Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting The high shoulder rifle shot

I have never lost one either, But I know some folks that have. a couple of them more than once. Several found a day or two later. No meat recovered only the Rack.
PRIORITY#1 Drop/kill/recover the deer. Losing some shoulder meat is secondary imo.

My son recently (last Friday) shot a nice doe through the shoulder with a 450 Bushmaster. 2” diameter exit hole, both shoulders crushed, it ran about 30 yards and dropped. How it didn’t drop right there is beyond me. The shot was just under 80 yards. Man we lost one full shoulder completely but we’re able to get almost half off the other. I myself prefer double lung but it is what it is.

It's been my experience that the quickest kill shot is one that either takes out the central nervous system or one that causes an instantaneous loss of blood pressure.

No CNS hit.

Reverse that. .223 through the shoulder blades puts them straight down. Haven't caught a Fusion yet, in over I think half a dozen deer so far. A couple were over 150#. Sometimes the heart/lung gives you a blood trail more like bowhunting with w 2 blade broadhead.

Where I am, distance to the deer, wind, position of the deer, how steady I am, time to make the shot, and other conditions dictate where I shoot.
In a perfect world, I like quartering away shots and I shoot for the off shoulder (many years of archery).

Yep that’s my philosophy and quartering away aiming for off shoulder is my favored shot, but for rushed broadside shots in areas where the deer has to hit the ground fast high shoulder is lights out.

Hit a buck high in the shoulder this year with a 450 Bushmaster...250gr TTSX @ 2350fps.

I was maybe 10ft in a stand and about 50yd shot.


You can guess what happened.


Straight to the ground like a train fell on top of him.

Apparently many hunters don't get the "high" shoulder shot--which includes the spine. This means placing the bullet about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up the body, directly about the legs--at least with most North American animals, including deer and elk. If the animal has a distinct "shoulder hump" (like bison, and several African plains game animals to a greater or lesser extent) then 3/4 of the way up may be ABOVE the spine.

"Breaking" both shoulders (especially just the shoulder blades) doesn't guarantee anything.

I aim for the big part.

Ain't you ever heard? Aim small, miss small......grin

Exactly, sometimes you shoot far enough forward and shoulders aren't hit, just spine.

Kind of why I classify it as high and forward of the vertical leg line.

I usually aim for whatever I can get.
This last one I ruined most of one shoulder
unfortunately. It still ran some yardage, I
would guess because deer can function like
nothing else if they get that adrenaline shot,
and they're always unpredictable as to how
they react. Still, bottom line- I shot it, it died,
I carried it back, I cut it up, and brought it home.
Everything else is superfluous

Just me- I don't worry too awful much about what
others do as far as their hunting details, and want
them to leave me to my own devices as far as my
methods and choice of prey as long as I'm following
the laws set forth by the state

Many of you have never hunted.the big woods where you take the shot you get.

I've always shot center shoulder....if I dont hit one shoulder I missed my mark...heres the problem with a high shoulder hold.

With a high velosity long range gun sighted 3" high at 100 yards a high shoulder hold could likely cause a shoot over at 200 yards.

With a high velosity long range gun sighted 3" high at 100 yards a high shoulder hold could likely cause a shoot over at 200 yards.

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I have missed so many critters that way! I went to the +3 when I moved out West, wide open spaces intimidated me! Now I never, ever, zero more than +2"@100 and usually its only +1" for the fast movers! I "tend" to want to hold high when they are around 300+yds away. That's what growing up in the Big Thicket of SE Texas did to me, ha.

There’s nothing so heart warming as an old man watching his well hit deer run down a steep ravine.

I had it happen one time....actually just grazed the deer and knocked him out for a minute.

i grew up reading Bob Hagel and Jack O'Conner.....3" high sight setting for me....do or die.

I hunted the first 30 years of my hunting career with a 7mag, 3" high at 100 and nosler partitions. Obviously before the first rangefinder was ever made. When you know what your bullet is doing at various ranges, and know how your reticle subtends, killing stuff a ways out there isn't as hard as you think. I've never been one to just want to SWAG it on game animals.

I am sure the high shoulder shot has it's place but it risks destroying the 2 front quarters. I aim a rifle the same place I aim my bow - right through the vitals.