting dark. I've shot about 10 mulies just on the other side of the top rocks above the ram. It's a little bit of a plateau there - but things do get sporty if the mulies bail off the mountain....


One valley over where we chase mostly bears and mulies - though we did see a whitetail up there last fall - who knew?


While there are flat spots, things can get western quick if they make it into the feeder creeks. On another forum recently I told the tale of how buddy's buck bounced down off the cliffs, broke off one side on the first or second bounce and then got lodged into a forked tree about 4' in the air, but like Pooh in Rabbit's doorway "well and truly stuck"..

This one was hit with an 80gr TTSX from a .250AI and made 3 steps. The off side scapula was cracked and the bullet found within the tissue under the hide.


This one buggered right off over the side of the mountain. Made it at least 100 yards... was hit at maybe 20 yards. Same load.


Truly, after being there either behind the butt plate or watching from the sidelines on more than 100 deer/bear/sheep here in southern BC, I really prefer things do not run out of my sight, you know?

All the best to you all this week gentlemen. Stay well.

Dwayne

It was impressive. Buffalo.

I aim for a spot at the top of the middle third, just above and to the rear of the elbow joint. That’s if I have the time and a good rest. Most of the time I aim for the volleyball superimposed over the edge of the shoulder and extending rearward, equidistant between top and bottom. I ain’t too picky then.

I shot the top off a big 5x5 bull’s heart several years ago, it was lying loose in the chest cavity when I opened him up. At the shot he stumbled forward about 10 feet, like a drunk, and fell over.

There’s no telling what an animal is gonna do, unless you shoot him in the ear hole.




P

Mark, A little late with my 2 cents, but it’s always been through the lungs for me.....preferably “both” lungs. It’s a much more forgiving “target area”, than the heart, and.... those that I’ve hit through the lungs.....expired pretty quickly, while leaving a good, blood/foam trail! memtb

If I'm doing it right, I take a shot that goes through both lungs and takes off the top of the heart as it is going through. The result is either a deer that falls over, or it runs only enough that I can see its hooves in the air when I'm standing at where I shot it.

50 years ago, I was hunting in north Idaho, same kind of thick brush. I had a small WT sneak in on me. I shot it with a quartering toward me shot, putting it just inside the point of the shoulder. It only ran 50 yds and I heard it crash in the dry leaves. It was getting dark and I couldn't find it. I went back the next morning and I couldn't even find the exact spot where I was. I lost a dead deer. I guess I could just call it a dumb beginners lesson to carry flagging tape.

In general, when I heart shot or when I double lung them they do not make it 100 yards. I have had at least one deer manage just past 200 yards after cutting the heart loose with a 2 inch broad head. I never touched the heart per se, but it did pass just over the heart and severed all the great vessels. I had one that I passed a broadhead top to bottom through the heart managed just over 100 yards. I had one deer that jumped the string and I hit it dead broadside, but a couple inches in front of the diaphragm manage just over a mile. I had another that was a picture perfect broadside shot just behind the shoulder manage about 400 yards. One buck, tight behind the shoulder dead broadside went 200 yards. By the time I got there he was down but still alive. After giving him the better part of an hour to die he managed to get up and make it another 250 yards before he died. I have had them drop where they stood with both heart shots and double lung shots, with both an arrow and with a bullet.

I have given up speculating how far they will go after I shoot them and just make sure I am prepared to follow them as long as I have to in order to make dinner out of them. I don't get to have any say in how far they go if I do not CNS them with a rifle. A couple years back I shot a nice doe with the crossbow. I hit her right under the neck and above the sternum, facing me dead on. She did not bleed well at all. She managed 700 yards total and it took me almost a full 24 hours to find her. The arrow did not hit bone. It did not penetrate the chest. I could find no major vessels it cut. There was a large opening in the hide where it hit and minor muscle damage under that. No blood inside the chest. Near as I could tell not a fatal wound. I saw the arrow hit where it was aimed and come out behind her and bury into the ground. During gutting and butchering it was obvious she had bled out, but the last 400 yards she traveled, 200 of it I could find ZERO blood and 200 was mainly tiny specks of blood every 10 feet or so. Probably wouldn't have amounted to 2 ounces total. If it wasn't for a crow showing interest I doubt I would have found her.

You can't explain them all, and you sure as hell cannot predict what will happen after the shot. A good guess might cover most of them but enough head scratchers happen that it's humbling.

Mostly double lung for me, but I take what I can get. I’m not picky and neither is my bullet. Even our timber isn’t that thick around here so a death run usually isn’t a very big deal. I don’t get much that makes it very far. In 2018 I shot a bull elk through the lungs and then again in front of the “back” shoulders 😀 as he ran off(Hey it’s what I could get and I shoot until they are down). He made it maybe a little over a 100 yards, in a wide open meadow, and I was stunned. Hadn’t had a runner like that in...I don’t remember when.

Was raised to shoot for double lung and still today that is my objective. I have dropped down slightly to take a heart shot when possible and with a 25-06 and Berger bullets (I know I'm not getting an exit past 50 yards or so) I've never had one go more than 50 yards. Down here in SC I'll pass on a shoulder shot...deer are small enough already and throwing a front quarter away drops the meat take even lower. Elk, moose and mountains might make me change my mind but sticking with with heart/lungs for now.

This. Except I generally try to avoid the shoulder if I can. Spine shot just behind the head is my fav, tho. If I can get it.

Whatever is the most sure shot under the circumstances.

I once deliberately spine a moose just forward of the pelvic girdle, as his whole front end was behind a spruce, and the cow he was with was about to bolt. Cover was heavy enough that I was 6 feet from him before I could get the finishing shot.

Surprisingly, I only lost about 6 inches of backstrap.